Technology for Nonprofits

Today, technological advances have made it easier than ever before to record information about an organization’s donors and keep in touch with them. Building and maintaining a comprehensive donor database is essential for fundraising and passing on information to donors, but an organization must make big choices along the way, including choosing the right software and deciding whether to hire an outside developer or have a staff person do the work.

Two of the most common database platforms, used by both nonprofits and for-profit companies, are Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro, but many others are available, often geared specifically to the needs of nonprofits, including FoxPro, eTapestry, ForFUND/NP Accounting, Exceed!, and ebasePro (which offers free downloads of the single-user version at their site). In recent years, Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge system has become increasingly popular with many large organizations due to its wide range of capabilities. No one system is right for every organization, so before you begin the selection process, you should sit down and figure out everything that you will need the database to do (making a careful list, with input from everyone who'll be using the system), and then research your options to find the one with the features that are best for your organization.

Once you've settled on a system, you must decide whether to bring in an outside developer to adapt it to your needs or turn the work over to a staff person within your organization. A staffer will be more familiar with the needs of your organization, but unless he or she has previous experience with database development, the learning curve may mean that you'll lose weeks or even months of valuable time to the development process. An outside developer will be an extra expense but may save you money in the long run by getting the database together more quickly and saving time for your staff. A developer will need a little time to become familiar with your data needs, but the comprehensive plan you drew up before you selected your system will provide a quick course to help get him or her up to speed. You should also have a staff person assigned to answer any questions the developer has and to keep tabs on the process, making sure that your instructions are understood and are being followed.

Your database is vitally important, but it's only one of your major technology issues - to be effective at getting your message out and in raising donations, you'll need a website. The site will serve as one of your major interfaces with the public, so you'll want it to look good and include lots of important information about your organization's mission, its projects, contact information, press releases or news coverage, and information about how they can get involved by volunteering or becoming a donor.

First you'll need to secure a domain for your website by visiting a registration site such as Register.com or Go Daddy. You may find that your ideal domain is already registered to another organization with a similar name or acronym. If so, try a few variations, adding in or taking out any articles or prepositions in the name of your organization or doing the same with letters in the acronym. You should be able to find a satisfactory domain that’s available, but it may take a little work.

Again, a major decision will be whether to bring in a consultant or to develop the site internally. Products like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage enable the novice to develop sites that are attractive and complex, but, again, there is a learning curve, and some more complex applications are extremely difficult to develop without proper training. You could send a staffer to a website development course to pick up the necessary skills, but you must balance the benefits of having a staffer develop the site against the time that will be lost on that staffer's other duties. If you decide to hire an outside consultant, be sure to comparison-shop. Different developers will vary greatly in the amount they'll charge, so look for the best deal you can find. But be sure that the person you're hiring has the skills you need - ask to see samples of other sites he or she has designed.

Then you'll sit down with the designer and outline everything you want to include in the site, discussing the overall design, functionality, and which pages should link to which. It's a good idea to set your site up to accept donations online. To do this, you may be able to set up a system through your bank, or you may want to use an existing online service such as the Amazon Honor System or PayPal. You should also try to use the site as a way to collect email addresses from donors so that you can send them programming updates or solicitations later.

If you've brought in a site developer, he or she can help you find the right hosting provider for your site. If you're developing the site internally, you'll want to do some research, contacting several hosts in your area and comparing what they offer and at what price. The first consideration for should be based on your needs - do you need to develop the site with a specific scripting technology (like ColdFusion or PERL), do you need a database or a back end, will you be including online donation capabilities, what are your projected bandwidth requirements (i.e., will it be a high-traffic site), etc. The requirements for the site will drive which provider you choose and which of that provider's plans you sign up for.