This outlines some of the virtual office strategies employed by our all-volunteer US team.  By applying select, free applications, we can continue to run a professional organization while making US-based expenditures essentially zero.

For our overall management structure and protocols, see: Management_INGO

For our fundraising strategies, see: PersonalFundraising

For our e-communication tools, see: collaboration

Faxing documents

Alternatives to using a real fax machine (Nyaya does not own one):

1] Email it. Make sure to have a scanned image of your signature to paste into word and then turn into pdf (to avoid formatting issues in word and to make look like a scanned copy), and email.

2] Use pamfax.com plugin in skype.  Our nyayahealth skype ID  has some credit for this.

3] Use https://www.faxitnice.com/.  This is a cheaper long-term option (18 cents/page), and it is more efficient/user-friendly than pamfax.  It requires bulk purchases of $20 credit, however.

Receiving Faxes

We use efax.com to receive faxes.  We have a regular fax # 1-630 604 8615 that any regular fax machine can dial and send to us.  This is automatically digitized and sent to fax@nyaya, which is a google apps group that any member can join (typically only required is the director of operations).  This is a free service with unlimited incoming faxes.  People faxing to us do not need to do anything differently; they just fax as any regular fax number. Outgoing faxes are not free and not worth the monthly fees for us.

You must download the free software from efax.com and use the pin # provided here (Nyaya ID required): 

http://docs.google.com/a/nyayahealth.org/Doc?docid=df8rgpnb_14zks3mvgm&hl=en

Office Software

openoffice.org

techsoup.org provides 20$ fully-featured version of MS 2003 and other software packages to 501c3 organizations

MS 2007 is available with a student account for $70.  

PDF converters

These are essential.  For professionalism and compatability, we must send documents as PDF files and not word files.  

Foxit is a great, cheap, and low-RAM alternative to Adobe.  

Full adobe is available on techsoup.com for $45.  This is another option.

MS Office 2007 has a PDF plugin

Editors:  

Some editor is required for editing PDF documents, particularly for our wire transfer request to e-trade.

Current recommendation:  http://www.ctdeveloping.com/

Other options to consider

Foxit  Editor.  can try to get the free version

Web-based, free, still in beta:  http://www.pdfescape.com/ 

Making Calls

We have free unlimited calls within the United States via our skype account.  We can use these anytime, from Achham to call home or from US to save on cell phone minutes.

Website Server Details

See: http://docs.google.com/a/nyayahealth.org/Doc?id=df8rgpnb_15ctnjkthr&hl=en