A GUIDE TO PURCHASING FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE

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A GUIDE TO PURCHASING FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE

• Tips for choosing software to fit your budget and
  programs

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Introduction
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Do You Need a Fundraising System?

• Is it a struggle to keep on top of program or
  donor information?
• Are you wasting postage and effort mailing to
  your entire list rather than tailoring requests
  to targeted segments?
• Is volunteer management getting unwieldy as
  programs grow?
• Are you confident you are finding matching funds?
• Are missing opportunities because it is difficult
  to find the right information quickly?
• Is it difficult to determine how many dollars are
  generated from each dollar spent?

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You Already Have Fundraising Software.
Is It Time to Change Systems?

• Is your total cost of ownership too high?
• Expensive upgrade costs to stay with a particular
  system?
• Annual fees on modules or seats you bought buy
  dont need or use?
• Cant afford raining costs for turnover?
• Are you paying for features that you dont need?
• tabs for detailed data, that remain empty and
  unused?
• No staff resources or time to find and enter that
  data to use in the system?

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You Already Have Fundraising Software. Is
It Time to Change Systems?

• Is your software too complex for staff resources?
• Does it take more than 15 minutes to find and
  format data into a report for?

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And How Does Software Help You Raise More?

• 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.

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Examples of how it works

• Identify demographic groups for tailoring gift or
  invitations to increase likelihood of response
• Quickly identify donations that qualify for
  matching corporate gifts
• Automatically track grant or proposal timelines
  to win and manage more grants
• Tracking uncollected pledges and increasing
  pledge fulfillment
• Creating quality reports that help you project
  your success to future donors

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Winning Dollars, but also

• A good system can help reduce costs by
• Targeting communications to eliminate extra
  postage and reduce duplicates
• Preserving budget resources by identifying
  unsuccessful campaigns quickly
• Simplifying management of special events and
  controlling vendor costs

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Winning Dollars, but also

• A system can help you save time by
• Trimming the time previously required to plan and
  administer programs
• Simplifying administrative tasks such as database
  management
• Speeding up data entry, report generation,
  campaign tracking and analysis
• Decreasing the time currently required for donor
  research

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Guide to purchasing software that fits!

• Step 1Organizational 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.
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Step 1 Organizational Inventory

• 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.
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Step 1 Organizational Inventory

• 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 with your fundraising solution?

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Step 1 Organizational Inventory

• 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

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Step 1 Organizational Inventory

• Remember, your budget for new software will have
  to include
• 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 all these areas before you purchase
the software!
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Step 2 Develop Features Priority List

• 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 than charity events, detailed event
management features will fall lower on your
priority list.
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Step 2 Develop Features 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, not necessary)
• Event management functionality (Not critical)
• Reporting tools (Must Have)
• Volunteer Management (No Need )

Upfront clarity on your priorities will help you
stay clear about your needs as you evaluate
different software options.
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Step 3 Software Evaluation

• 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 product being shown the basic core
product, or does it include all extra-cost
modules that you may not afford? Make sure you
will have the same functionality that you see!
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Step 3 Software Evaluation

• 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
  consultingany surprises?
• Was the training adequate and affordable?
• How is the technical support currently?
• Would they buy it again?

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Step 3 Software Evaluation

• 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 and solutions in the support team?

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Conclusion

• Know your organizations needs
• Understand all costs overtime
• Research your options
• Choose software that fits!

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Questions?

• Presented By
• W. Andrew Powell
• Partner
• [phone]
• apowell_at_cpas4you.com