Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most nonprofits in the U.S., StreamYard is a practical default for podcast recording because it’s browser-based, easy for guests, and supports high-quality local tracks plus nonprofit discounts. When you prioritize maximum per-participant 4K capture and built-in editing over live production and simplicity, a recording-first option like Riverside can be worth considering.

Summary

• StreamYard gives nonprofits a simple browser studio with local per-participant recording, multistreaming, and easy exports for podcast platforms.StreamYard Help Center
• Nonprofits can apply for a StreamYard discount, helping keep ongoing production costs predictable and manageable.StreamYard Help Center
• StreamYard supports 4K local recordings and uncompressed 48kHz WAV audio per participant, so quality is more than enough for most nonprofit shows.
• Use Riverside when you specifically need extended built-in post-production tools and are comfortable working within monthly multi-track recording hour caps.Riverside pricing

What should nonprofits look for in podcast recording software?

When you strip away the hype, most nonprofit teams care about five things:

1. High-quality, reliable audio and video. Funders, partners, and communities judge your message partly by how it sounds and looks.
2. Ease of use. Staff, volunteers, and guests need to get in and out of the studio without tech drama.
3. Automatic recording. Hit "Go" once and know the full session is saved without extra steps.
4. Custom branding. Logos, colors, and lower thirds help your podcast reinforce the organization’s identity.
5. Simple in-app clipping. Turning long conversations into short highlight clips for social media keeps you visible between episodes.

StreamYard is built around those priorities: a browser-based studio, automatic recording on paid plans, local per-participant tracks, and quick exports in MP4/MP3 or WAV for editing and distribution.StreamYard Help Center

How does StreamYard fit a nonprofit podcast workflow?

Picture a small communications team inside a nonprofit: one comms lead, a program director as co-host, and rotating guests from partner organizations. They want to record remote interviews, sometimes live-stream events, and then publish an audio podcast.

With StreamYard, that workflow looks like this:

• Send a browser link. Guests join from Chrome, Edge, or similar—no software to install.
• Record locally per participant. Local recordings capture individual video and audio from each participant on their own device, reducing the impact of internet glitches on the final files.StreamYard Help Center
• Use 4K local + 48kHz WAV for masters. For shows that later go through professional editing, StreamYard supports 4K local recordings and uncompressed 48kHz WAV audio per participant, so your editor has clean masters to work with.
• Add your visual identity. Overlays, backgrounds, and color presets keep your episodes visually consistent, whether you publish on YouTube or embed video on your website.
• Export in podcast-friendly formats. Cloud recordings can be exported as MP4/MP3, while local recordings export as MP4/WAV, which slot easily into editing tools and podcast hosts.StreamYard Help Center

For most nonprofits, this covers the full pipeline from guest invite to publish-ready files—without needing to train everyone on heavy desktop software.

How do nonprofit discounts and costs compare?

Budget discipline is a reality in nonprofit communications. The good news: you don’t have to compromise on recording quality to stay within budget.

• StreamYard nonprofit discount. Eligible nonprofits and educational institutions can request a 10% discount on both annual and monthly plans by providing an organizational domain and tax-exempt documentation.StreamYard Help Center
• StreamYard plan value. Free gives you a way to test the workflow; paid plans unlock automatic recording of live streams, higher storage caps, and unlimited local recording hours within your storage allowance.StreamYard Support
• Riverside’s usage-based model. Riverside’s free tier includes a limited allowance of multi-track recording hours (for example, 2 hours of separate audio and video tracks), with higher paid tiers expanding those multi-track hours.Riverside pricing

For nonprofits producing multiple long-form conversations a month, StreamYard’s unlimited local recording on paid plans (subject to storage caps) usually means you think in terms of "how many episodes do we want to make?" rather than "how many multi-track hours do we have left?"StreamYard Support

How does StreamYard handle quality and ease of use?

Quality and usability are where nonprofits feel the impact day to day.

Quality

• Local per-participant recording reduces the impact of unstable connections on the final audio and video files.StreamYard Help Center
• 4K local recording with 48kHz WAV audio gives you high-fidelity masters suitable for post-production and archiving.
• Color presets and grading controls help you match your visual look to your brand and to the room you’re recording in.

