Inexpensive Non-Profit Donor Software

Our organization decided to go with ebase for our contact database. And, while it may be free, it's a lot of work to customize upfront and is not supported by consultants (that we can find). We're in the process of switching now after much wasted time and money.

I also use Fundraiser Select...the website is www.fundraisersoftware.com I've used it for about 2 years. It's easy to use, fairly priced, and the tech support is awesome. I researched several programs and came across Fundraiser Select. I requested a demo cd and was "confused" at first because it was so easy to use. The reports you are able to generate are great. I honestly can't think of one bad thing to say about the program. I haven't regretted purchasing it for a moment.

Dear Christinenydcc,

It sounds like you're already in the process of changing databases. But FYI, there may still be a cadre of ebase consultants who participate in their online community.

Robert

Microsoft Access can easily take those records and make a simple database.

Access has been on the market for over fifteen years, there are hundreds of thousands of people who know how to use it.

It is flexible and powerful, and you can build on your database over time.

Start off with just a simple conversion from Excel (or even link to the Excel sheet), and as you get more comfortable with Access, or as you find volunteers who want to work with Access, you can do more and more with it.

Wow, I didn't check back for a while (like a year it looks like). Sorry I didn't get to your questions earlier. The reason we are coding our own is
a.) To save money.
b.) To have all of our data on as few databases as possible.
c.) So that our app is customized to us and what we do.

The project has been put on hold for a little while because we have a working product in place (RE) and want to get a few other things in place first, like a service request system, online timesheet submission and job postings board etc.

I would never use a web site to handle our member information, especially not donor information.

This is probably some of the most valuable and sensitive information there is. What do you know about the people who own the website? what do you know about the people who will buy the website next year? Or the people who will buy it when it is resold again?

Or are you thinking the people who own the website will never sell it? What happens if they don't make enough money to make it worthwhile? What happens if they decide to go belly-up?

I would be really loathe to donate to any organization that would give my personal information to strangers.

How are you going to back up the data, when it is on someone's website?

If you have the technical ability in house to do the backups, you have the ability to handled a spreadsheet, and do it yourself.

There is no reason for you to keep any data on someone else's web site. If people want to donate on the web, just use PayPal, or put in credit card processing.

If your staff is incapable of using Excel, (which is dirt cheap on TechSoup) then you have bigger problems that where to get free donation software.

Information security is a good question to raise, and if an organization can't answer all these questions, then they should consider if using a web database is a good option for them.

But securely storing information in a web database is not new technology and can safely be considered by those with the resources to implement it. There are ways to encrypt the data in the database and to export the data for backups as needed.

Margaret,

Thank you for the wise words of caution. You're correct to be concerned about the security of your donor data. Using an ASP (online) database adds another layer of complexity to the issue. The topic was discussed in this TechSoup article a few years ago.

But managing your data in-house does not necessarily equal better security. It's all too common for organizations to neglect to back up their data, not keep a copy off-site, use insecure passwords, not disable old system administrator accounts when staff change, and fail to take other steps to keep their data safe. Here's a link to a 2005 TechSoup article on security.

On the other hand, I believe that reputable ASPs are paying a lot more attention to database security than most nonprofits do -- I see news stories of nonprofit donor databases being hacked pretty frequently. If ASPs didn't protect their clients' data, they would be out of business in a flash.

You're correct that if your ASP goes out of business or is acquired you could have big problems. Your contract should state that you own your data. You should also run your own backups on a regular schedule or ask the vendor to send you backup copies. This precaution will also help you if your Internet connection is down and you need access to donor data.

I don't agree that Excel is an effective donor database. As soon as you get a second gift from a donor you either have to manually combine it with the first one (losing the gift history) or create a duplicate record (making mailings, and converting to a new database, difficult). You should really use a relational database so the donor has only one record regardless of the number of gifts (or addresses).

And, as I've said before, building your own database should be your last resort. There are so many databases around, many of them inexpensive or even free. Why spend the time to build your own? I've seen so many of these projects go on for years, use up lots of time and money, and never meet the project's goals. There are certainly success stories. Because of my job I mostly see the failures.

Robert

Something which has not been mentioned in the area of Excel (or Access) versus an 'off-the-shelf database' is that a good database can actually be a good teacher in terms of what information it might be important to keep, and what you might want to do with that information.

