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Comparing Donor Management Software
 Non-profit Fundraising Software can cover a wide spectrum of functions ranging
from fundraising database management (donors, prospects, volunteers,
membership, etc.) to tools for managing special events. Here
are some potential areas for you to consider in developing your
donor management software wish list.
Donor & Prospect Management
Your database of donors, prospects, alumni, members, volunteers,
board members, and other funding sources is the heart of your
donor software and fundraising system. In order to track this
diverse constituency, donor management software needs
to be extremely flexible and include unlimited list coding
capabilities. In addition, the ability to organize this data
(and related transaction and contact history) is vital, so
that you can quickly and easily find the information you need
is vital. Finally, you should be able to easily track specialized
information (such as year of graduation for alumni) to help
you target and report on donors with the donor software.
Gift Management System
Maintaining a complete giving history for each donor including
dates, amounts, gift designations, solicitation methods, etc.,
is essential to effective fundraising. You may also need the
ability to handle in-kind donations, matching gifts, memorials & honorariums
and other soft and split credits. Another critical aspect of
gift management is donor recognition with personalized thank
you letters and acknowledgements. All of these procedures should
be quick and easy to learn and to use.
Pledge Management System
Because most organizations allow donors to make pledges of future
gifts -- tracking pledge balances, payment schedules, pledge
reminders and delinquency notices is another important aspect
of fundraising.
Credit Card & ACH Processing
An increasing number of nonprofits are developing monthly giving
programs to increase donor loyalty and to increase giving.
For such organizations, you should offer the technology to
facilitate automatic electronic collection of monthly pledges
by credit card or bank drafting with the donor management software.
Contact Management System
To track and cultivate major donors, you'll want a record of
donor contacts and follow-up activities. This should include
the ability to track notes and task due dates, and the donor
software should allow you to automatically maintain to-do lists.
Membership Management System
If you offer memberships, the software should include
key features such as membership cards and lists, and analyses of
lapsed membership, renewal notices, and upgrades/downgrades in
membership status.
Grants Management System
Grants have become a large source of funding. To keep track of
all your proposals, you'll need to keep a record of all grant
requests, deadlines, funding amounts and the status of grant
proposals.
Volunteer Management System
To help manage those energetic and committed volunteers, you'll
need to track their availability, actual dates/hours of service,
interests and past volunteer history.
Events Management System
From golf tournaments to dinner-dances to walk-a-thons, special
events are a staple of many nonprofits' fundraising activities.
Many vendors sell special events modules separately, but some
systems include basic features such as event registration,
banquet seating, auction reports and other special event reporting
as part of their standard functionality.
Mailing & Communication System
Mail solicitations, thank-you letters, and other forms of correspondence
such as e-mails are critical to all non-profits. Most donor
software systems are able to merge donor data into personalized
correspondence, and track who should receive what communication.
They should also track the dates sent, and help in the mailing
(labels, bulk mail, zip code bundles, broadcast e-mail, etc.).
Queries & Reporting
Reporting on your activities is obviously critical for analysis
and communication to your board of directors, donors, and staff.
Reports help determine the effectiveness of campaigns, characteristics
of potential donors, graphical analyses, etc. You should be
able to report on any field, modify pre-designed reports, and
create your own custom reports, in any format.
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