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Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting
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You are here: Home / Resources

Resources

Fundraising Technology Resources

Below are links to articles and resources about donor databases, email marketing, online fundraising,development operations, spam avoidance, technology planning, and related issues.

Know a good fundraising technology resource we’ve missed? Contact Us.

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CRMs & Fundraising Databases – Vendors | CRMs & Fundraising Databases – Selection | CRMs & Fundraising Databases – Implementation | CRMs & Fundraising Databases – Management | Development Operations| Email Marketing | Newsletters | Online Fundraising | Online Privacy | Social Media | Spam | Technology Planning | For Consultants | Hiring Consultants |Other Resources


CRMs and Fundraising Databases – Vendors

Association of Fundraising Professionals: Advancing Philanthropy Fundraising Technology Roundup May/June 2012 Note: Each listing spans two pages

Heller Consulting: The New World of Donor Management Apps for Nonprofits (comparison of Salesforce-based systems)

TechImpact/Idealware: A Consumers Guide to Low-Cost Fundraising Systems (2020 Edition)

Idealware: A Few Good Constituent Relationship Management Tools

Idealware: The Landscape of Salesforce for Nonprofits (revised 2018)

Idealware: A Guide to Synagogue Management Systems

IT For Charities: Fundraising Databases for UK Charities

Lyric Systems: List of Fundraising Databases

Mills-Groninger, Tim (NonProfit Times): The Soft(ware) Side of Fundraising Effectiveness (includes a vendor listing) (Archived copy, may be slow to load.)

Stein, Michael (NonProfit Times): The Changing Landscape Of The Donor Management System Market

TechSoup: A Guide to Some of the Leading CRM Systems for Small + Medium Nonprofits

Weiner, Robert: Donor Database Toolkit (extensive, editable list of donor databases)

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CRMs and Fundraising Databases – Strategy and Selection

Barber, Melissa (NTEN Connect): Case Study: An Accidental Techie #FAIL Story (CRM project gone wrong) (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

Blizard, Rob (Animal Sheltering Magazine): All about that (data)base (How to refine or replace your donor tracking system without getting lost in the data)

Campbell, Peter: 13 Lessons On Building Your Nonprofit Technology Culture

Campbell, Peter (Idealware): The Perfect Fit: A Guide to Evaluating and Purchasing Major Software Systems (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

Campbell, Peter and Quinn, Laura: How To Find Data-Exchange-Friendly Software

Cooperstock, Dan (Cooperstock Software): Why not to create a do-it-yourself donation tracking and receipting system?

Finch, Janna: Three ways to evaluate nonprofit technology

Finch, Janna: How to determine nonprofit software costs

EveryAction: The Ultimate Nonprofit CRM Shopping Guide

Exponent Partners: Nonproit Technology Adoption – Why It Matters and How to Be Successful

FivePaths: Choosing a Donor Management System – Six Critical Steps For Making The Right Choice

Grantsmanship Center: A User’s Guide to Selecting Fundraising Software

Grow, Pamela: It’s the Data, Stupid! Why Your Organization’s Database is Your Most Important Development Tool

Heller, Keith (Idealware): Do You Need New Donor Management Software? (archived copy)

Hinck, Emily (NTEN): 10 Questions You Need to Ask When Considering a New CRM

Idealware: The Truth About Hosted Software Packages

Idealware: 10 Things To Consider in a CRM (archived copy)

Idealware: How To Track Everyone Who’s Anyone To You: Is A Single Database Right for Your Org? (archived copy)

Idealware: Will All Your Constituents Fit Into One System? An Idealware Workbook

Idealware and TechSoup: Do You Need a New Donor Management System? A step-by-step decision-making workbook

Leland, Eric (Grassroots Fundraising Journal): Mind Your Own Business (When the software business is your business too)

Mills-Groninger, Tim (NonProfit Times): The Soft(ware) Side of Fundraising Effectiveness (Archived copy, may be slow to load.)

Mills-Groninger, Tim (NonProfit Times): Build, Buy, or Rent? (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

Murrain, Michelle (Idealware): The True Costs of Free and Low-Cost Software

NonProfit Times: 6 Tips For A Successful Software Demo (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

NPower: Selecting Donor Management Software

Petulla , Maria (Grassroots Fundraising Journal): Making Order Out of Chaos: How a Good Fundraising Database Can Help You Raise More Money (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

Quinn, Laura (Idealware): There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Software Package

Quinn, Laura (Grassroots Fundraising Journal): Software to Support Your Fundraising

Sage Software: A Nonprofit’s Guide to Purchasing Fundraising Software

S. H. Cowell Foundation: Making Wise Decisions (an in-depth database selection workbook)

Shalev, Isaac: Nonprofits, Stop Rushing Into Salesforce!

