A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

Step One - Know your abilities in fundraising
The process should always begin with some kind of development audit. Knowing and understanding the capacities of your development team are critical to making the right choices. There are many development audit formats available in books and even some online. The audit will ask stakeholders to rate your agency’s abilities in various categories and procedures, and provide you with a good idea of where your development and fundraising resources are strong, and places in need of improvement.

Step Two – Understand your technology capabilities
OK – let’s drag out that tech fluency topic again – how tech savvy is your nonprofit? Does your agency strategic plan include a technology component? Where are your technology people resources? What is the state of your computer equipment/operating systems and software? Do you have a strong firewall and security procedures in place?

Step Three – Map out your needs
What are the top elements that you want your donor package to accomplish? List the top 5-10 things your donor package would be used for. Remember – different team members will have different needs – the Development Director might want good reminders for donor follow up, but the grant writer might want strong grants calendaring. What are some features you wish you had? Prioritize your needs based on the entire team, including others outside of development that might benefit or utilize the information or software.

Step Four – Gather information
There are lots of packages available out there, with many features, at widely varying cost. From expensive packages like Raisers Edge, to free online software like Salesforce. Though this sounds like the most important step, it many ways it is actually the least important. Why? Because nearly every package out there today addresses your needs in some way. They all have a core set of functions that basically do the same thing. Note – as a former “Pre-sales Software Demonstrator” heed these words — you must understand that “Yes, our software can do that” does not always mean it is simple, or it works well. I recommend waiting for a software demonstration for later in your process. Gather up as much information as you can on the web, or use some objective review tools available out there. (NPower Seattle offers a toolkit to help though some of the information may be dated.)

Step Five – Narrow your search down
Take 3-4 of what you believe to be the best software options available to you. Tip - When making this list, be sure to include your current software tool as a comparison. As you compare your prioritized list of necessary features, are you sure your current software doesn’t cut it? Is there an upgrade available? Think about the amount of time to install a new package – does ease of transition count for anything in the process? Now, put all the features and functionality on a list or on the whiteboard, be sure to list costs, estimates of time needed, training time and costs, ongoing maintenance and estimate life of the product. Also remember – no data transfer ever goes as quickly or as smoothly as you imagine it will. Now would be a good time to bring in sales demonstrations of the products you have at the top of your list.

Step Six – Choosing
Ask your vendor to provide references from other local nonprofits, then follow up with those whom use the software every day. Check the local events calendars for user groups or other venues to meet and talk to actual users of the software. Be sure to include questions about on-going maintenance and upgrade costs. Check to be sure your computer systems and network can handle the software not only today, but within your technology plan and budget for tomorrow. Be sure to include estimates of training costs – these can be expensive. Do not rely on “I will just figure it out myself”. That almost never works and many times leads to disaster. Remember that cost of the software is typically only a small portion of the long term costs involved. Unless you decide to give your current software another chance – never decide based on cost alone.

I have an exciting guest series written by Chris Logan from NPower Seattle. They exist to help nonprofits use technology more effectively and efficiently to serve their constituencies. This week he is writing on the topic of choosing the right donor management software. Thanks Chris for an excellent series. - Jason

Choosing the right Donor Management software for your agency can be a daunting task. With so many packages to choose from it may seem impossible at times. I am hoping I can help shed a little light on the issues here today.

In many cases, it is that first critical step that can make or break the process. Why do you need a new software package to manage donors? When it comes to existing tracking of donors, I often see non-profits that say “well, our current product can’t handle our capacity” or “it breaks all the time” or “this version is no longer supported”. I might ask “what if I could fix it so it doesn’t break anymore”, and get a slew of other reasons why they need to upgrade or purchase something new. As the process for deciding, purchasing, installing and converting data involves a large amount of valuable resources, that first critical step is one that needs much more investigation than “I know we need new software”. While I encourage all nonprofits to conduct a thorough review of the process, you should also be prepared objectively at the end to consider that your current product might be able to address your needs and simply is not currently being utilized effectively or efficiently.

