One of the most important aspects of fundraising is having a method to track the information of people who support your organization and manage your donor relationships. Many organizations do not have a dedicated system to track their donors. They may have one long-time staff member or volunteer that maintains all the donor relationships; or, they may be manually tracking their donors using spreadsheets. However, they may find that as their organization grows these solutions may no longer be feasible, and it’s time for the organization to consider donor management software.
There are several donor management systems available, but which system is right for your organization? One of the first things to consider when your organization is ready to choose software is to determine what problem you are trying to solve. For example:
- Does your organization need a way to summarize its fundraising data?
- Would you like to be able to create fundraising reports that you can share with your staff and board members?
- Or does your current solution not offer the level of security you need?
When deciding to choose donor software, you may want to consider some other factors before making your final decision. So here are six considerations for your small team to discuss before choosing a donor management system.
- The size of your team. Larger organizations that have fund development staff in place may need to invest in a robust system that allows for multiple user profiles, a large amount of constituent data, and one that integrates with other software that they are using. However, a small organization that does not have a dedicated fundraising team or is primarily volunteer-led may require software that is easy to use, and requires little training.
- Board and staff buy-in. Change can be a challenge. If members of your team would like to start a data-driven approach to fundraising, there can be many barriers that inhibit people from wanting to make these changes. Or there might be team members who simply feel comfortable with the way things are. With a bit of preparation and cooperation with members of your team, you can help to address these concerns. Furthermore, once your organization understands the benefits of using software, it will be much easier to convince them to buy into a culture of data, and a system to manage it.
- Budget. Donor management software has a wide range of price points, and usually varies depending on the number of features and amount of technical support. If you are new to donor software, you may want to choose one that has a free tier, which will allow you to build familiarity with the system. Some solutions, that have a free tier, will allow you to use the software indefinitely with limited features, while other solutions offer a free trial that provides you with all of their features for a limited time. Also, some solutions determine the cost based on the number of donor records in the database. Once you exceed the number of records, your organization must upgrade to a more expensive tier. Also, if more than one person will have access to the data it is important to ask the software provider how many user profiles you can create. Furthermore, you should inquire if there is an additional cost if your team needs to create multiple user profiles. Ensure that you have a good understanding of what is offered prior to making a decision.
- Data Security. If you are a small team that is primarily volunteer-led, data security, and how the data will be secured is one of the most important factors. Furthermore, not everyone on the team will need access to every feature. For example, you may want to reserve certain administrative features that are more sensitive, such as editing donor information, to certain members of your staff. While the rest of the team may only have read only, or no access to certain parts of the system. And lastly, you should confirm with the provider what security measures are in place to protect donor data from external threats.
- Customer Support. As with any software, technical support is important. Will someone from your provider be able to onboard or train your staff? If not, is the system user-friendly and needs little instruction? Is there easy-to-understand documentation that explains any process that you are unsure of? Depending on your team, and level of technical expertise, this is an important consideration.
- Offer a Product Demo. Many software providers offer a virtual demo of their product, which is a great opportunity to see the product in action, and determine if it will meet your team’s needs. If possible, invite key members who will be using the product to the demo so that they can weigh in on how it will work for them. If the demo is live, prepare questions or concerns in advance so it can help you determine if the software is right for your organization.
There are many factors to consider when deciding which donor management software to use. Ultimately it will depend on your organization’s specific needs. Take some time to explore different software with different features and find the one that works best for your organization and maximizes your fundraising efforts.
As someone who loves numbers, video games and fantasy fiction Rochelle Greaves can be found creating unnecessarily long formulas in excel, playing video games or watching an action or fantasy fiction movie with her family. As the Co-founder of Story Point Consulting, Rochelle uses her technical skills to help nonprofits increase their fundraising capacity and revenue by using data driven decisions. If you are a small Canadian organization looking for an affordable, easy to use solution, book a live demo for our donor management software Chronicle to support your fundraising efforts.