Shalev, Isaac: Thinking About A New CRM? Read This First!

Software for Good: How to write a great RFP [Spoiler: Don’t]

The Databank: How to Choose a Nonprofit CRM in Six Steps

Wallbeoff, Maureen: Don’t Crowdsource Software Selection (aka Oscar’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Software Selection Process)

Weiner, Robert (Idealware): Back Away From That Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn’t a Donor Database

Weiner, Robert (Grassroots Fundraising Journal): Finding the Perfect Fundraising Database in an Imperfect World

Weiner, Robert (Idealware): Ten Common Mistakes in Selecting Donor Databases (And How to Avoid Them) (revised Feb. 2012)

Weiner, Robert (Nonprofit Quarterly): Looking for Databases in All the Right Places

Weiner, Robert (AFP eWire): Choosing a Donor Database

Weiner, Robert (NTEN Forecast): Why Building Your Own Database Should Be Your Last Resort

Weiner, Robert (CASE Handbook of Institutional Advancement): Buying and Implementing a Development System

Wild Apricot: Membership Database Selection Guide

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CRMs and Fundraising Databases – Implementation

Bibbo, Laura: 7 Things to Think About Before You Implement a Fundraising System

Carr, Samantha (NTEN): The Unavoidable Decisions You Will Face with Donor Data Migration

Cathexis Partners: How to Prepare for a CRM System Implementation for Your Nonprofit

Jervis, Lisa: 3 key aspects of CRM success and how to cultivate them

Kronzak, Tracy: Project Success, Implementation Failure

Kronzak, Tracy: Why CRM Implementations Fail and How to Avoid It

Lang, Bethany: Moving in to your new nonprofit CRM

Reiss, Norman: Why Staff Aren’t Using Your New Database

Saxten, Susie: Top Things to Consider Before Converting Your Nonprofit’s Data into a New System

Weiner, Robert (CASE Currents): Recipe for a Successful Conversion

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CRMs and Fundraising Databases – Management

Connors, Bill (Advancing Philanthropy): Being Good to Your Database

Haguewood, Jeffrey: Five Nonprofit Database Software Challenges and How to Fix Them

Heller, Keith: An Organized Donor Database: The Key to Successful Integrated Marketing

Kronzak, Tracy: So You’ve Hired a CRM Administrator…

Pustejovsky, Mary: Top Qualities in a Great CRM Administrator

Salesforce: Achieving outstanding CRM administration

Weiner, Robert: What to Do When Technology Isn’t Your Problem

Weiner, Robert: Should You Delete Donor Records?

Weiner, Robert: Discussion of Donor Data Retention

Weiner, Robert: Reigning in Shadow Databases

Weiner, Robert: Training on Your New Database

Weiner, Robert: Maybe It’s Not Your Database, It’s You

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Development Operations/Development Services/Advancement Services

Association of Advancement Services Professionals

FUNDSVCS.org : A listserve for Development Services professionals, where a variety of back-office issues are discussed. Typical topics include IRS regulations, records management, policies, and systems. It also offers a file sharing area for exchanging manuals, policies, forms, etc.

Nonprofit Law Blog: Top Five Fundraising Legal Tips

Nonprofit Law Blog: Six More Fundraising Legal Tips

R I Arlington Information on Advancement Services, systems, job postings, and survey results.

SupportingAdvancement : Links to a wide variety of Development Operations resources, including a collection of job descriptions.

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Email Marketing and Fundraising

Algeri, Catherine (Fundraising Success): E-mail Appends: The Good, the Bad and the Realistic

Bronto Mail: Email Marketing Whitepapers

Business 2 Community: 19 Boring But Effective Email Deliverability Best Practices

Campaign Monitor: Articles and Tips on Email Marketing

Care2: The New Rules for Email Deliverability

EveryAction: 2018 Nonprofit Email Deliverability Study

Mathieu, Blaine (iMedia Connection): 3 steps to superior email snippets

MarketingProfs: Top 100 words NOT to use in your subject lines

Mathias, Devin, University of Michigan: Before you hit send… Guidelines for using email effectively.