“Tech fluency” is a term that we use often to describe an extremely wide array of knowledge, skills and experience at nonprofits. As is evidenced by our 2007 “Stable and Secure Assessment” conducted among non-profits here in Puget Sound, most nonprofits do not have a great deal of “tech fluency”. The reason I speak of this here, is because sometimes, the inability of a given piece of software to work may have more to do with “tech fluency” than effectiveness. Keep that in mind, but for now, let’s focus on fundraising and development as a basis for selecting your donor management software.

I hope that you have enjoyed my discussions with Sarah Hoddinott, from Advanced Solutions International, and Shane Davis, from Artez Interactive, about online fundraising. I have one more thought I wanted to talk with you about. We have all heard countless stories of online fundraising success. For example a small charity supporting Africa that raises tens of thousands of dollars as a result of their online fundraising (Gulu Walk) or the celebrity that wants to make a difference and has a good idea resulting in millions of dollars (Nothing But Nets). What about your organization? Can it succeed through the use of online fundraising?

I know I don’t have celebrity support and what appeals to the community I live in doesn’t necessarily have national appeal. Does it? I can understand why someone outside of Africa might want to help fight malaria in another country or help the abandoned children in Uganda but is there national appeal to what I’m doing in Seattle or what you’re doing in Boston or Chicago? Shane had a great response:

Online fundraising is not about the location, it is about the relationship. The relationship or connection you have with that person who is involved in the campaign. Whether it be family or friend, a celebrity with a message you believe in, or someone you feel attached to due to their commitment to a cause you feel strongly about. Frequently, like with Kiva, we see people give to people they have never met, simply because they believe in them.

I realized that one of the most amazing things about online fundraising is that no longer do we have to be constricted by geography. When a donor is passionate enough about what your nonprofit is doing to ask their friends they don’t have to be located only a few miles away. If your friends live in Colorado see if they want to get involved, if they live in Israel ask them. In this new world of online fundraising we are able to “go global” in our appeal to address our local needs.

Working with nonprofits is a great environment. You are around people that are passionate about serious community needs and about what they do. Fundraising is a unique world in that it takes a lot of sales skills to succeed and your product is making a profound difference in the lives of people.

As I reflect on organizations that I have worked for I am struck with the value and significance of many volunteer leaders and donors. One thing that makes the nonprofit world great is that there are a number of talented community members that will come alongside and partner with you. I have had such a tremendous opportunity to learn from many donors and board members. It has been such a privilege to support their individual community missions.

Fundraising is about relationships. If you are thinking about starting a career in fundraising you are getting started in a really exciting time. Nonprofits today are more creative and engaging than they have ever been. Philanthropy is more accessible and the world has become a much smaller place. Another exciting thing about a career in the nonprofit world is that you can actually make and see a tangible difference. If you are good at what you do, work really hard at it, and have a good support network there are few things that you cannot accomplish.

When I first started this job I intended to write more thoughts on starting a career in fundraising. Do you have any specific questions or thoughts regarding a career in fundraising that you would like me to cover? For examples more information about the job search process, what it is like to work in a fundraising office, how to interview, anything like that?

As I mentioned in my previous article, The Seven Deadly Sins, I had a great discussion with Sarah Hoddinott from Advanced Solutions International (http://www.advsol.com/) and Shane Davis from Artez Interactive (www.artez.com). They opened my eyes up to a lot of new ideas and thoughts about online fundraising.

We were talking about how fundraising is changing because of online fundraising tools and Sarah mentioned, “We are no longer working with the donor pyramid. When you look at the traditional ways of fundraising peer-to-peer fundraising is almost like the fourth leg of the new fundraising stool.” Traditionally the fundraising stool consisted of annual fund and monthly donors, the major & principal gifts programs, and the foundation and grants programs. This is what we have all known and worked with for a long time. Often times part of these programs sometimes has a specialization for businesses or students/alumni but the principles are the same. The charity uses it’s contacts and fundraising acumen to raise money to support the organization.

With the emergence of new technology and online fundraising we are starting to see a fourth leg to the stool and that is having an avenue for your donors to promote the organization amongst their friends. With peer-to-peer fundraising you are not creating prospecting lists and doing donor acquisition. You are training your strongest supporters in how to fundraise. I made the mistake thinking it would be so great to run a peer-to-peer program to make new contacts that you could send a mailing to. And Sarah and Shane reminded me. The success of peer-to-peer fundraising is that friends are asking friends. If you take that away you lose what makes you successful.