Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting

Reigning in shadow databases

Robert — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:32:14 +0000

The following story, posted with permission, was sent to the FUNDSVCS list in response to a question about how to reign in schools and departments at a university that keep their own shadow databases of contacts. The response hit the nail on the head:

We started working on folding shadow databases into (Raiser's Edge, our central database) about 8 years ago. There are still quite a few of them out there, but we are slowly bringing them into the fold!
I have a story that we have used quite often:

A few years ago, we imported a shadow database into Raiser's Edge. The next year, they decided to run their Gala invites out of their old spreadsheet. They sent me the list some time later to add new records and appeal codes to RE. In the process, I discovered that they had mailed to 5 deceased people. The director asked me who these people were, and when I provided the names, she gasped and said that she had attended 3 of the funerals.

We in Advancement Services handle data for a living and understand the importance of updates and keeping the database clean. We get updates and information from multiple sources which can only benefit the departments who use our system. We do NCOA, wealth and deceased screenings. We do phone and email appends. We get Google alerts. We track those who do not wish to be contacted either by mail, phone, email or not at all. All of these things and more help to keep our records up to date and give them better information and more time to fundraise and friendraise.

Michelle Kolak
Assistant Director
Advancement Services
Columbia College Chicago

Lame spam of the day: Magnificent things of your mouth

Robert — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:38:58 +0000

Most of the comments that spammers have been trying to post on my blog these days have been beyond lame: a single word or lines of gibberish. It's sad that this junk gets through on so many sites. That just encourages the spammers.

Today's spam is lame and charming, though it's probably less charming in the original language. I love "Magnificent things of your mouth" and "I cannot wait around to read far more of your teeth."

The site being promoted (through a link) seems to be a Swedish hearing clinic. Here's the text:

Magnificent things of your mouth, gentleman. I use understand your stuff before so you are only extremely outstanding. I enjoy exactly what you’ve acquired the following, certainly like what you are telling and the way in which you actually say the item. You come to it enjoyable and you continue to care for to keep it effective. I cannot wait around to read far more of your teeth. This is really an excellent web page.

Lame spam of the day: disappointed spammer

Robert — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:35:53 +0000

Most of the spam that reaches me comes as emails, but my blog also attracts a fair share of spammy comments. Some are particularly lame (and some are pretty amusing). Here's one of the former, from a spammer I presume is trying to increase the search engine ranking for a site selling shoes. I searched for the first sentence and found over 2 million examples, so it may be working.

The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this 1. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I truly thought youd have some thing interesting to say. All I hear is usually a bunch of whining about something which you could fix when you werent too busy seeking for attention.

Lame spam of the day: Google Doc

Robert — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:27:31 +0000

Please tell me no one would ever click on something like this (I only wish it were true). Plain text, bad English, the document isn't actually attached, and the CLICK HERE link doesn't point to google.com.

Sender: Laila Brenner [brenner.laila@gmail.com]
Subject: Fwd: Attached Document
Text:

I have an important document that i would like to share with you i uploaded it with Google document, CLICK HERE. for immediate access, please sign on with your email Respectfully.

Laila Brenner

Lame spam of the day: Meeting invitation from George Adoo

Robert — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:09:34 +0000

I'm not sure if this one is lame (the subject, text, and double salutation are certainly lame) or clever. This spam arrived in the form of a meeting invitation. My Outlook spam filter (SpamBayes) doesn't seem to look at meeting invitations, and it also slipped past the SpamAssassin filter on my mail server. Consequently I got a notification of an upcoming meeting with the spammer. This thread shows that the problem has been around for a while. Here are the details:

Organizer: johnnymark3000@gmail.com
Subject: Dear:
Meeting details:
more details »

Dear:

Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you I got your contact and choosed you by faith as a Christian,I must not hesitate to confide in you for this legal, truthful and Godly relationship.

I am George Adoo the only son of late Mrs David Adoo, I am 22 years old. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in (Republic of Ghana) ,

my father was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their outings on a business trip to England. My mother died when I was a baby and since then my father took me so special. Before the death of my father in a private hospital here in GHANA he secretly called me on his sick bed side and told me that he has the sum of four million five hundred thousand United State Dollars. USD($4.500,000) and euros 750,000.00 left in fixed / suspense account in a bank here in GHANA ,he used my name as his only son for the next of Kin in depositing of the fund.

my late father Instructed me to seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose such as real estate management, hotel management or any other lucrative business venture.

Dear, I am honourably seeking for your assistance in the following ways: (1) To provide a bank account in which this money would be transferred to. (2) To serve as my guardian and of this fund since I am only 22years. (3) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education.

Note: I am willing to offer you 30% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/ input after the successful transfer of this fund to your nominated bank account. please make sure that you write me very fast for more details.

looking forward to hear from you urgently.

Best regards.
George Adoo

When
Mon Apr 8, 2013 12pm – 1pm Eastern Time
Calendar
johnnymark3000@gmail.com
Who
(Guest list has been hidden at organizer's request)

Going? ¬
Yes -
Maybe -
No ¬more options »

Invitation from Google Calendar

You are receiving this courtesy email because you are an attendee of this event.

To stop receiving future notifications for this event, decline this event. Alternatively you can sign up for a Google account at https://www.google.com/calendar/ and control your notification settings for your entire calendar.