Stanionis, Madeline: The Mercifully Brief Real World Guide to Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email

Stoner, Michael: Creating Effective Email Campaigns

SupportingAdvancement.com’s collection of e-solicitations

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Newsletters about online marketing and fundraising

Marketing Profs

Gerry McGovern: New Thinking

OnPhilanthropy

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Online Fundraising

Affinity Resources: Comparison of Online Donation Services

Affinity Resources: The Donation Process – A Four Step Process for Online Donations by Credit Card

Ahern, Tom: Deciding What Goes Into Your Donor Newsletter

Allen, Mira and Quinn, Laura (Nonprofit Times): e-Commerce: Donation Processing & CRM (good overview of online fundraising — archived copy)

Blackbaud: Online Gift Donor Profile

Blackbaud: Internet Assessment Survey Responses

Blue Avocado: Comparing Cheap and Free “Donate Now” Button Services

Care2: ROI Calculator for Social Network Campaigns

Christ, Rick and Fignar, Heather (AFP eWire): Shattering Online Fundraising Myths

Convio: The Wired Wealthy: Using the Internet to Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors

DonorDigital: Beyond Best Practices: What seven organizations learned about converting more donors on their web donation forms

DonorDigital: Boost online response by optimizing your donation landing pages

EmailStatCenter: Collection of statistics and research on nonprofit online fundraising

Gaffny, Tom: E is for Engagement (145 case studies)

George Washington University Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet: The Political Consultants’ Online Fundraising Primer (Archived copy. may be slow to load)

Howard, Don and Weber, Ken: Seeing the Internet’s (Not So) Obvious Benefits

Kindful: Mobile Fundraising – A Beginner’s Guide

M + R Strategic Services: Online Fundraising and Advocacy Benchmarks Study (free registration required)

MobileActive: Texting for Charitable Dollars: The Definitive Guide (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

National Association of State Charity Officials: Charleston Principles for online solicitations

Network for Good: The Online Fundraiser’s Checklist 2.0

Network for Good: Online Fundraising Guides and Templates

NonProfit Hub: 7 Online Donation Tools to Delight Your Donors

NonProfit Times: Online payment systems

Stoner, Michael: Web/Internet Strategy Must-Reads for Decisionmakers

Sumac Software: Weighing Your Options for Processing Donations Online

Ward, Amy Sample (NetSquared): Online Fundraising, Lessons Learned

Weiner, Robert: Online Donations Checklist

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Online Privacy

The Direct Marketing Association’s Privacy Policy Guidelines

PolicyTool.net: Online privacy policy generator

AB 68, California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 (requires a posted privacy policy on web sites that collect personally identifiable information from California residents)

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Social Media

Andresen, Katya: What are nonprofits doing with social media? Six interesting stats

Askanase, Debra: Listening Posts: The Six Free Listening Tools You Cannot Do Without

Askanase, Debra: Pinterest board of social media policies

Association of Fundraising Processionals: Social Media Guidelines

The Bamboo Project: Using Facebook in Your Nonprofit

Barry, Frank (Blackbaud): Nonprofit Social Media Primer

Blackbaud: Making Event Participants More Successful with Social Media Tools

Boudreaux, Chris: Database of Social Media Governance Policies

Care2: Fundraising on Social Media: Slam Dunk or Snake Oil?

Conway, Marion: Before You Jump in with Two Feet in Social Media – Important Boring Basic Stuff First

Evans, Dan: Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day

Feld, Peter (Ad Age): What Obama Can Teach You About Millennial Marketing

Foundation Center: Nonprofit Social Media Policy: Tips From a Nonprofit Lawyer (video interview)

Georgetown University Center for Social Impact Communication & Ogilvy Public Relations: Dynamics of Cause Engagement

Haydon, John: How The National Wildlife Federation Uses Social Media (interview with Danielle Brigida)

Haydon, John: Twitter Jump Start: The Complete Guide for Small Nonprofits

Idealware: What If Someone Says Something Bad About Me On Social Media?

Idealware: The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook

Idealware: 10 Things You’re Doing Wrong With Social Media

Idealware: The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide

Kanter, Beth: Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Kanter, Beth: The Six Signs That Twitter Isn’t For Your Nonprofit

Kanter, Beth:Social Media Guidelines for Staff

Liu, Kenneth (Law For Change): Legal Risks in Social Media Use by Nonprofits (archived copy)

Martens, Jasper & Smith, Hannah: Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Success

McLellan, Drew: Chief Marketing Officer’s Guide to the Social (Media) Landscape

Miller, Kivi Leroux (Guidestar): Need a Social Media Strategy? Start with These Three-Pronged Approaches

Miller, Kivi Leroux: Template for a Social Media Policy (in MS Word)

Nonprofit Law Blog: Why You Need a Social Media Policy

Notes for Nonprofits: Ten Things a Nonprofit Should Do Before Setting Up Social Media

NP Source: The Best Social Media Marketing Resources For Nonprofits

Odden, Lee (TopRank Blog): Social Media Marketing Checklist

Outspoken Media: Creating Your Social Media Plan

Owyang, Jeremiah: Testing Facebook Pages

Pitman, Mark: How Twitter can transform your fundraising

Pogue, David: Twittering Tips for Beginners

PolicyTool.net: Policy Tool for Social Media (policy generator)

Rowley, Melissa (Mashable): 10 Tips for Successful Twitter Fundraising

Shandlain, Andy: In-House Online (Alumni) Communities: Good Investment?

