For the past four years or so, at two different organizations, I've been evaluating Microsoft's Sharepoint 2007 as a Portal/Intranet/Business Process Management solution. It's a hard thing to ignore, for numerous reasons: It's an instant, interactive content, document and data management interface out of the box, with strong interactive capabilities and hooks to integrate other databases. If you As I said a year or two ago in an article on document management systems , it has virtually all of the functionality that the expensive, commercial products do, and they aren't full-fledged portals and Intranet sites as well. Sharepoint 2007 (aka MOSS) is not free, but I can pick it up via Techsoup for a song. It integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Office , to some extent, as well as my Windows Directory, so, as I oversee a Windows network, it fits into it without having to fuss with tricky LDAP and SMTP integrations. All pretty compelling, and I'm not alone -- from the nonprofit

Back in September, Peter Campbell kicked off a discussion about project management in this space. Among project management-related tools, Basecamp has the buzz. All that said, it is a mistake to consider Basecamp a project management system. It is much better to think of it as a communication tool I wanted to pick up the thread by focusing in on Basecamp . It is quite common when we start a new project, that someone from the team involved will have used it and know their way around it.

In general, although I am sometimes asked, I tend to avoid assisting clients with choosing a donor database package. As a 10,000 footer, NTEN’s new Donor Management System Survey is of keen interest. There is, of necessity, a lot of overlap betwen CRM systems and Donor Management Systems. Mostly because, although I actually know the field pretty well, it’s at the 10,000 foot level, rather than the 50 ft level that clients really need. And I know there are plenty of folks out there who know the field really well at 50 ft, and can step in with the best advice.

It just seems that too many databases are too complex to use. How many years have we had to develop simple databases, that just work? Yet only a fraction of these groups manage to get it out of their systems in a way that does not induce fits of anger at the idiocy of the routines required to get it done. Here are a few appealing examples: Bento (filemaker.com/bento): Most groups I work with can quickly list off the information they truly care about in their systems. I had the distinct pleasure recently of working again on a Kintera driven website.

I thought it might be useful to compile a list of all of the commercial donor databases I’m aware of. This list came from my head, my bookmarks, and lists compiled by NTEN and Idealware for their donor management software surveys (and I’m not certain all of these are actually donor databases). It does not include custom systems, of which there are many. Feel free to let me know what I missed, which systems no longer exist, and which aren’t I am not planning to keep this list updated — that sounds like a full-time job. But I will post additions

Most database tools have features that do not work well, that I just wish they would have not included at all. Our food has too much sugar and refined flour, our economy has too much credit, and our databases have too many features - all of which can lead to serious systemic problems. In a follow up to my post last year covering Really Simple Databases , here are a few simple online donor management tools to consider. I like tools that just work, even when they do not necessarily do everything I could hope for. DonorTools : A relatively new donor management

The main challenge for a technology manager is communication, particularly with those who are uninterested and/or threatened by technological terms. But I've seen lots of cases of both - IT rolling out a fundraising database or point of sale system with no input from the people who will base their revenue goals on the systems' capabilities; and staff rolling out equally complex systems with little or no IT guidance. But IT I'm a big fan of maxims, adages, anything that sums up an important, and possibly complex point in a sentence that can convey, if not the whole point, at least a conversation starter.

I've been doing a lot of work with the open source content management system Drupal lately, and thought I'd share some thoughts on how to get a new site up and running. Drupal, you might recall, got high ratings in Idealware's March '09 report comparing open source content management systems . If you are using a web host, check to see if your site management console is the popular CPanel , and, if so, Despite it's popularity, there are some detractors who make good points, but I find Drupal to be flexible, powerful and customizable enough to meet a lot of my web development needs.

If your organization is in the market for new donor management or fundraising software, Idealware has just released a new (free) research report you may want to check out: The Consumer’s Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems is an impressive 48-page document that compares the specific features of 33 different donor management systems...( Tags: Non-profit technology Fundraising nptech database Donor management research softwar read more ) ...Tags:

Sometimes I just want to say on one page, "We build websites, databases, and know a lot of important technology stuff. Tags: software content management websites writin "80% of your time will be spent writing good content." I must have repeated this phrase 100 times this year in various presentations and website project meetings. Logically,