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A CONSUMERS GUIDE TO LOW COST
DONOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
June 2011
Steven Backman, Principal
Technology Solutions for Social Change and
Organizational Growth
• Technology strategy, assessment and planning
• Contact, donor, program and services data systems on the web
• Data migration and integration
• Drupal, Salesforce and .Net web and CRM solutions for effective communications
and advocacy
• Client-centered training and support for new and existing systems
We make technology accessible and affordable for forward-looking nonprofits.
Database Designs | 101 Tremont St, Suite 614 | Boston, MA 02108 | TEL: [phone] | www.dbdes.com
Replacing or Upgrading Your Donor Management System?
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
Authors
Jay Leslie
Andrea Berry
Laura S. Quinn
Chris Bernard
Contributors
Eric Leland, FivePaths
Keith Heller, Heller Consulting
Steve Beshuk, JCA Consulting
Jenny Council, NetCorps
Robert Weiner, Robert L. Weiner Consulting
For more background on the authors and contributors, please see Appendix D.
How Was This Report Funded?
Idealware was responsible for all the research and editorial content of this report, which was created without review
of those who funded it, including NTEN. Funding for this report came from two income streams.
First, NTEN solicited funding from the vendors included in the 2009 version of this report. (Note that all informa-
tion about which vendors agreed to fund this report was kept from Idealware and the report’s authors. None of the
authors knows what vendors were involved in funding, and neither NTEN nor funding vendors had any editorial
input into reviews, summaries or the top 10 list.) While some of these vendors may have received additional NTEN
promotion in return for their funding—for instance, an ad in the NTEN eNews or at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technol-
ogy Conference—none received any consideration of any kind for this report.
Second, consultants and consulting firms who help nonprofits with donor management systems purchased the
visible ads and directory listings in this report. All advertiser payments were made before the report was distributed
for review, and none of the advertisers had any control over the text of this report.
4
PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Considering Donor Management Systems ....................................................................................6
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................7
What Has Changed ...............................................................................................................................8
What Types of Systems Are Available? ............................................................................................9
What Do These Systems Do? ..............................................................................................................11
Recommendations .............................................................................................................................20
The Top 10 .............................................................................................................................................23
Chart of Recommendations ..............................................................................................................24
How to Choose .....................................................................................................................................26
Index of Low Cost Donor Management Systems .....................................................................28
Reviews of the Donor Management Systems .............................................................................40
CiviCRM, by Social Source Foundation ..........................................................................................41
Common Ground CRM, by Convio ..................................................................................................49
DonorPerfect, Online and Installed, by SofterWare, Inc. ...........................................................57
DonorPro, by TowerCare Technologies .........................................................................................65
eTapestry, by Blackbaud ....................................................................................................................73
GiftWorks, by Mission Research .......................................................................................................81
NetSuite Do Good Better Fundraising, by NetSuite.org ............................................................89
Nonprofit Manager, by Trailblazer ..................................................................................................97
Neon, by Z2 Systems ........................................................................................................................104
Total Info by Easy-Ware ....................................................................................................................112
Appendices ..................................................................................................................................... 120
Appendix A: Methodology ................................................................................................................121
Appendix B: How We Evaluated the Systems .............................................................................123
Appendix C: Authors and Contributors ........................................................................................130
Consultant Directory .......................................................................................................................131
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
CONSIDERING DONOR
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
INTRODUCTION
Donors are the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. This report is targeted at small-to-medium-sized
You need them to survive. But how do you manage nonprofits for whom fundraising is a priority. The
all the details about their giving, along with all the systems we cover apply to a wide range of organiza-
personal details that are key to maintaining successful tions, from the smallest just getting started all the way
relationships, without breaking your bank? In this up to those with a staff of three to five fundraisers. If
report, we look at a lot of low cost donor manage- your staff is larger, especially if you’re doing complex
ment systems designed to do exactly that. work in a number of different fundraising areas, you
may well want to look to the more powerful systems
not covered here that cost more than $4,000.
There are so many
The first step in choosing a software tool, of course,
systems that it’s a
is to understand your own needs. We provide a look at
the types of systems available and what they typically
challenge to understand
do to help you get a sense of what you might want to
look for. We then dive in for a closer look at some of
which one is likely to
the systems from the group that we recommend.
be the best fit.
