Donor Management Software Demystified
What can Donor Management Software do for you?
- Track donor information
- Track gift restrictions
- Integrate with other productivity software (Microsoft Word for labels, etc.)
- Allow for easy creation of giving report
- Facilitate the Donor acknowledgement process
- Bring together information from across the organization
Some DMS packages have additional features available as a premium or upgrade
- Event planning modules
- Volunteer management modules
- Integration with accounting integration
High Performance Fundraising
It’s always been important to connect personally with donors. Donor management software can help customize your organization’s outreach to each of your contributors. This extra effort can be an asset when many interests are vying for the same donor dollar.
To aid in your decision, write down strategies and metrics for all segments before starting to shop for a new system.
Communication strategy
- To whom are we communicating (what is our scale)?
- What are our best modes of communication for your constituents? Web, phone, mail, face-to-face
Acquisition strategy
- Mailing lists
- Events
- Have people who walk-in/sign-up
Metrics
What percentage of your targets fall into each of these categories? Knowing these rates will help you make informed decisions on Acquisition and Retention strategies.
- First Time Donor
- Consistent Givers (# of years)
- LYBUNT (gave last year but not this) - this should be 80% or higher
- SYBUNT (gives some years but not this)
- Nevers
What is your scale?
It doesn’t make sense to go through the arduous process of selecting and purchasing donor management software if it is only going to fit your organization for the next year or two. Sometimes the process itself takes that long.
To select appropriate DMS, you want to think about where your organization is going to be in three years. A three-year timeline is typically realistic for organization’s strategic plans and for the expected life of the software.
In three years, where will the organization be in terms of donors and donations?
- less than 100 donors or $150k in donations
- less than 500 donors, or $500k
- less than 1000 donors, or $1M
- more than 1000 donors or $1M
Consider Total Cost of Ownership
In your consideration of a budget for your DMS, you will want to capture all costs. These costs include some basic, up-front costs - such as the actual software purchase. You should also be aware of hidden costs that can double or even triple your projected expense.
Up-front costs
- License
- Additional licenses for multi-user, multi-site
- Hardware upgrades
- Consulting/systems integration
Hidden costs
- Upgrades & maintenance
- Support
- Training
- Data transfer & reliability
- Customization (coding/segmentation, modules, features)
- Data entry/cleaning (labor)
- Backup
- License costs for new users
- Convincing people to make the change
Resources
High Performance Fundraising was presented by Neil Didriksen, principal of Philanthropic Adventures. For more information contact Neil directly, neild@comcast.net
Tech Soup has a bounty of information useful to nonprofits. Here are some relevant links that are relevant to Donor Management Software.
Donor Management Software This article provides a good overview of donor management software
Inexpensive Donor Databases A good DMS doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
Technology for Fundraising Forum Find out what others are saying about Donor Management Software
Software
Three DMS packages covering the range of scale were toured as part of Tech Tuesday. Their presence here is strictly for informational purposes and does not imply an endorsement of the products.
Devolio—A free MS Access donor management database available through NPower Seattle
Giftworks—Inexpensive and intuitive; integrates with Quickbooks and allows for easy label creation and mail merging.
Exceed—A comprehensive, full-featured fundraising software.
Get in touch
Do you have questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you.
email: ccts@ubalt.edu
phone: (410) 837-6741