Idealware recently released its  Fundraising, Communications and Outreach. Unlike their earlier guides (to inexpensive donor databases, content management systems, online donation tools, etc.) this one is an actual book (84 pages, paperback) and costs actual money ($19.95, plus, I assume, shipping and maybe tax). They describe it as follows:

What types of software should your nonprofit [...]

Tags: Databases, Donor Databases, IT Management, Nonprofit Technology, Software

San Francisco’s Fundraising Day will be happening June 16 at the downtown Marriott.  Once again I have the honor of co-chairing the Technology Track with Michael Stein. We’ve programmed sessions on online fundraising with Madeline Stanionis, social media with Jeff Patrick, database selection with Eric Leland, and an open discussion session with me and [...]

Tags: Donor Databases, Email Marketing, Fundraising, Online Fundraising, Social Media, Web 2.0

My friends at Idealware have created a new fund to support their research.  Many of Idealware’s reports have been funded by foundations and some have had corporate sponsorship. As you probably know, neither foundation nor corporate support is a reliable funding source these days. In addition, since Idealware must maintain its independence in order to [...]

Tags: Donor Databases, Fundraising, IT Management, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Technology, Online Fundraising, Social Media, Web 2.0

The Nonprofit Times recently published an article called Is It Donor Management Software Or Business Intelligence.  It discusses what Laura Quinn calls the "movement from merely tracking data to an emphasis on using it strategically to make business decisions."  This vision of donor management software is nothing new.  I’ve heard countless organizations describe their donor [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Donor Databases, Fundraising

The good folks at Asipration have taken my list of donor databases and put it into the Social Source Commons wiki.  What’s more, they added descriptions, logos, and links to the vendors’ sites.  Very cool!  You can go directly to the list at http://socialsourcecommons.org/toolbox/show/1661 or preview it below:
 

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Tags: Donor Databases, Fundraising

The good folks at Aspiration have been working to put my list of donor databases into a wiki.  Along the way the identified some that seem to have disappeared and weren’t on my earlier list of defunct donor databases.  Here are the new entries:
Association Management System from Micro Solutions
Donation Management System from Cumulus 9
DonorAccess from [...]

Tags: Donor Databases

Idealware just published a new article of mine, on a subject that comes up whenever I teach workshops for small nonprofits: "Why not use Excel as my donor database?"
The article, Back Away from that Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn’t a Donor Database is available now, and offers some good reasons to move your donor data to [...]

Tags: Donor Databases

Our friends at Idealware and NTEN have released their Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems. The guide presents detailed comparisons of 33 donor databases that cost less than $4,250 in the first year. It includes a high-level overview of common features, comparisons and summaries of the systems they reviewed, recommendations for which systems [...]

Tags: Donor Databases

Idealware just published an article by Keith Heller called Do You Need New Donor Management Software?

Keith urges nonprofits to look before they leap into new software, cautioning that “new software may not make anything better — in fact, it could make things worse.” He then addresses what new software could do for your organization, [...]

Tags: Databases, Donor Databases, Fundraising

The flip side to my list of donor databases would be a list of systems that no longer exist. This does not mean that these systems are no longer in use, just that they’re no longer being sold or supported (I recently met someone who still uses FundMaster, which hasn’t been sold since at [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Donor Databases, Fundraising