On the other hand, many organizations (and this by no applies just to nonprofits) will throw money and time at trendy projects without thinking about whether they're the right tools, with the right strategy, investment, support, or marketing behind them.  By all means, try new things.  But do it smartly.  Do your homework, test, learn from others, learn from your own failures, and get better at it over time.  And don't neglect what's already working for you.

The maxim "Fast, cheap, or good--pick two" is true.

You want the technology to be forward-looking but also want to avoid shiny object syndrome.

You want to make a reasonably quick decision but also need to get input and buy-in from stakeholders.

You want to think big but don't want to neglect operational details.

The system needs to be intuitive for fundraisers but streamlined for data entry. 

It needs to be easy to get reports from the database but it also needs to support complex selection criteria.

How can you know what you don't know (e.g., what a new database can do when you only know what your current one does--or doesn't do, what you'll need in the future)?

There are literally hundreds of choices. How do you get down to one?

Have you experienced this "analysis paralysis"?  How have you solved it (or have you)?

What the Customer Wanted

After many days of grief I finally found the answer in Mozilla's bug database: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=583191 (and yes, I got the same error when visiting Mozilla's site).  I first tried the recommended troubleshooting steps without success.  I then tried the following approach, recommended by Matthias Versen.  (I did this with Firefox 3.6 and Windows 7.)

1. Type the phrase about:support as a URL in the Firefox address bar.
2. Click the button next to Profile Directory labeled "Open Containing Folder". That will launch Windows Explorer.
3. Close Firefox.
4. Locate the file cert8.db in the Windows Explorer pane you opened in step 2 and move the file to a different location (like your desktop) or rename it.
5. Start Firefox again.

All I can say is that it worked for me.  Maybe it will help you. 

I agreed, but only to an extent. On one hand, those who decide that technology will be their vocations need to push for roles and titles that reflect what they really do. They're ready to graduate from their apprenticeships. But many accidental techies don't want to become intentional/professional/full-time techies. And some may love the tech part of their jobs, but it will remain a small, incidental (accidental?) part of what they do.

My article is meant for those who want to stop being accidental and move into a technology leadership role.  Here's what I had to say: http://www.nten.org/blog/2011/02/01/going-accidental-techie-technology-leader

The Cloud offers you constituent relationship management (CRM) software that's less expensive, easier to maintain, more accessible, more intuitive, and with greater flexibility and capacity than you've ever seen before.

How much would you pay for such a system?

Would you believe me if I told you...you can get it for free? Yup, free.

When talking about "free" software I think it's important to define the limits of free. There's free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-puppies. Defining business rules, codes, and reports, converting data, configuring screens, and training users on the new system and policies are not simple tasks. I keep hearing of small nonprofits that chose a database because it was "free," became overwhelmed, and dropped it.  Donor databases need care and feeding during implementation and throughout their lifetimes.  This often requires hiring consultants who have experience with these systems free.  "Free" can quickly become expensive.

We’ve been involved with responding to many RFPs over the years and I have a general inquiry that is in your bailiwick. I often see RFPs that are quite lengthy and well-considered, and looking for a system that has huge strategic value to an organization, but the required turn-around time to respond to the RFP is very short – often only 2 or 3 weeks.  I then see software vendors, who are already busy with other prospects, scrambling to pull together responses and often (quite frankly) not able to deliver their best because of the timeframe. Finally, I’m often witness on the client side to the returned RFP information languishing for weeks beyond their own deadlines (and/or this being characteristic of earlier deadlines in designing the RFP). What’s the thought behind requiring quick responses from the vendors? Or do the clients often not understand that vendors are working with multiple other organizations at the same time? It seems to me that if response deadlines were less compressed, vendors could craft a more appropriate response in a less stressful manner and that organizations would get higher quality and value from the responses.

My response:

Hi Keith,

You know the office proverb: "Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." But if you're a vendor it often does.

In most cases I don't think nonprofits understand what they're asking of the vendors. I advise my clients to allow 2 weeks for a simple Request for Proposals and up to 6 weeks for a complex one. At the same time many nonprofits don't understand what's involved in reviewing RFP responses. They haven't thought about how they'll score each one, and may not have set aside staff time (or enough staff time) for the task. So even if the turnaround is driven by real deadlines on the client's side, they're too overwhelmed by the responses to turn them around quickly.

A more cynical possibility is the dark side of RFPs -- the winner was predetermined but the organization was required to get multiple bids. That could explain the unrealistic turnaround time--the organization knows the chosen vendor can meet the timeline (and the RFP may have even been created using a template supplied by that vendor). The delays in getting back to bidders could still be legitimate overwhelmedness. They could also mean that the other bids weren't that important to begin with so there's no rush to respond to those vendors.

What do you think?   If you're with a nonprofit, do you think your RFP deadlines are reasonable and realistic?  If you're with a vendor, how do you cope with these sometimes-artificial emergencies, and with the RFP process in general?  Are you one of the many who simply do not respond to over-the-transom RFPs?

Resources:

My article Finding the Perfect Fundraising Database in an Imperfect World includes a section called "To RFP or not to RFP"

Idealware article: The Perfect Fit: A Guide to Evaluating and Purchasing Major Software Systems

Techsoup article: The RFP Process: An Overview

Techsoup article: Nine Tips for Navigating the RFP Research Phase

What types of software should your nonprofit be using? It's hard to even know even what types exist, let alone what might work for you. Through a friendly, easy-reference format, this book helps you pinpoint the types of software that can help your organization based on your needs and your level of technology savvy, and provides user-friendly summaries to demystify all the possible options.

The 84-page Field Guide includes an overview of 35 different types of software, helping you to understand what each is, how it fits in with your needs, how much you might expect to pay, and some of the most common vendors in the area.

 

Full disclosure: I reviewed an early draft, but haven't seen the final version. It's likely to be a useful guide to nonprofits who are planning to purchase (or request donations) of a lot of software in the near future.

You can get more information and order a copy on their site.

read more

1) I used Laplink to transfer my data, apps, and settings.  I've been using Laplink products for at least 15 years with good results.  This time, not so good.  The big problem turned out to be that I had encrypted my data on my current computer.  Laplink's software didn't warn that this might be a problem, and none of the the technicians I wound up chatting with suggested that it might be.  But after several attempts to transfer my files, and several days of trying to figure out why I couldn't open any of them, I asked whether this could be the problem and the tech said it could be.  Unencrypting the data on the old computer and running the transfer again solved that problem.  (NB: I also tried importing the encryption security keys into the new computer, but that didn't allow me to open the files.)

2) The new computer came with Windows 7.  While I like the Windows 7 interface, I'm finding that lots of software that claims to work with Windows 7 won't install or, or installs but won't run.  So far the list includes ZoneAlarm's firewall and Avast! anti-virus.  I've also had trouble getting Adobe Flash to install.  Currently I can view Flash videos in FireFox but not in Internet Explorer.  I've barely scratched the surface of testing my software and expect many more unpleasant surprises. 

3) No sound.  This seems to be a hardware failure, as I've tried updating the sound card driver, BIOS, and all other recommended troubleshooting steps.  The computer is in the shop now to diagnose (and, I hope, fix) the problem.

Their goal is to raise $15,000. The fund will allow Idealware "to build on (their) base of more than four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of software research to provide the new resources that nonprofits need most, like information about social media tools, mobile text messaging, constituent databases, and more." If you want to support them as well, you can do so on the Research Fund's fundraising page.

(Full disclosure: I have contributed to some of Idealware's reports, and they have even paid me for advice.)