A Guide to Purchasing Fundraising Software

Tips for choosing software to fit your budget and programs

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?

Do You Need a Fundraising System?

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 don’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 and unused? No staff resources or time to find and enter that data to

use in the system?

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?

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

A database of current donor and prospect informationhelps development staff stay more organized andinformed. It provides them with tools to create andmeasure better targeted campaigns which facilitatesmore successful response rates, and, ultimately, moreincome.

…And How Does Software Help You Raise More?

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

Examples of how it works:

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

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

Winning Dollars, but also…

Step 1: Organizational Inventory◦ Assess Program needs◦ Inventory technology◦ Examine your budget

Step 2: Develop Features Priority List Step 3: Evaluate Software and Vendors

Guide to purchasing software that fits!

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.

Step 1: Organizational Inventory

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 with

your fundraising solution?

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

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

Step 1: Organizational Inventory

Understand associated costs in relation to your budget for all these 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?

Step 2: Develop Features Priority List

Example: If corporate gifts are more critical to your budget than charity events, detailed event management features will fall lower on 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, not

necessary)◦ Event management functionality (Not critical)◦ Reporting tools (Must Have)◦ Volunteer Management (No Need )

Step 2: Develop Features Priority List

Upfront clarity on your priorities will help you stay clear about your 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!

Step 3: Software Evaluation

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!

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?

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?

Step 3: Software Evaluation

Know your organization’s needsUnderstand all costs overtime Research your options Choose software that fits!

Conclusion

Presented By: W. Andrew Powell

Partner(703) 836-1350

apowell@cpas4you.com

Questions?