Joined on 01-18-2008
TechSoup Member
I am with a small Community Foundation ($5 million asset base) and we are trying to implement software which can track donors (donations), grants, our funds & investments. We're a one-girl shop, so FIMS & Raiser's Edge are out of the question. Anyone worked with Bromelkamp Co's Pearl or Community Pearl or others? Any other recommendations?
Maquoketa;
Can you use MS Excel?
- Gary
Joined on 01-18-2008
TechSoup Member
Hi Gary,
That is what we currently use to track donations. I am going to import the information into Giftworks, because I want to be able to track more information on donor relationships, donations and hopefully budgets & investments.
That's cool. I just was wondering why you did not create those categories for yourself in Excel. Of course I am sure you know that it will easily handle all of that a hundred thousand times over, and what I love about it, is that it comes with the whole MS Office 2007 package for the unbelievable deal from Techsoup of only $16!!!
Joined on 09-18-2003
TechSoup Member
We at Idealware actually just did a huge research project into the software available for community foundations, and published The Consumers Guide to Grants Management Software, available at www.solpath.org/reports (it's the first report on the page).
This report includes a detailed review of Pearl and Community Pearl, and either detailed reviews or summaries of a bunch of others. Unfortunately there's very little that's inexpensive in this space that tracks both incoming and outgoing money across funds (usually a core need for community foundations) - Community Pearl starts at maybe $15K, and that's about as inexpensive as you get.
If you can track your fundraising separately from your grantmaking (not ideal, I know), there's more options for less expensive tools. If you're using Giftworks for incoming, you could take a look at Foundant (comparatively very affordable at about $3K per year, but more tailored towards online application and review processes than donor advised fund type things) or Pearl just for outgoing money...
Hope that helps!
Laura
--
Laura S. Quinn
Idealware
www.idealware.org
Dear Maquoketa,
There's a hosted version of FIMS that is much less expensive than the installed version. The price for a single-user license is competitive with some of the least-expensive systems in the Idealware report.
Robert
Joined on 07-04-2008
TechSoup Member
If you have the time, I'd recommend building your own from scratch. That way you can set it up exactly how you need it.
We did that with a bit of software called Bento. It's MAC only I think but I imagine there are PC equivilents. It was actually dead easy to do, even for non techies.Took less than a day.
By doing it yourself it also gets you thinking about workflows and what you do and don't need rather than the software itself dictating how you work.
Hope that helps :smile;
Dear Henry,
It doesn't look like gemin-i is a community foundation. Is it? Or did you build a foundation database elsewhere?
In either case, congratulations on a successful project! I see so many failed do-it-yourself projects. It's nice to hear about those that succeed.
Robert
Joined on 07-04-2008
TechSoup Member
Hi Rob
Thanks for your kind words. We're a UK charity that runs 3 social enterprises. We don't hand out cash per-se (except for the odd extra-ordinary project) but we do work with a myriad of funders and clients and so databases are part of our day to day.
I personally like Bento, as I'm not a techie but I can build what I need very quickly and simply.
We do have coders who develop some of our more sophisticated relational databases but we haven't needed to engage them for this sort of thing yet as our needs are relatively simple.
Just out of interest do you think there would be a market for an open source version of a tool like Raisers Edge? I'm toying with the idea of commissioning one. V. Early days yet though.
Henry
Dear Henry,
I do think there would be interest in an open source fundraising database on a par with Raiser's Edge, and some efforts are already underway. TechSoup published an article on
Open-Source Tools for Fundraising and the Organizer's Tool Crib's list of
Data/Donor Management tools includes some open source tools. In addition, MPower recently released their database as an open source product, called MPower Open.
However, I believe that few nonprofits have the skills -- or even the need -- to modify their own source code. Most will be more interested in the price than in the software development model.
In addition, I feel strongly that the software itself is only part of the equation. A donor database needs strong support to succeed. Nonprofits need help converting to the new software, developing business rules and documentation, training users, and providing ongoing support. These forms of support don't necessarily have to come from a vendor. SalesForce, CiviCRM, and SugarCRM have been developing a community of developers and consultants. eBase was an attempt to build an open source product and a support community, but it faded.
Robert
Joined on 07-04-2008
TechSoup Member
Excellent post Robert
It just seems to me that the charities that really need the most help in organizing their fundraising and making it most efficient are the ones that can least afford to do so - isn't that always the way?
As a side project I'm just looking at ways in which we can support the sector and crucially what tools can we build that are very simple to use and can create a demonstrable impact in the organisations in which they are used. Maybe that's building an OSS version of Raiser and giving it away or maybe it's something entirely different. I don't yet know. I do however agree with your point about support, but equally I think it's incumbent on us as software designers to remove the need for support as much as possible, or at least reduce it so it's more a change management process, temporarily helping people migrate between methodologies rather providing ongoing support.
Joined on 07-18-2008
TechSoup Member
Hi -- i am in the same boat (though we have no assets yet!. we are looking at the hosted version of FIMS. We are very interested in making sure we are tech-savvy (donor ability to review investments and accounts on line, etc.) Though I must say I am not, so this part of the business makes me feel like I might get ripped off, buy something I do not need, or worse yet get into a custom design issue wth a local provider doing this type of softare for the first time and creating a huge disaster.
Have you made a decision?
Fraser Nelson
Utah Community Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
Joined on 07-04-2008
TechSoup Member
Hi Fraser
Well we haven't actually built anything that would fit your bill so far. We (and I'm sure others) could build you a custom one which if you go into with your eyes open is pretty unlikely to be 'a disaster' as such. Just make sure you talk a lot and make sure you trust the designers you're working with. My guess is that what you actually need isn't that complicated and a proper speccing process should allow you enter into it with relatively little risk. If you were prepared to let us open source it (so we can give it away to others), and assuming you're a registered charity we could do it pretty much at cost.
I don't know what others think though? Off the shelf or something built to order?
Whatever you decide, you should have a look at some of the social enterprise stuff that's going on in the UK. It's a 'movement' that's really growing from strength to strength right now. I know the guys here at www.unltdworld.com - worth having a look at and www.i-genius.org too.
I'm getting increasingly interested in this area. I've just taken over as chair of a small NGO called MyBnk (www.mybnk.org) that provides financial capabilities and entrepreneurial skills to kids. Great fun! It's amazing how naturally social entrepreneurship comes to kids. Last year we also did this project: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/6320541.stm
where we gave away £100,000 ($200,000) to kids in 1 X £10 note each. Gave them a month and told them to start a business. We had several SE's that made £1000 in a month! Wish I could get returns like that on my investments!