Sociable Blog: 100 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals

Social Source Commons: Building a Social Media Dashboard with Netvibes

Stelzner, Michael A. (MarketingProfs): The Dark Side of Twitter: What Businesses Need to Know

Wild Apricot: Best Practices for Nonprofits’ Use of Facebook

Wild Apricot: Get Started Right with Your Nonprofit on Twitter

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Spam

Brown, Alexandria: 20 Words That Kill – At Least When It Comes to Spam Filters

The Direct Marketing Association: CAN-SPAM resources

Guidestar: What Nonprofits Need to Know about CAN-SPAM

Nonprofit Navigator: CAN-SPAM Act Could Affect Charities

Nonprofit Navigator: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam: How to Win Friends and Avoid Blacklisting

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Technology Planning

Benton Foundation: Technology Literacy Benchmarks

Melnikow, Paul: Technology assessment toolkit (Archived copy, may be slow to load)

Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York: Disaster Planning, Emergency Preparedness & Business Continuity

Nonprofit Times: Making Technology Work For, Not Against You

NPower: Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leaders: Arts and Culture

NPower: Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leaders: Community Development

NPower: Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leaders: Education Services

NPower: Technology Guide for Nonprofit Leaders: Health and Human Services

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For Consultants

The following are resources for consultants and wanna-be consultants.

Bates, Mary Ellen: Resources for Solopreneurs

Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management: A Self-Assessment Tool for Consultants Who Serve the Nonprofit Community

Bing, Stanley: Why Consultants Generally Suck

Consultant Resources : Resources for nonprofit consultants, from a presentation at NTEN’s 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference.

Goldstein, Hank (AFP): So You Want to Be a Consultant!

McMahon, Susan Dvorak and Viola, Judah J.: Consulting and Evaluation with Nonprofit and Community-Based Organizations

Jordan, Nicole: No.You Can’t Pick My Brain

Knight, Jack: 12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them

McNamara, Carter: Principles of Ethical Consulting

Nonprofit Curmudgeon: Some of my best friends in the nonprofit sector are consultants.

Packard Foundation: Tools for Consultants

Putnam-Walkerly, Kris: So, You Want To Be A Philanthropy Consultant?

Putnam-Walkerly, Kris: Starting A Consulting Business? 15 Things To Do Right Now

Ross, Bernard and Mukherjee, Sudeshna: 10 Traits of a Great Consultant

Rovner, Mark: 5 (Consulting) Mistakes I have Made

Weiner, Robert: On “10 Traits of a Great Consultant“

Weiner, Robert: Advice for New Consultants – Part 1

Weiner, Robert: Advice for New Consultants – Part 2

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Hiring Consultants

The following are resources for organizations that hire consultants.

Idealware: How to Find, Hire, and Collaborate with Technology Consultants

Jordan, Nicole: No.You Can’t Pick My Brain

Lasa Information Services: Choosing And Using Consultants (archived copy)

McNamara, Carter: Understanding Consultants and Consulting

Packard Foundation:Working With Consultants

Ross, Bernard and Mukherjee, Sudeshna: 10 Traits of a Great Consultant

Schachter, Harvey: A Six-Point Checklist for Hiring Consultants, from a review of The Executive’s Guide to Consultants by David Fields

Strengthening Nonprofits: Working With Consultants

Wild Woman Consulting: How to hire a fundraising consultant

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Other Useful Resources

Capaciteria : Links to peer-reviewed capacity resources, including technology, fundraising, legal, accounting, communications, HR, and volunteer management.

Charity Village : An extensive array of nonprofit resources.

Innovation Network’s Assessment and Evaluation Tools

Nonprofit Good Practice Guide : Information on evaluation, advocacy, fundraising, governance, management, technology, and more.

SOFII: The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration : Described as “a comprehensive, easily accessible archive of the best fundraising creativity from around the world.” (free registration required)

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Copyright ©2017 Robert L. Weiner: Nonprofit Fundraising Technology Consulting

  • Home
  • Clients
  • Resources
    • CRMs and Donor Databases – Vendors
    • CRMs and Donor Databases – Selection and Strategy
    • CRMs and Donor Databases – Implementation
    • CRMs and Donor Databases – Management
    • Development Operations/Development Services/Advancement Services
    • Email Marketing
    • Newsletters
    • Online Fundraising
    • Online Privacy
    • Social Media
    • Spam
    • Technology Planning
    • Hiring Consultants
    • For Consultants
    • Other Resources
  • Robert Weiner’s Blog
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Articles by Robert Weiner
    • Presentations by Robert Weiner
    • Services
      • Staffing
      • On-Call Advice
  • Contact