Lame spams of the day: messages from key.com

Robert — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:55:52 +0000

I received seven copies of two versions of this spam. Plain text, no formatting, no logos. This site lists them as malware delivery devices but doesn't elaborate on the threat. Here they are:

Senders:

Georgina_Stevens@key.com
Gavin_Deal@key.com
Ana_Bowers@key.com
Denise_Fish@key.com
Rickie_Roberts@key.com

Version 1

Subject: Please respond - overdue payment
Text:

Please find attached your invoices for the past months. Remit the payment by 02/04/2013 as outlines under our "Payment Terms" agreement.

Thank you for your business,

Sincerely,
Georgina Stevens

This e-mail has been sent from an automated system. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY.

The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify your representative immediately and delete this message from your computer. Thank you.

Attachment: INVOICE_28781731.zip

Version 2:
Subject: Key Secured Message

Text:

You have received a Secured Message from:

Denise_Fish@key.com

The attached file contains the encrypted message that you have received.

To decrypt the message use the following password - nC4WR706

To read the encrypted message, complete the following steps:

- Double-click the encrypted message file attachment to download the file to your computer.
- Select whether to open the file or save it to your hard drive. Opening the file displays the attachment in a new browser window.
- The message is password-protected, enter your password to open it.

This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the addressee and may also be privileged or exempt from
disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the addressee, or have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender
immediately, delete it from your system and do not copy, disclose or otherwise act upon any part of this e-mail or its attachments.

If you have concerns about the validity of this message, please contact the sender directly. For questions about Key's e-mail encryption service, please contact technical support at 888.764.6802.

Attachment: Key_Denise_Fish.Zip
A second version from Rickie Roberts had the attachment Key_Rickie_Roberts.Zip

Lame spam of the day: Fake BBC news stories

Robert — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:54:08 +0000

Like most lame spam, this one lacks any formatting or graphics. The tricky part is that it's masquerading as a news story sent to me by a friend, and those typically lack formatting and graphics. Clues that it's fake: I don't know the sender; the sender shows as Wendy Kauffman but the text says it came from Rich Webb; it went to an account that I only use for newsletters and discussion lists; and hovering over the URLs shows that they don't lead to a BBC site. This site says these are malware delivery vehicles.

Sender: webmasters@bbc.co.uk; on behalf of; Wendy Kauffman [cosponsorma@pacunion.com]
Subject: BBC-Email: Cyprus races to rework savings tax after closing banks till Thursday
Text:
Rich Webb saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it.

** Cyprus races to rework savings tax after closing banks till Thursday **
Cyprus can amend terms to a bailout deal that has sparked huge public anger....
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/news/world-financial-53321772 >

** BBC Daily E-mail **
Choose the news and sport headlines you want - when you want them, all in one daily e-mail
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/email >

** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.

If you do not wish to receive such e-mails in the future or want to know more about the BBC's Email a Friend service, please read our frequently asked questions here

On the value of donor database ratings

Robert — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:10:21 +0000

A colleague forwarded the following email from a vendor and asked how I think a potential buyer should respond. I've redacted the message to anonymize the vendor:

Dear ____,

I thought you might be interested in a recent analysis of low cost fundraising software, conducted jointly by independent organizations Idealware and N-TEN. If you are not familiar with Idealware and N-TEN, they are both well-respected non-profit organizations that focus on helping non-profits enhance their use of technology. They have published numerous reports and whitepapers on technology for nonprofit organizations. Bottom line – (our software) received more “Excellent” ratings than any of the over 33 products reviewed!

(The report they sent is actually from 2011, so I wouldn’t call it “recent” if I were them.)

My response: These reports are definitely useful — if a vendor is rated well they’re worth considering (assuming the rating criteria are appropriate for your needs) and if they’re rated badly they’re probably not. But while nonprofits aren’t like snowflakes, each unique in its own special way, they’re not clones, either. Needs vary tremendously from one organization to the next. Nonprofits need to know what they need and then test systems against those specific needs. In fact, the section of the report that discusses how to go about choosing a system concludes:

Each available option has its own strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t matter how good a particular system is if it doesn’t fit your organization’s needs. Regardless of what we say in this report, it’s critical to take a look for yourself, and make your own decision.

Bottom line: you need to do your homework and be a smart shopper.

Lame spam of the day: Smoking device

Robert — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:17:55 +0000

This is as lame as it gets. Plain text, no graphics, the sender name looks suspicious, the recipient name isn't me, there's no subject, and the text is lame. I ran the link in the "click here" line through some online virus scanners and it seems clean, so maybe they're just trying to sell something. In any case, I hope no one would click on something like this.

Sender: lost.gender@yahoo.com
To: jsales@fulbright.com
Subject: Re:
Text:
Smoking device thats clean. Click here to see.

More nonprofit software mergers and acquisitions

Robert — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:25:56 +0000

Last year the big news in my industry was Blackbaud's acquisition of Convio and the merger/acquisition of Datatel and Sungard Higher Education (now called Ellucian). 2013 is off to a bang with Accel-KKR's acquisition of Sage's Nonprofit Solutions Group and iModules acquisition of Harris Connect.

The Sage staff I've talked to can't comment publicly until the sale is final, which they hope will happen this month. Millennium users, at least, seem excited about the change and the possibility of new investment in the product.

The press release for the iModules deal says Harris Connect “will be supported ... for the foreseeable future.” I've heard that Harris clients are being given a year to decide if they are going to move to iModules. If they do, they'll have to pay conversion fees.