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Apparently, LMSs for corporations and schools are becoming a trend. But there’s not too little that talks about using learning management systems for nonprofits. Let’s talk about that today.
Due to what technology can do now, it’s also significant for nonprofits to use learning management systems in their organizations. It gives them several benefits which save them costs and time. Now is the right time for organizations to leverage their training.
Later on, we will explore:
- why you should use a learning management system for training your organization,
- features to look at, and
- the best-recommended learning management systems for nonprofits
What is a Learning Management System?
According to Wikipedia, a Learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs.
In addition, LMSs are platforms where course creators, trainers, companies, and organizations used to manage the content and learning of their employees, students, and other stakeholders. For nonprofits, it can be used to train and create courses for their new employees, volunteers, partners, and other stakeholders.
Benefits of Using a Learning Management System for Nonprofits
Firstly, let's discover the advantages of using an LMS for your organization. What is it for you? How can it help your organization's training?
Save Training Cost
Nonprofits have their own training materials. Traditionally, they will organize on-site training for their volunteers and employees who needed the training. As you know, these kinds of on-site and yearly training can cost so much budget and time for the organization.
What's good about using an LMS is that you can save more costs by doing your training online and putting it in one place. Hence, one of the best features of an LMS is automation. It is advisable to automate your training for your volunteers, new employees, and other stakeholders. This will save you a lot of time in creating online training such as:
- onboarding new employees
- introductory mini-courses for potential volunteers
- skill training for employees and volunteers
- general training for partners, stakeholders, and collaborators
However, some organizations may still prefer on-site training. You may want to make your training hybrid. Identify what training can be done online and what training would be perfect to do in person. This way, you can save costs while building physical connections with each other.
Standardize Training Process
Once you get to create your training through your LMS platform you can standardize and create your own process of training design and creation.
SCORM file is one of the most popular features that eLearning experts and corporate trainers used to standardize their training and courses. The good thing is, that most of LMSs in the market today have integrated SCORM into their platforms.
SCORM is just one of the ways to standardize your training. Due to the several features of learning management systems for nonprofits today, there are so many ways to standardize and make your training processes work smoothly. Thanks to technology!
Sell Online Courses
Since the training that you created in your LMS can be available to everyone, you can sell them and give specific access to non-employees and non-stakeholders. In this way, you can monetize your training or courses and offer them to others.
The best thing is that these LMSs offer a white-label solution where you can brand your platform according to your organization’s branding and offer it to the public.
Increase Employee & Volunteer Engagement
Increasing employee and volunteer engagement is the most important aspect of creating training. Learning doesn't only happen through instructor-student relationships, hence, it happens more by engaging with peers, classmates, and the learning environment itself.
Use the LMS features like community building, discussion boards, forums, and peer-to-peer review to create engagement with your employees and volunteers. These LMS features are the current hottest trend as online learning should be collaborative and social.
You can let your volunteers and employees learn from each other and not just from your content materials. Not only that, learner engagement can increase the completion rate of your training and courses.
What to Consider When Choosing an LMS for Nonprofits
Accessibility
Make sure your training and courses can be accessed by your volunteers in far-flung areas through mobile learning app. Most of the learning management systems for nonprofits have these features to support the needs of your stakeholders. Volunteers can access your training easily with their mobiles.
Automation & Analytics
You can easily automate some of the tasks such as class scheduling, email notifications, checking quizzes, and computing grades. Apparently, two of the important features you can get in an LMS are automation and data analytics. Since analytics are available in every LMS platform, you can improve your training by analyzing your student's data, measuring learner engagement, etc.
Customization & Integrations
It is now easy to customize your training due to several features such as app integrations, white-labeling, and class schedules. When you look for an LMS, make sure you check how flexible it is to customize and if the app you're using can be integrated.
Collaborative Learning
Lastly, it is important to check if these LMSs integrate collaborative learning experiences for your volunteers, employees, and stakeholders. Some features to consider are peer-to-peer review, discussion boards and forums, and community building.
8 Best LMS for Nonprofit Organizations
This list will explore some of the top LMS solutions specifically suited for non-profits, highlighting their strengths and how they can benefit your organization.
