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 … [Read more...]
Editable List of Donor Databases
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 … [Read more...]
More Defunct Donor Databases
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 … [Read more...]
Back Away from that Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn’t a Donor Database
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 … [Read more...]
Do You Need New Donor Management Software?
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 … [Read more...]
Defunct Donor Databases
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 least … [Read more...]
NTEN Conference Early-Bird Registration Discount
I'm a member of NTEN and a huge fan. I'm thrilled that their 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference will be held at the San Francisco Hilton this year, April 26-28. The Early Bird rate expires after January 31st, so it's time to stop procrastinating. Here's what the NTEN folks have to … [Read more...]
How Many Donor Databases Are There?
I thought it might be useful to compile a list of all of the commercial donor databases I'm aware of. This list came from my head, my bookmarks, and lists compiled by NTEN and Idealware for their donor management software surveys. (Caveat: I'm not certain all of these are actually donor databases). … [Read more...]
Results from Campbell Rinker Donor & Member Database Survey
Marketing research firm Campbell Rinker has published the results of its latest survey of donor and member management software. Of the 841 respondents, 27% would NOT recommend their current systems to a comparable organization, 26% were unsure, and 47% would give a positive … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Managing a Database
"After people, data is your most important asset." -- John Kenyon Left unattended, databases will turn into piles of mush. Therefore, develop data entry policies and procedures, and train everyone who enters data. Excel is not a database, and is one of the leading causes of dirty data. … [Read more...]