OpenPetra is free
OpenPetra.org is published under the GPL, an Open Source license, that means that you don’t have to pay any licensing fees.
This will help you greatly to keep your administration costs down, and your donors will appreciate that!

Independence
In the case that you have your own IT personnel, you won’t even need a support contract. But even if you need external support, you are more flexible to choose from several service providers, since it is an Open Source product, and it is quite easy for IT companies to provide support.
That means you are not locked in with one company which is usually the case with closed software products.

Proven Track Record
OpenPetra is based on the Petra software which has been used for many years in a very diverse organisation, in about 80 countries, by several hundred users each day! Petra has proven to fit all sorts of different requirements, and is doing a great job already for many offices around the world.

Multi-user, Multi-site, Multi-currency, Multi-language
OpenPetra comes in different flavours to allow you the quick setup of a demo environment, but also has easy installation routines of multi-user environments on the server operating system of your choice.
You can install OpenPetra centrally in your organisation, but you can also install it in each office, and there are ways how the installations can communicate with each other and share data in a way that you can define.
OpenPetra allows you to work with as many currencies as you want, and also provides ways to exchange money between different countries, minimizing the amounts that need to be exchanged and transfered each month.
Internationalisation is also very important for the project, since charities should not be just one way, but people in all countries should be treated similarly.

Customising
Every organisation is different, and even each country has different legal and cultural requirements. Extendability is at the core of OpenPetra, which means that it is easy to add new modules and to adjust existing behaviour.

Working together
Charities don’t compete with each other, but want to see each other succeed in the work they are doing.
For example, you can benefit from the effort someone else makes to translate OpenPetra to a language that you don’t know but need for your local office somewhere in the world, and you can help others by creating and sharing for example a special report that is required for the German Tax office, because you have such skills.

Focus on your core tasks
Your charity has a mission that you focus on with the most highest possible percentage of your strength and manpower and the donations you receive. You are not supposed to pay lots of money for administration software, and there is no good reason for you to use donated money to pay regular license fees to some company that has to satisfy their shareholders.
The next point also describes how OpenPetra will enable your staff to excel in their job.

Ease of use
OpenPetra is easy to use by your staff with only little training. It is an integrated software which means that all modules have the same look and feel, and data created in one module can be used in another module.
OpenPetra will be localised to many languages and countries, so that local staff will quickly adapt to it and not feel overwhelmed by language barriers etc.
Your staff will be enabled to do the administration in a way that allows them to put your donors, partners and projects first!

Features
Last but not least, your organisation will certainly benefit from the features of OpenPetra:

• Comprehensive Accounting and Reporting: book keeping in compliance with local legal standards
• Sophisticated Donor Transaction and Contact System: process donations and deal with your supporters in the way they prefer to be contacted
• Extensive Personnel Management: from first contact through the application process to maintaining the personal records of employees
• and more to come…