We revisit this from time to time. But an executive director of a non-profit wrote this past week to ask, “As a small mission organization with a very bare bones office in the United States, we need all the help we can get so we can get funds where they are most needed in the nations and places that need the Gospel. One of the areas we really need help is finding a very simple, user friendly Donor Management Software System that would easily interface with our website and enable us to: cultivate our donor base, integrate with social media, send out receipts, create reports etc. …What do you hear from the people on the ground? What recommendations could you give us? I would really value your input.” Let’s don’t let Diane down. Please — what’s your best donor management software? We mentioned CiviCRM, which our office is trying to configure — but honestly, unless your non-profit has a full-time I.T. guy, I wonder if you really want to try this. (We do have a full-time I.T. guy and, honestly, we’re still not fully up and running with it.) We also recommended the Rock RMS…
You can get RockRMS hosted. See some sample partners here..
https://www.rockrms.com/Rock/Book/3
There’s Blackbaud, eTapestry, DonorPerfect, and many others. Which is the best for a small non-profit? Your thoughts? (Please click “Comment” immediately following the web version of this item.)
I’d recommend you check out:
https://www.tntware.com/
Donorwise by tntware is their donation management system. It’s free and good. We use it in our small organization.
TNTConnect (used to be TNTMPD) is designed for individuals to track their own donors. It’s also free
Donorhub is their new cloud service to let individuals raising support to connect with the organizations records. This is a fee service (currently $65 per month plus a dollar per fund) and is new but we’re looking to roll this out too.
The best I have found is Donor Manager 6 available for FREE download at http://www.donormanager.com.
We are using CiviCm.We use it for contact management and donor records. I did have to write a short script to convert the data from our headquarters monthly giving csv to a format that CiviCRM could import. But now it is working smoothly.
One nice thing is that it can handle your outgoing mass email and manage unsubscribes and email bounces automatically.
It takes a little to get your head around the system. Set up is a little challenging because there are SO MANY options. The main challenge is know what NOT to use. But we can host it on our own server and I like that.
PLUS it is FREE!
Additionally, there are companies who will host, configure, and maintain your CiviCRM instance if the technical side is a sticky point for you. That service makes it not free, but you aren’t paying a per seat license for the underlying software.
Look into LittleGreenLight.com
We’ve used them for several years with good results.
testing this comment software
Note that the page at http://www.donormanager.com/features/similar-programs gives several options:
TntConnect
TntConnect is another program in the same genre as the Donor Manager. It runs on Windows and on a Mac. This excellent program is provided by TntWare software. This flexible program has excellent support and is full featured. Very, very nice.
http://www.tntware.com
People Raising Tracking Program
Bill Dillon is the author of the book People Raising and his website has a lot of excellent resources featuring his People Raising materials.
He also has a series of customized Excel worksheets to support the People Raising approach. There are samples and screen shots available at his site.
http://www.peopleraising.com
Donor Elf
Donor Elf is a web based ministry funds tracking program that is available on a subscription basis.
Very clean looking and easy to use, it integrates into the financial system of a number of mission organizations and automatically imports contributions information. It has a lot of charts and graphs and makes it very easy to get a “picture” of what is happening in your ministry accounts.
In addition, the author has written a series of excellent articles with great tips and suggestions for better newsletter and support letter writing.
http://www.donorelf.com
Karani
Karani is cloud based webapp for helping you track the key relationships with your ministry partners.
Karani is designed to make it easy to track your finances, add or import gifts and pledges, and track the interactions you have with your supporters (calls, asks, letters, thank yous, meetings, etc.)
Learn more about Karaini at http://www.karaniapp.com.
MPDx
MPDx is a web based program that helps you track your ministry partners, their contributions, and your interactions with them.
In addition to the browser based version, there are also apps available for iOS and Android.
Developed within CRU, it is available to all organizations free of charge.
Learn more about MPDx at https://www.gcx.org/mpdxhelp/. You can set up a free account or login here: https://mpdx.org
Support Goal
SupportGoal is a web based program to help you keep your ministry to your supporting partners on track. It works on a laptop or a tablet or a phone and makes quick work of keeping notes, tracking internations, and developing growing relationships.
Learm more at http://supportgoal.com
I would suggest you try DonorSnap.com.
We’ve found eTapestry by BlackBaud to be expensive, clunky and not the easiest system to figure out with volunteer staff, even though those volunteers are exec PAs and capable teacher/managers.
We signed up thinking it was free for small orgs, found they’d changed that, and you’re bound by yearly contracts so must plan your exit in advance.