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.
Find a dead link? Let us know.
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)
Idealware: Consumers Guide to Low-Cost Donor Management Systems (2017)
Idealware: A Few Good Constituent Relationship Management Tools
Idealware: The Landscape of Salesforce for Nonprofits (revised 2018)
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
Weiner, Robert: Donor Database Toolkit (extensive, editable list of donor databases)
CRMs and Fundraising Databases – Strategy and Selection
501 Partners: Data Strategies for Nonprofits: Choosing the Right Technology at the Right Time
Barber, Melissa (NTEN Connect): Case Study: An Accidental Techie #FAIL Story (CRM project gone wrong) (Archived copy, may be slow to load)
Campbell, Peter: 13 Lessons On Building Your Nonprofit Technology Culture
Campbell, Peter and Quinn, Laura: How To Find Data-Exchange-Friendly Software
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
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
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
Weiner, Robert (Idealware): Back Away From That Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn’t a Donor Database
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
Wild Apricot: Membership Database Selection Guide
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
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
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.
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
Cravens, Jayne (Coyote Communications): Tips for Nonprofits Using Email Newsletters (revised 4/10)
DMNews: Essential Guide to E-mail Marketing (Archived copy, may be slow to load)
EveryAction: 2018 Nonprofit Email Deliverability Study
Idealist Consulting: 2017 Mass Email for Salesforce Comparison Report
Idealist Consulting: 2014 Email Service Providers Comparison Report
Idealware: A Few Good Broadcast Email Tools
Idealware: Getting Started with Email Fundraising
Idealware: Building Your Email List
Interactive Advertising Bureau: Marketer & Agency Guide to Email Deliverability
Jennings, Jeanne: (Marketingsherpa): Making Social and Email Work Together
M + R Strategic Services: Do Images Help or Hurt Email Appeals? (Archived copy, may be slow to load)
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.
Stoner, Michael: Creating Effective Email Campaigns
SupportingAdvancement.com’s collection of e-solicitations
Newsletters about online marketing and fundraising
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: 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
Online Privacy
The Direct Marketing Association’s Privacy Policy Guidelines
PolicyTool.net: Online privacy policy generator
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?
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)
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: 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
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
Technology Planning
Benton Foundation: Technology Literacy Benchmarks
Melnikow, Paul: Technology assessment toolkit (Archived copy, may be slow to load)
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
For Consultants
The following are resources for consultants and wanna-be consultants.
Bates, Mary Ellen: Resources for Solopreneurs
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!
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
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
McNamara, Carter: Understanding Consultants and Consulting
Packard Foundation:Working With Consultants
Ross, Bernard and Mukherjee, Sudeshna: 10 Traits of a Great Consultant
Strengthening Nonprofits: Working With Consultants
Wild Woman Consulting: How to hire a fundraising consultant
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)
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