Is it a struggle to keep on top of program or donorinformation?
Are you wasting postage and effort mailing to yourentire list rather than tailoring requests to targetedsegments?
Is volunteer management getting unwieldy asprograms grow?
Are you confident you are finding matching funds?
Are missing opportunities because it is difficult tofind the right information quickly?
Is it difficult to determine how many dollars aregenerated from each dollar spent?
Is your total cost of ownership too high?
Expensive upgrade costs to stay with a particularsystem?
Annual fees on modules or seats you bought buydon’t need or use?
Can’t afford raining costs for turnover?
Are you paying for features that you don’t need?
tabs for detailed data, that remain empty andunused?
No staff resources or time to find and enter that datato use in the system?
Is your software too complex for staff resources?
Does it take more than 15 minutes to find andformat data into a report for?
A database of current donor and prospect information
helps development staff stay more organized and
informed. It provides them with tools to create and
measure better targeted campaigns which facilitates
more successful response rates, and, ultimately, more
income.
Identify demographic groups for tailoring gift orinvitations to increase likelihood of response
Quickly identify donations that qualify for matchingcorporate gifts
Automatically track grant or proposal timelines towin and manage more grants
Tracking uncollected pledges and increasing pledgefulfillment
Creating quality reports that help you project yoursuccess to future donors
A good system can help reduce costs by:
Targeting communications to eliminate extrapostage and reduce duplicates
Preserving budget resources by identifyingunsuccessful campaigns quickly
Simplifying management of special eventsand controlling vendor costs
A system can help you save time by:
Trimming the time previously required toplan and administer programs
Simplifying administrative tasks such asdatabase management
Speeding up data entry, report generation,campaign tracking and analysis
Decreasing the time currently required fordonor research
Step 1: Organizational Inventory
◦Assess Program needs
◦Inventory technology
◦Examine your budget
Step 2: Develop Features Priority List
Step 3: Evaluate Software and Vendors
This process will help clarify the most basic features
and performance priorities required of your fundraising
software and help your software truly fit your needs.
What current development items need support?
◦Do you do seminars with different tracks or just events?
◦Do you need to manage membership fees and levels?
◦Do you manage planned giving or endowments?
◦Do you have volunteer programs?
What do you want to add in 3-5 years?
◦Your software should support your growth affordably.
Identify and rank your program goals, needs and wants.
Inventory your existing technology…
Network
◦Stand-alone workstations, or a network?
Hardware
◦List users desktops’ RAM, CPU speed, storage capacity.
Software
◦What is your operating system?
◦What software do you use today that will need to work directly withyour fundraising solution?
Budgeting for a Fundraising Solution
$1,500 and under
◦Basic Features, and Application Service Providers (ASPs)
$1,500 to $7,500
◦Fully networkable, Full basic fundraising features
$7,500 to $15,000
◦Specialized needs like membership or volunteer management, tributes,endowment management…
$15,000 and up
◦Customized, proprietary systems for large organizations
Remember, your budget for new software will have toinclude…
◦Software license
◦Additional user licenses
◦Data conversion and consulting
◦Staff training
◦Annual technical support and maintenance
◦Possibly additional hardware to support the new solution
Understand associated costs in relation to your budget for allthese areas before you purchase the software!
To help you prioritize your software features search,consider:
◦What activities that you engage in hourly or daily?
◦What activities use up too much staff time?
◦What programs do you rely on most?
◦What data is critical to your programs and your reporting?
Example: If corporate gifts are more critical to your budget thancharity events, detailed event management features will fall loweron your priority list.
Ranked Features, an example:
◦Contact management and donor profiles (Must Have)
◦Gift and pledge tracking features (Must Have)
◦Built in email or other communication tools (Helpful extra, notnecessary)
◦Event management functionality (Not critical)
◦Reporting tools (Must Have)
◦Volunteer Management (No Need )
Upfront clarity on your priorities will help you stay clear aboutyour needs as you evaluate different software options.
Requesting a Demonstration
◦Self-running vs. live
◦Self-evaluation copies
◦Ask for a local reference and see it in action!
Be sure to ask precisely what is being shown in a demo: Is the productbeing shown the basic core product, or does it include all extra-costmodules that you may not afford? Make sure you will have the samefunctionality that you see!
What to ask a reference…
◦How long have they used the program?
◦Did they examine other software choices?
◦What were their real costs, such as consulting—any surprises?
◦Was the training adequate and affordable?
◦How is the technical support currently?
◦Would they buy it again?
Talking to the Software Consultant
◦What are the training options and costs?
◦Are there any guarantees?
◦Is support available online, by email or other means?
◦ What is total cost to get up and running?
◦ What is the level of experience with nonprofit organizations andsolutions in the support team?
Know your organization’s needs
Understand all costs overtime
Research your options
Choose software that fits!
Presented By:
W. Andrew Powell
Partner
(703) 836-1350
apowell@cpas4you.com
