Nonprofit donor management software can be chosen in two ways. The first way is to develop a customized solution designed to match the organization's processes. This requires a detailed study of everything from fund-raising methods to donation processing, pledge and gift tracking, managing memberships, data entry, record creation, reports, etc. If this seems a bit too much, then the second way is to buy one of the popular software solutions and change the aforementioned processes to match the IT system.
Understandably, the second option is a good way to anger employees and volunteers who will have to learn to work as per the new software. On the other hand, custom solutions are expensive. It's also a fact that many non-profits have little to nothing designated toward their IT budget.
The sum of it is that in most cases, non-profits aim for an affordable solution. Employees will then have little choice but to start learning the new fundraising methods, contact management and donation processing techniques under the new system. Either way, make sure your chosen solution has the features listed below.
The module that deals with fundraising needs to be able to automate marketing campaigns with email and targeted mailings. One module should be tracking grants and managing the proposals. Outlook integration and donor profiles are required under contact management. A tickler file should be able to automate pending due date notifications via email and provide a dashboard to highlight pending work.
Whether the organization is able to meet its fund-raising targets will depend largely on the effectiveness of its donor management system. This is the core function, so it has to be able to store unlimited names and addresses. The database tables have to provide cross-referencing and user-defined fields to create relational records.
It will be integrated with mailing services, so that the address field is automatically updated. Each name needs a primary and alternate address. The system has to generate automated acknowledgement letters and add prefixes or titles (Dr., Mr., Ms., Mrs.) depending on the occupation, marital status and first name fields.
Gift and donation tracking are considered essential parts of nonprofit donor management software, providing the ability to index records based on source and campaign. Gift tracking should support anonymous giving, soft crediting, gift splitting between multiple funds and causes, matching gifts, etc. Pledge tracking requires a scheduling feature and automated reminders. The reports module has to be able to pull data based on custom user defined queries.
Understandably, the second option is a good way to anger employees and volunteers who will have to learn to work as per the new software. On the other hand, custom solutions are expensive. It's also a fact that many non-profits have little to nothing designated toward their IT budget.
The sum of it is that in most cases, non-profits aim for an affordable solution. Employees will then have little choice but to start learning the new fundraising methods, contact management and donation processing techniques under the new system. Either way, make sure your chosen solution has the features listed below.
The module that deals with fundraising needs to be able to automate marketing campaigns with email and targeted mailings. One module should be tracking grants and managing the proposals. Outlook integration and donor profiles are required under contact management. A tickler file should be able to automate pending due date notifications via email and provide a dashboard to highlight pending work.
Whether the organization is able to meet its fund-raising targets will depend largely on the effectiveness of its donor management system. This is the core function, so it has to be able to store unlimited names and addresses. The database tables have to provide cross-referencing and user-defined fields to create relational records.
It will be integrated with mailing services, so that the address field is automatically updated. Each name needs a primary and alternate address. The system has to generate automated acknowledgement letters and add prefixes or titles (Dr., Mr., Ms., Mrs.) depending on the occupation, marital status and first name fields.
Gift and donation tracking are considered essential parts of nonprofit donor management software, providing the ability to index records based on source and campaign. Gift tracking should support anonymous giving, soft crediting, gift splitting between multiple funds and causes, matching gifts, etc. Pledge tracking requires a scheduling feature and automated reminders. The reports module has to be able to pull data based on custom user defined queries.
About the Author:
The use of fundraising software will help non-profit organizations to increase revenue flow. It will assist the administrative staff to take advantage of managed services for convenience and simplicity.