10) Searching for Just the Software for Fundraising? Search No More

Over the past ten years, we’ve tried enough of those customer relation management (CRM) programs for fundraising to break the bank. They’re either ultra-complex, too rigid, or just too lame. We reached the breaking point in July and began reading through hundreds of reviews. We were pleasantly surprised by a platform called Keela. https://www.keela.co/lp—client-referral-promo. Keela speaks our language. Read more to learn why. Manage all your financial partners, transactions, memberships, and communication in one package. Keela does unlimited email blasts. Let us say that again. Unlimited email blasts to all the segments you desire — while handling bounces AND opt-outs. What does this mean? It means we (we meaning the organization Team Expansion, not Brigada, by the way) sent an email blast last month to 9,000 people, tracked all the results, while seeing just 17 people (out of 9000) unsubscribe – and it was a first mailing. (In our case, we are very careful not to overwhelm our friends, by the way.) They’ve got it all – forms, pledges, events, automatica thank-yous, receipts, and more. And what they don’t have, they’re willing to add. This has been the most responsive vendor we’ve ever seen. They take so much joy in writing us back, 4 weeks later, to say they’ve implemented our idea (or fixed a tiny glitch). They LISTEN! You can integrate it with your org email (if you have your own domain) or send emails using the domain they provide! Integrate with Quickbooks, PayPal, MailChimp, and more.

So what’s the downside? Keela is a fairly new product. So they’re still maturing in certain areas. For example, you know those automated sequence (“drip”) email deals? That’s not slated until later this fall. Integration with Quickbooks is there, but that’s the only accounting softare language they speak. (But their importing power is workable — so we’ve hired a progammer to prepare just the right import files from the accounting software we use [Aplos] which will soon allow us to import from the accounting side every night. You could do the same with yours.) Keela is a powerful platform – so it’s not free. If you have 500 contacts or so, you’ll need to budget for $49/month – but that’s unlimited emails, remember. But wow – can you find any email marketing and donor tracking software for less? What’s more, with the link above, grab the entire first year for just $350 total! So for $29/month, you can get up and running. Incredibly affordable for this class of software. How? Because the link above gives you $250 off your first annual subscription! What’s more, you’ll be sending a $250 gift to Brigada. Snap a screenshot or picture of you filling out the form and putting “Team Expansion” in the “Who referred you?” blank and send it to us with a copy of your initial receipt, indicating you’ve paid for your first year, and we’ll send you another $50 as a thank-you via PayPal, which, in effect, gives you almost another two months for free! And you’re STILL doing a good deed for Brigada! : ) [For this to work efficiently, you must have a PayPal address please.] If this keeps up, your org will be money AHEAD for choosing Keela. (Isn’t that the idea anyway? : ) )

Truth in advertising: Keela isn’t perfect. But they listen – and address issues. We love them. And we hope you will too. And the first campaign we tried (those 9000 addresses?) is already up to $60,000 income. That’s the truth. Keela is worth checking out. We’re happy campers. We’re also “one beggar telling another where to find bread.” : )