Because nearly all of the systems we reviewed are useful
in at least some situations, we defined a set
of scenarios that cover a number of typical situations
likely to apply to nonprofits and recommended the best
A donor management system is sometimes called a systems, in our opinion, for each. You may find one or
fundraising system or a donor database. At its most more scenarios that coincide with your organization’s
basic level, it’s a system that manages information about own. Once you’ve narrowed down the field that way,
donors and gifts so you can understand how much you can cross reference these recommendations against
you’ve raised, keep track of all the useful information the Index of Low Cost Donor Management Systems.
you know about your donors, manage mailings, emails
and campaigns, and print reports on all this information. Finally, we take a more detailed look at 10 of the
systems that, to our minds, had the best combination
There are a huge number of systems available, ranging of functionality, price and attractiveness in a number
from the basic to those that offer all sorts of additional of situations. We do an apples-to-apples comparison
features and functionality. Costs vary as well—you’ll even of features to help you understand what might work
find systems for very limited budgets. There are so many for you and what makes each system stand apart from
systems, in fact, that the challenge is not so much to find the others.
one that might work but to understand which one is likely
to be the best fit. In this report, we take a look specifically There are a lot of good products in this market space,
at 29 lower-cost systems, which we’ve defined as under and there’s a lot of information about them in this report.
$4,000 to support one user and less than 500 records for Keep your own needs and processes in mind as you read
the first year. This still encompasses a huge number of through it. By the time you’ve finished, you’ll be armed
systems and price points; some were only a few hundred with everything you need to know to start finding the
dollars, while others just met the $4,000 cutoff. Some are right donor management system for your organization.
very full-featured. Others are stripped down and simple.
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
WHAT HAS CHANGED
The donor management landscape has changed since
2009, and we’ve updated the report to reflect those
The donor management
changes—both in terms of systems we reviewed, and
how we reviewed them. We improved our evaluation
landscape has changed
criteria by adding a number of new considerations,
such as mobile access to the systems, access for
since 2009, and we’ve
donors to update recurring payments online, report-
ing dashboards, tracking social media information and
updated the report to
much more.
reflect those changes.
We also included a number of systems that are new or
that gained prominence since our last review, including:
• Click & Pledge, by Click & Pledge
• Donarius, by Nuverb Systems Inc, as its client base
• DonorSnap.com, by DonorSnap
is more than 50 percent churches.
• Donor Tools, by The Small Idea Company
• Donation Director, by Cascade Data Solutions,
• Little Green Light, by The Bicknell Information
as its client base is more than 50 percent
Group
membership organizations.
• NetSuite Do Good Better, by NetSuite.org.
• FUNDimensions Fundraising Software, by
• Nonprofit Manager, by Trailblazer FUNDdimensions, as it has fewer than 100 clients
• PatronManager, by Patron Technology in North America.
• Sumac, by Sumac • Membership and Fundraising, by Linked Software,
as its client base is more than 50 percent member-
ship organizations.
To keep the total number of systems reviewed close
to a manageable 30, we adjusted our price threshold • Orange Leap, as they don’t have any single
from the $4,250 for one user and 500 donors used product which is both under $4,000 and has
in the 2009 report to $4,000. Also, to ensure that more than 100 clients in North America.
we were fair to systems whose focus lies beyond
donor management, we excluded systems that cater Two additional systems included in our last report
primarily to membership organizations, churches or are, as far as we can tell, no longer supported by
synagogues—specifically, systems for whom those any organizations—Metrix, by Fund for the City of
audiences comprise more than half the client base— New York, and Mission Assist, by Donor Strate-
as we can’t do justice in this report to the features of gies—and do not appear in this version. Finally, one
systems geared towards those needs. In practice, this vendor, Straight Forward Software, Inc., chose not to
means we dropped some systems included in the last participate in our research, so its LifeLine Nonprofit
version of this report, including: Management System is not included.
8
PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
WHAT TYPES OF SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE?
As you start to consider your options, think through Tracking Donors Vs. All
the high-level options before delving into the detail
Constituents
of features.