I'd say that most people get started with fundraising as a way to accomplish a mission, and not because they are experienced fundraisers. So, there you are, trying to accomplish your mission, as efficiently as possible, at the same time you are trying to learn how to fundraise.

A big part of fundraising is cultivating your donor base, and the right database can be very very helpful in this way, if it has the information you need in a way that you can easily understand it.

Like Robert, because of the job I have I am likely to see the problems that happen when people 'build their own' using Excel or Access, and there are bound to be some wonderful success stories. Before you launch into that type of project however, consider that it may not turn out to be cheaper and easier in the long run. Here is an article that shares some experience about the limitations in the long run of Excel and Access.

Best wishes,

I would suggest that Access and/or Excel would be better for people who are not in a position now to fully define all their data needs, because it is much easier to add a new column to Excel, or add a look-up table to Excel or Access than it is to buy a new database, and convert all your data, because the database you bought with your original needs in mind no longer fits.

I'm not saying that there isn't a place for third-party software, I'm just saying that the software most businesses already have can be put to better use than most businesses are currently doing.

It's not that difficult to increase your staff's skill level, and that brings additional benefits.

Margaret raises a good point... There can be pro's to proprietary fund-raising and donor databases, but there are also cons people need to be aware of just as there are pro's to the KISS approach of simply constructing a basic spreadsheet or Access database for donor records - not the least (of cons) being the upfront expense and generally associated contractual maintenance and/or support costs of proprietary donor databases.

1 - By their very nature proprietary software databases have a higher learing curve / training requirement than a spreadsheet or other simple in-house database solution. The up-front cost of proprietary software is probably only a small percentage of the overall project costs when considering training, data migration and ongoing software support.

2 - Often the complexity of third-party software means you are paying for features you will never use...

3 - It would be extremelly rare for any third-party software to use the same terminology standardisations as your NGO, meaning that getting old data into the system involves hundreds if not thousands of hours of data entry, and/or the additional expense of paying a third-party to convert and import your existing data into the new proprietary format.

4 - Successful information management in today's business world relies on data type, name, and form consistency across all the functions of your business - Yet often proprietary databases include field names and types that have no correlation whatsoever to any of your other business functions. This often results in management frustrations as cross functional information management becomes an onerous, cumbersone, and ultimately very expensive process of continual data massage, import and export.

Not trying to rain on the proprietary database parade, but as always maintaining objectivity means highlighting both the pro's and cons of any technical approach.

Cheers, Don

Margaret said: I would suggest that Access and/or Excel would be better for people who are not in a position now to fully define all their data needs

What people might want to consider is that they might need to reevaluate after they have been using Access/Excel for awhile and do know their needs better.

Access/Excel might be just right in the beginning OR if there is someone available, with fundraising and programming skills.

Don said: Not trying to rain on the proprietary database parade

I loved your post. I think the point is to help people find the best solution for their situation. No one wins if someone buys software that doesn't work for them. At the very least it's bad PR and and the most, the mission to help np's/NGO's goes unmet.

Best wishes,

Hi team,

In truth I don't think we are really discussing "Proprietary Databases -v- Access or Excel"... what we are really discussing are the pros and cons of internal -v- external organizational problem solving... When should an NPO engage a consultant or buy that piece of expensive and generic one-size-fits-all proprietary database software; when should our NPO utilize internal skills and management (and maybe some free advice from TechSoup - :-) to help resolve what is really a fairly basic and simple business problem?

I disagree that Access (or Excel) are limiting and that after time, NPO's using these products will need to consider a functional-specific proprietary database... The fact these products are so widely used within our NPO community fails to support this perspective; in fact it's generally accepted the reverse is the case... Access databases and spreadsheets developed inhouse (in particular) are usually very easily upscaled to SQL Server and/or other high-capacity ACID compliant large-scale organizational DBMS solutions, whereas most proprietary donor database solutions are not easily upscaled at all (many have licensing conditions so restrictive they prevent ANY upscaling or cross-organizational integration opportunities). Having walked this path several times with NPO's frustrated over a lack of integration opportunities after purchasing proprietary databases I'm only too aware of what the outcome can be!

