Joined on 07-20-2002
TechSoup Member
*Disclaimer* I am the Program Director at salesforce.com/foundation. *disclaimer* Salesforce.com grants 10 licenses of it's top of the line edition to non-profits globally. We have over 600 non-profits using the system for free. It is an exceptionally powerfull and flexible system with a very accessible API. I would also suggest that folks check out the Open Source CRM products: CiviCRM and Sugar CRM.
Steve Wright
Program / Tech Director
Salesforce.com/foundation
Joined on 10-12-2005
TechSoup Member
In my most previous (for-profit) incarnation, we were just beginning to look at SF, and after finding out about the 10-seat free program you have for non-profits, I'm interested in it again, but would like to know some details about how SF can be used to track donors, and what kind of reports can be pulled out of it, and can we archive a database of our donors locally?
For example, say we want to target donors who've given over $500 in the past fiscal year vs. donors who've given any amount in each previous 3 FYs and mail them all a (coded-response) request for participation in a new donation drive -- what does SF do as part of this data extraction and printing process?
Joined on 10-20-2005
TechSoup Member
Alpha Five is an excellent database. I used it up until v.3.0 or so. There only problem was user manuals written by tech geeks for tech geeks. Not to brag or anything but I got good at figuring out problems by backwards engineering. They did have a great online help desk at one time; have they not been able to supply you with your answers?
Joined on 10-06-2005
TechSoup Member
After much research and a shoestring budget, our non-profit org went with Giftworks from Mission Research. It was easy to use and ready to go almost right out of the box. For $299, it was the best investment for our organization. Within minutes, I had imported our database from Excell(with 1,000+ names) into it, it was also easy to customize. It won't perform miracles, but it's darn close.
karley,
Welcome to the forums. With which non-profit org are you affiliated?
-ENO
Joined on 10-31-2002
TechSoup Member
I know that products list hardware requirements but when folks give testimonials it would help to know what hardware they are using: I predict very different levels of satisfaction from someone who has 128 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive and Windows 98 versus another person who has 1 GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive and Windows XP Professional (or Media Center) and a much faster processor (even 64-bit).
Joined on 01-19-2006
TechSoup Member
Have you looked into CivicSpace? It's opensource, free and very powerful with CRM, CMS, and donor management. I'm currently setting one up for a local nonprofit and seems to be working well so far. Here's the link:
www.civicspacelabs.org
Best of Luck!
Jim
Web501
www.artphilanthropy.com/civicspace
Joined on 02-01-2002
TechSoup Member
I would 2nd the approach of repurposing Sugar CRM for fundraising purposes...of course, this approach would require, more often than not, in-house IT staff.
Regarding the LAMP based solution mentioned above, is that going to be available through Sourceforge?
CiviCRM, the SugarCRM equivelent specifically designed for nonprofit uses can be downloaded from http://www.civicrm.org/
CivicSpace, which includes CiviCRM with a nice automated installer and ALOT of integrated functionality (Drupal CMS, basic events managment, basic volunteer management, etc.) can be downloaded from http://www.civicspacelabs.org/
David Geilhufe
(note I am part of the CiviCRM/CivicSpace open source communities)
Joined on 12-20-2003
Toronto Canada
TechSoup Member
You forgot to mention my free software program for tracking donors and donations and issuing receipts, DONATION. It's at
www.freedonationsoftware.org. It's stand-alone, and very popular, with over 3,500 registered users.
------------------------------
Dan Cooperstock
FreeDonationSoftware.org
Looking for a new way to organize donor information? Check out TechSoup's article
Donor Databases: Three Nonprofits Tell Their Stories, where you'll find real-life accounts nonprofits that successfully set up new donor databases.
Used any of the databases mentioned in the article? Share your experiences here.
Joined on 07-25-2003
TechSoup Member
Our small non-profit purchased GiftMaker Pro about 3 years ago. It has worked fine for us. We thought the investment was a good value for the software's capabilities.
Now, I'm fuming about it, however, because Blackbaud has purchased GiftMaker and will not support the current software after the end of 2007 or 2008. Instead, we can make another big investment to move to Raiser's Edge, a much more complicated system than we need. I have used Raiser's Edge before, at another organization, and I am not convinced that we need it.
I'm glad to hear about some less expensive alternatives.
Leslie Frost
Families Moving Forward
Minneapolis
Leslie,
GiftMaker Pro and its alternatives have been discussed here a lot. Go to the
Search Page and search for GiftMaker and you'll find those discussions. And do the same for other systems you're considering.
Also, TechSoup recently updated their
comparison of inexpensive donor databases. It's not comprehensive, but it's a good start.
Grassroots Fundraising Journal also published a similar comparison.
Click here for the link.
Robert
Joined on 04-20-2006
TechSoup Member
show me the way
I am not quite sure I understand what you mean by show me the way.
Please Clarify...thanks.