Canvas by Monday.com

Canvas is exactly what it claims to be, a canvas for you to work on. It's a Digital Whiteboard where you can jot down ideas, brainstorm, create workflow charts, and even run meetings. As this is another tool produced by Monday.com, the integration with Monday is as close to perfect as you can get. You can pull live data from your Monday boards into Canvas and even updates in Canvas that reflect back to your boards.

They also have a very nice template library with a reasonable amount of options. You won't find 1,000 templates, or shared user templates, just the handful of templates that you actually need, without any of the extra junk that makes it hard to choose which one is right for you.

If you're running a brainstorming meeting on Canvas, you can create tasks there and covert them items or subitems back on Monday with the click of a button, very similar to the same function on MondayDocs. The tool is really easy to use, if you're willing to pay for it.

The first red flag that pops up is their free plan that includes 3 "infinite" canvases. While that's true, each one is limited to 25 elements. If you want to make an org chart, each person's block, plus all the arrows connecting them, will eat up that allowance very quickly. The free plan is basically just a free trial by another name.

The other issue to watch out for is their integrations. If you work heavily on Monday, it's a nice tool to add to your belt, but that's the only tool it integrates with. Canvas looks like it's a standalone tool, but it's really just a paid add-on feature for Monday users.

You might think that you get this along with your 10 free seats Monday generously gives to nonprofits, but you'd be wrong. You must be on a paid plan to get access to discounts on Canvas. If you're over the 10 free seats and paying for more, then you get the same nonprofit discount on Canvas plans, but no free seats.