Teachfloor - Social Learning LMS Designed for Nonprofits
Teachfloor is very popular in helping course creators and corporate trainers to create their live learning academies. Consequently, it is one of the best LMS platforms for making your courses and training more scalable using a hybrid cohort-based format. Due to this fact, it is now used by nonprofits to scale their training. Some also use it to monetize their training through customization and white-labeling solution.
What's good about this LMS:
- create a scalable hybrid cohort-based training for your volunteers and employees
- peer-to-peer review and SCORM file integration
- easy to use with intuitive design
- available course templates for trainers and creators
- lets you automate your class schedules
Pricing: $89/mo Teachfloor offers an exclusive discount for nonprofits
Free trial: Yes for 15 days
LearnWorlds - All-in-One LMS with High Customization
LearnWorlds is an all-in-one solution that trains and empowers your people. In addition, it offers highly-customizable learning experience features to your organization. It is easy to use, flexible, intuitive, and engaging.
What's good about this LMS:
- tailor-made templates for nonprofits
- easy to use UX design for beginners
- white-labeling solution and community building
- maximize your fundraising capabilities
- used by hundreds of organizations around the world
Pricing: $299/mo for learning center
Free trial: Yes for 30 days
TalentLMS - LMS with Advanced Tracking
TalentLMS is an award-winning in the LMS market today. It's one of the best LMS for nonprofits. Additionally, it offers a wide range of features to make it easy for organizations to create their training and courses. Lastly, it supports the organization's vision and mission through other features.
What's good about this LMS:
- collaborative learning experience for your learners
- advanced data analytics and tracking
- supports 30 different languages, perfect for international organizations
- supports your mission and vision through automation features
Pricing: starting from $179 /month for 40 active users/month
Free Trial: Yes
EdApp - Affordable Mobile-First Microlearning LMS
EdApp is the popular LMS for mobile apps and microlearning features. It also supports LMS for nonprofits by offering its platform at an affordable cost.
What's good about this LMS:
- SCORM file integration
- mobile app
- microlearning experience for students
- highly-customizable and personalized
- community building
- automated analytics suite
Pricing: $2.95 per active user/month
Free Trial: Yes with a free forever package
360Learning - LMS Platform with AI and Collaboration
360Learning is the most popular LMS brand because of its expertise in collaborative learning experiences. It's an award-winning platform that advances how you create your training and courses. Due to this fact, nonprofits are using this platform to increase their student's engagement and make a successful training for the organization.
What's good about this LMS:
- use AI and collaborative learning features
- advanced automation features
- free resources to improve your training design skills
Pricing: Starting price $8/registered user per month (Up to 100 users/month)
Free Trial: Yes for team plans
Moodle - Customizable Open-source LMS
Moodle is a Learning Management System known for its flexibility and customization options. Used by educational institutions and organizations worldwide, Moodle empowers educators to create interactive courses, manage learning activities, and track student progress.
What's good about Moodle:
- Free and open-source
- Highly customizable
- Large community of users and developers
- Wide range of plugins and integrations
Pricing: starting from $120/mo for 50 users
Free Trial: Yes for team plans
Tovuti - Cloud-Based LMS for Nonprofits
Tovuti offers features for content creation, collaboration, and impact measurement, allowing nonprofits to track the effectiveness of their training programs.
What's good about Tovuti:
- Cloud-based and user-friendly
- Designed specifically for nonprofits and NGOs
- Focus on blended learning
- Features for content creation, collaboration, and impact measurement
Pricing: Prices are not publicly available
Free Trial: It is not mentioned
Canvas LMS - Feature-Rich Learning Platform for Organizations
Canvas LMS is a popular LMS used by schools, universities, and businesses alike. It offers a robust course creation tools, and a variety of features to support engaging learning experiences.
What's good about Canvas LMS:
- User-friendly interface
- Robust course creation tools
- Features for collaboration, communication, and assessment
- Free tier available for individual users
Pricing: Pricing details are not available on their website
Free Trial: Yes, for their premium plans
Conclusion
In conclusion, technology has helped us to advance how we learn. E-learning has always been part of different industries from schools, corporations, micro-businesses, and nonprofits organizations.
Never forget to make use of these technologies to scale your mission. It's not that hard. And surely, there will be a rewarding outcome.
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