For most nonprofit podcasts—many of which are audio-first and published in 1080p or below for video—the marginal difference beyond this level of quality is small compared to the gains in reliability and simplicity.

Ease of use

• Hosts manage everything from a browser dashboard—no need for dedicated production hardware.
• Guests join by link with minimal setup, which matters when you’re talking to community leaders or busy executives who don’t live in recording apps.
• Automatic recording on paid plans means your team doesn’t have to remember to start a separate recorder; the session simply appears in your account library.StreamYard Support

For nonprofits with small teams and rotating volunteers, lowering the learning curve often matters more than squeezing out the last bit of technical headroom.

How do AI clips and editing help resource-strapped teams?

Many nonprofits don’t have a full-time editor. That’s where in-app AI can save real time—if it’s focused on leverage rather than trying to replace your entire editing toolset.

In StreamYard, AI Clips focuses on:

• Prompt-based moment selection: you can quickly surface segments that match a topic or theme.
• Rapid highlight generation: turn interviews and panels into social-ready clips for Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or YouTube Shorts.
• Post-show iteration: quickly test hooks and intros without rebuilding episodes from scratch.

We intentionally avoid trying to replace dedicated editing tools for deep editorial work—like multi-track mastering, complex music beds, or frame-level cuts. In practice, that means your team can:

1. Record and rough-cut in StreamYard.
2. Export WAV/MP4.
3. Move into a specialist editor (or a volunteer audio pro) for the episodes that truly need it.

Nonprofits often benefit from this "lightweight in-app, heavyweight when needed" approach: you get the speed of AI where it counts without being locked into a shallow all-in-one editor.

How do you actually publish a podcast if StreamYard doesn’t host RSS feeds?

One common question is whether you can host your podcast feed directly from StreamYard. The answer is no—and that’s deliberate.

StreamYard focuses on being your system of record for recording, live production, and repurposing, not RSS hosting. Cloud recordings export as MP4/MP3, local as MP4/WAV, which you then upload to a dedicated podcast host that specializes in distribution and analytics.StreamYard Help Center

In practice, the nonprofit-friendly workflow looks like:

• Record in StreamYard.
• Export audio.
• Upload to a podcast host that pushes your show to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others.

For many teams, separating "make the show" (StreamYard) from "publish and track it" (host) keeps things cleaner and avoids getting trapped in a bundled tool that does a little of everything, but doesn’t excel at the pieces you rely on long term.

When does Riverside make sense—and when does StreamYard stay the default?

Riverside is a solid recording-first platform, especially when you care about advanced post-production features and want a full suite of in-app tools.

Situations where Riverside can be attractive:

• You want built-in AI editing, transcription, and show-notes tools tightly integrated into the recorder.Riverside pricing
• You need very high per-participant specs like 4K video with local multi-track recordings and plan to do most work inside a single environment.Riverside support
• You are comfortable planning around monthly multi-track hour caps (for example, different hour allowances per tier) and can keep an eye on usage.Riverside pricing

For many nonprofits, though, the balance tilts toward StreamYard:

• You want to live stream and record without juggling separate tools.
• You prefer unlimited local recording hours on paid plans (within storage limits) to avoid managing quotas.StreamYard Support
• You value simple guest onboarding and a browser studio your team can quickly learn.
• You plan to pair your recorder with dedicated distribution and analytics, instead of relying on an all-in-one bundle.

The "right" choice depends on your workflow, but for most nonprofit organizations looking to launch or grow a podcast without adding operational complexity, starting in StreamYard is the most straightforward path.

What we recommend

• Start your nonprofit podcast in StreamYard for browser-based recording, local per-participant tracks, and simple live + replay workflows.
• Apply for the StreamYard nonprofit discount early to lock in predictable costs.StreamYard Help Center
• Use AI Clips and basic in-app editing for speed, then move only your most important episodes into dedicated editors.
• Consider Riverside if your top priority is advanced built-in editing and you’re comfortable managing monthly multi-track recording limits.