If you work for a nonprofit organization that is in the market for new accounting software, online donation tool, or membership database, then you know how difficult it is to find good, objective software reviews.  You also know that to do your due dilligence, it can take many hours of research to find out about and explore different options, not to mention having to listen to vendor pitches.    While there are lists of software available on the Web, very few of the listings provide honest guidance about which tool is the best in its class.

But thanks to Laura Quinn, all you need to do is visit Idealware.   Her vision was to create a consumer-reports like web site that provides candid reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits.   Laura recruits experts in various nonprofit technology areas to assist with regular roundups where they compare and evaluation price, functionality and features of various software packages in a particular area.  The site also publishes regular articles about software tools and the selection process.  Some recent articles have included evaluations of:

• Accounting packages
• Content Management Systems
• Online donation tools
• Online petition tools and much more

The monthly newsletter features one or more main articles and reports as well as roundup of useful articles about nonprofit software.   This week , the Idealware blog posted an estimate of what blogging tools are most commonly used by nonprofits.   This post was a teaser for the upcoming Blog Tools Report which is due out soon.

Contributing Editor Beth Kanter also blogs at Beth's Blog and Cambodia4Kids