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Voices from the Community is an ongoing series of blog posts culling popular topics of interest from the TechSoup Community Forums and other online community channels.
Organizations often find themselves outgrowing the smaller donor management software they have used for years. Switching to something with more robust offerings can be daunting, with many facets to consider and a number of reviews to sift through. Luckily, the TechSoup community is full of folks who have faced this challenge and lived to tell about it — and are happy to share their experience with you.
In considering a switch, our community members find that there are two steps to take first:
To the first point, co-host of TechSoup's Technology for Fundraising forum, Robert Weiner, offers a series of questions to ask yourself before beginning. His co-host, Sasha Daucus, notes that specificity is paramount in defining needs, cautioning just how subjective a term such as "user-friendly" can be. Prioritizing needs is also important, as it is unlikely that any software will do everything well, as TechSoup's Volunteers and Technology forum host Jayne Cravens points out.
Your colleagues' work styles and processes are another thing to consider. Community member Judi Sohn advises that even a top-notch database will likely fail if it's not well-received by those who will actually have to use and maintain it regularly.
The questions you ask yourself and your coworkers to clarify your needs will help narrow down your choices, and then the real work of user testing begins. And while there is no substitute for hands-on demos from salespeople (try to make them your allies!), opinions from the social benefit sector are an invaluable resource. Keep reading to see what our community members think of some of the most popular systems.
Community member Kristin N. Brown of the Early Learning Institute is a big fan of DonorPro, praising its ability to keep events organized and data centralized, while generating nifty reports, to boot. She goes on to note DonorPro's intuitive interface and helpful customer support, as well as its integrated marketing tools. Samisencik, Kristin's colleague who performed the Institute's big switch to DonorPro, agrees with all of these points, adding scalability and affordability to the list of pluses. Several other community members give DonorPro high marks, as well. Dave Tinker loves its versatility, finding it satisfies the needs of users at many levels of technical proficiency.
While love pours in from the TechSoup community for DonorPro, there are other popular choices to consider. A couple of these include DonorPerfect and eTapestry.
Community member laguire finds DonorPefect not only easy to work with, but a snap to train others on, as well. In contrast, Samisencik finds DonorPerfect to have reporting issues while also being difficult to use — despite its visual appeal. (We warned you that terms such as "ease of use" may be very subjective!)
Regarding eTapestry, community member Laura Matana likes that it can be used to communicate with both donors and other constituents. She also loves the email integration, although she's come across some difficulty in configuring it.
For more of the community talk on these and other donor management programs — or to add your own voice to the conversation — make sure to check out the following threads on our forums. And don't miss the list of community-suggested resources below!
Michael DeLongOnline Community Manager, TechSoup Globalmdelong@techsoupglobal.org@MichaelDeLongSF
Thanks, Michael. I really enjoyed reading this clear synopsis of the ongoing discussions on donor management software. Well done.