We''e a small start-up nonprofit with a relatively low level of technical proficiency.

Which of the various Donor Management  programs would be best suited for us?

Giftworks?

Salesfoce?

Others?

Thanks,

Joe

Operation Safe Drinking Water

Hi  Joe,

We at findability sciences  recently implemented an information management system called Active Intelligence( AIE) for a Boston Based Non Profit organization .The implementation of AIE, has greatly improved access to donor information and reduce the cost of storing,locating,retrieving,& presenting actionable donor information.We may be able to offer a donor management system based on your requirements.

Thanks,

Sachin Suryawanshi.

ssachin@findabilitysciences.com

Hi Joe,

What are your short and long term priorities for the program and its usage? A donor management system is the one piece of software that you should take some time to learn about, and consult with as many stakeholders as possible. Idealware just published a comprehensive report on Low Cost Donor Management software:

http://www.idealware.org/low_cost_donor/

that has a lot of information and worth the time to check out and peruse. Let us know if you have any other questions!

-Kevin

While I was at the Craiglist Nonprofit Bootcamp in Berkeley this weekend, a woman asked me a similar question about her small nonprofit. I just sent her an email highlighting these resources from various places around TechSoup. Depending upon your needs, volume of donations, whether they come in online or through more traditional check/credit card terminal methods, and how you're planning to use and manage the info after you're gotten a donation, can all make a difference in deciding what might fit best.

I've personally used Salesforce, GiftWorks, and eTapestry before, as well as online donation processing services like PayPal and DemocracyInAction.org toolsets. All have advantages and disadvantages (for example, Salesforce is free to qualifying nonprofits and has a tons of bells and whistles, but it can be challenging to set up and maintain since it takes a lot of up-front work to customize because of all the bells and whistles!).

I would recommend spending some time looking at the resources below and then searching within these forums (by clicking "Advanced Search" on the top right of each page) for each of the products you're considering to see what people's individual experiences have been.

General Donor Management Tool Info:

• A Few Good Donor Management Tools: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10942.cfm
• Donor Management Software Comparison (Excel chart at the bottom of the page): http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/page5961.cfm
• Ten Common Mistakes in Selecting Donor Databases: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/page6085.cfm
• Donor Management Toolkit (links to various articles and resources): http://www.techsoup.org/toolkits/donormgmt/index.cfm
• Donor Management Software: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/archives/page10153.cfm
  

Online Donations/Credit Card Processing Info:

• A Few Good Methods for Processing Credit Cards: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10327.cfm
• Getting the Best Prices for Processing Credit Cards: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10588.cfm
• Selecting an Online Donation Tool, Part 1: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/archives/page9612.cfm
• Selecting an Online Donation Tool, Part 2: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/archives/page9613.cfm

Hope it helps!

Becky

Hi there,

We recently  implemented an information management system called Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) for the  Boston based non-profit organization. The implementation of AIE , has greatly improved access to  donor information and reduced the cost of storing, locating, retrieving and presenting actionable donor information. 

• Findability improved from hours to approximately 15 seconds.
• Legacy systems that required many screens to open became viewable on one screen.
• License fees were reduce 80 %.
• FTE & contractors were freed up and available for other organizational task. 

Sachin.

ssachin@findabilitysciences.com

www.findabilitysciences.com

Remember Open Source when looking for solutions. I often implement civiCRM coupled with Joomla a powerful combination of web enabled CRM which organizations can manage themselves once configured. Plus not licensing fee's. Although configuration, customization, and maintenance fee's have to be considered.