Some of the systems we’ll talk about are built specifi-
cally to track donors, and have little functionality to
Do You Need a Donor
support event attendees, volunteers, members or other
Management System?
constituents. But more and more systems provide
functionality to track all these different kinds of
First off, do you need a donor management system
constituents in one place. This is very useful—it’s
at all? Chances are, you do. If you’re receiving more
ideal to be able to look at one place to see everything
than a handful of individual donations, you’ll quickly
that John Smith has done with your organization. This
run into problems with lesser solutions. For example,
type of system is often called a Constituent Relation-
a tool like Microsoft Excel can’t usefully link pieces
ship Management system, or a CRM. CRM isn’t as
of information together, so as soon as someone gives
much a classification of system as it is a philosophy—
more than once, you have a tracking problem. If you
if you can track all constituent data in one system, that
have 10 donors who have each given between one and
system functions as a CRM for you. But what works
five times, the spreadsheet becomes complicated and
for you might fall short for another organization if
ugly, making it difficult to figure out your total giving
it has a number of important interactions that aren’t
for the year. Add in the fact that two of those donors
supported.
are married, and they should only get one mailing,
and it’s suddenly completely unmanageable.
You might want your donor management system to
also function as a CRM by integrating all your data to
provide a central view, which is certainly a goal worth
If you’re receiving considering. In that case, it’s important to look at all
your organization’s constituents and all the ways they
more than a handful of interact with you; then, evaluate systems based on that
view. It’s unlikely that any system will support all of the
donations, you’ll quickly interactions and constituents of a sizable organization
out of the box, but many systems are configurable
run into problems with enough to let you build in reasonable support.

an Excel spreadsheet. Hosted Vs. Installed Systems
A growing number of donor management systems
are hosted entirely online, and accessible via a Web
browser. In this model, sometimes called Software-
as-a-Service (SaaS), or using an application “in the
A number of donor management systems cost just a
cloud,” you pay a software vendor to provide online
few hundred of dollars or less, so you can likely find
access to the software. The software, and all your
something within your reach. With all the information
data, is stored on the vendor’s servers. You don’t
it will put within reach, you may well be able to bring
have to purchase any hardware, the vendor handles
in a bit more money to cover the cost.
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011
software updates and data backups, and your staff After you pay the license fee, you typically are not com-
can access the system from anywhere there’s an mitted to paying anything else, but most offer service
Internet connection. and the ability to get free updates to the system (such
as new software releases with improved functionality)
This model is quite secure—many banks and hos- for a continuing annual fee. This annual fee, generally
pitals with far greater security needs rely on similar somewhere between 5 percent and 25 percent of the
models. Online systems also frequently have stronger initial cost, is usually called a “maintenance fee.”
support for other online processes, like emailing
donors or integrating with your website. You typically A few of the vendors who provide installed systems
pay a monthly or yearly “rent” for the system, which also offer a version of their software that can be
can range from a few hundred dollars per year on up. accessed online through the use of such remote
access technologies as Windows Terminal Server or
As a more traditional option, some donor manage- Citrix Server. This model essentially transforms a
ment systems are purchased up front and installed system which is traditionally installed into an online
onto your network and your staff’s computers. Many hosted model.
of these systems are based on the Microsoft Windows
operating system, so if your organization uses Macs
Custom-Built Systems
or another OS, you may have a difficult time finding
a compatible installed system. A few of these systems
What about building your own system using Access
require a dedicated server—literally, a computer that
or Filemaker, or some other technology? Fair warn-
does nothing but run the software—if you’ll have
ing—it’s very unlikely such a solution would make
multiple users. Make sure to determine this up front
sense to support donor management needs. Donor
so you can factor that into the cost of the system.
management processes are much studied and well-
With any installed system, you’ll be responsible for
understood, and lots of systems have been built to
software updates and data backups, though some
support them—many of which are very configurable.
vendors will help you with this for free as part of
Building your system means you’ll be the only
their support service.
organization using it; you won’t have any community
to discuss issues with, or anyone to provide training.
You’ll not only need to pay to create the system
It’s not likely to make initially, but to maintain it, and you’ll never get any
upgrades that you don’t pay to build yourself.
sense to build your own
If you have needs or processes that are unique to
donor management your organization, you’re probably better off starting
with an existing system and customizing it, even ex-
system out of Access tensively, if necessary. Existing systems will have basic
functionality—like integrated mail-merging, emailing
or Filemaker. and standard reports—that would take you weeks
or months to build yourself. Look for an extensively
customizable system (there’s a scenario specifically de-
voted to that in our Recommendations section) and
start there. Or, consider that your processes may be
Installed system vendors typically charge a “license”
unnecessarily unique. You may be better off changing
fee to buy the system, which is often based on the
your processes to meet standard best practices that
number of staff members (sometimes called “users,”
existing systems are already designed to support.
“seats” or “licenses”) you’ll have using the system.
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PAGE Low Cost Donor Management Systems • June 2011