Rootwork Powering grassroots networks from the bottom up

Need to coordinate a phone conference or online meeting but don't want to play the email scheduling game? Doodle allows you to easily set up a list of possible times and allow attendees to check off when they're available — leaving you with a easily-visible chart of the ideal meeting times.

There are lots of web hosts out there, and for particularly large or robust sites DreamHost might not be the best solution. But for smaller nonprofits it could be exactly what you're looking for — because DreamHost offers free webhosting to 501(c)(3)-registered nonprofits in the United States.

Move beyond Evite! Set up professional event registration pages, complete with ticket sales, discount codes, post-event surveys and posting to Google Calendar. Payment is through PayPal or Google Checkout, which cost about 2.5% per transaction. Eventbrite charges an additional 2.5%, with a maximum of $10 — but is completely free for free events.

Can't swing the cost of Photoshop, even with a TechSoup discount? The GIMP is a completely free, downloadable alternative to Photoshop that offers a surprising array of powerful image-editing abilities. Even better, it works on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.

Is it worth it to integrate a comprehensive social networking strategy into your newest campaign? Should you devote staff time to creating MySpace and Facebook pages or just rely on your email list? Care2's "Return on Investment" calculator for social networking will help you make the case — or convince you to focus elsewhere.