It really is a matter of ensuring the needs of your NPO are identified and prioritized and realizing that product marketing is just that - something to be considered, but not particularly important beyond it's ability to explain how YOUR needs might be met by the product in question.

Cheers, Don

Hello everyone. This is my first post to Tech Soup. I’ve been an occasional lurker for awhile and, with this discussion, just cannot ignore the call to post any longer. :-) Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to say that I am the founder and president of FundRaiser Software.

I agree with all previous posts, especially from Don when he says that the discussion should not be about which is better. Both approaches are good, and have their own pro’s and con’s.

The use of Access and Excel in the nonprofit world is growing rapidly, and that’s good. That means that more organizations are getting better organized and taking advantage of the tools that are available.

Really, the problems that I see people having with Access and Excel programs occur when the organization is being successful and growing rapidly. Everyone is wearing multiple hats, working long hours, and are already overextended right at the time when they most need a lot of changes made to their old system. Maybe they have a new need to track pledge payments or have started a new membership program. And maybe their database has grown in size to the point that it runs too slowly.

If the nonprofit has a staff member or dedicated volunteer with the time and knowledge to make changes to the program, or if the budget will allow hiring of a professional programmer, then this does not have to be a big problem. As Don pointed out, even if the underlying Access database is no longer adequate, there are alternatives that will enable the nonprofit to retain much of their investment in the original programming that sits on top of the database. But sometimes the real world makes that difficult to accomplish.

Our experience with programs written in Access and Excel comes from when people outgrow their systems and they have decided, for whatever reasons, that it is time to replace their old system with something that is already built and that meets all their current and future needs.

The most common reasons we hear are:

• the program has been tweaked so many times that it now doesn't work right
  
• the original person who wrote the program is long gone and no one knows how to fix or change it.
  
• the volunteer who wrote it is burned out on the project and will not answer their calls
  
• they need massive changes and improvements throughout the program and the thought of making them is overwhelming.
  
• the nonprofit is much busier now than before with everyone wearing multiple hats, and no one has the time to deal with this problem
  

I'd like to finish by saying that I encourage everyone to try Access or Excel if they have the time and talent to use them. Just be aware that as you become more successful, your needs will change, and you should be prepared to make changes to your software in some manner.

Best regards,
Gene Weinbeck
www.FundRaiserSoftware.com

I just wanted people to know that we released the new version of Organizers Database (ODB) yesterday: Version 1.0.1.

ODB is developed for Windows using VB; it is open source; it has a 70-page manual; it has a big user base; we are funded by support fees from end users.

This is the first 1.0 version that is not a "release candidate"; we did extensive field testing in 2006 through five separate release candidates. New since 7/2006: a) the capability to manage and generate form letters, b) brand new settings area that is easy to use, to enable groups to more easily customize more than 175 settings available in version 1.0.

Download Link: http://organizersdb.org
Truth in Advertising: http://organizersdb.org/download/tia
Features List: http://organizersdb.org/files/odbfeatures.pdf
Price List (software is free):
http://organizersdb.org/files/supportpackages.pdf

In response to comments by GeneWeinbeck and DonC, the problem with using Access or Excel is that there is very little validation of data entry; it is very easy for someone in Excel to delete or sort a column of data rendering it useless. It is very easy in Access for someone to delete a critical database table. These programs do not provide automatic backup on a schedule. These programs make it easy for an organization to save 2 copies of the data which invariably get out of sync. These programs also do not automatically maintain information on expiration dates, dates records are created and modified, or the mailing status of an address (valid, incomplete, expired). Excel can not be accessed by multiple simultaneous users -- (though I believe Google Docs lets you share a spreadsheet).

It is possible to use Access to create something which fixes many of the above limitations, and still permits users to hook into the data through Access. FCNY did this with Metrix, making it a better place to start in my opinion than raw Access even if you know how to use Access.

We did almost the same thing, but to have more flexibility, fewer licensing restrictions, and the long-term capacity to port to other languages, we did not use Access, we used Visual Basic.

FYI we created a chart for our booth at NTEN last year that shows what development software was used to create 12 of the leading nonprofit database options. The chart is still available, see:

http://organizersdb.org/files/db-comparison.pdf

-Rich