A Few Thoughts on the NTEN Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems

Jay Love — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:06:00 GMT

The new NTEN guide is one of the most complete and certainly most up to date such reports to be released in the last year. I have seen, help create, edited and refuted more of these types of guides/comparisons over the last 25 years in the NPO world than I can even recount here. In fact, I was thoroughly chastised in one back in the 80's for suggesting one of the parameters should be the ability to view the screens in color. (Are you old enough to recall all of green on green computer terminals? Color was an unthinkable luxury that I thought might hit the big time in the future.) The author thought that was downright preposterous...

First, I will outline a few thoughts from my viewpoint. I loved the opening paragraph:

    "Donors are the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations.
    You need them to survive. But how do you manage all
    the information about their giving along with all the
    personal details that are key to maintaining successful
    relationships, all for a price that won’t break your
    bank?"

That has sort of been a mantra of mine for the last 25 years. It is great to see such importance being pointed out early. This report provides excellent background from some of the best experts in the country. In fact, the background information and explanation may be more vital than the report’s function matrix. You see, such background information does not become outdated in 30-60 days like the matrix will due to new releases. The SaaS or web based products are often updated monthly or quarterly. You can bet the vendors will scramble quickly to make sure any apparent deficiencies are corrected ASAP. Here is a link to the report so you can follow along with some of my thoughts.

Some of the key background areas I would like to point out are:

Do you need a donor management system section - this contains an outstanding look at why spreadsheets can quickly fail!
Tracking donors vs. all constituents - CRM is actually defined and explained...
Hosted vs. installed vs. custom – good explanation as well as warnings vs. benefits
What do these systems do – Should be required reading for an NPO executive director. In virtually every case where a system is deemed not working, I have found the executive director usually has no idea what all the system can and should do. Could you imagine a major league baseball coach who had never really played baseball?
Within the "what do these systems do" section – pay particular attention to "payment and web site integration," there are major differences to be found in that key area. Yes, on-line donations, email sign-ups, and event registrations via the web site will keep growing rapidly!
Support and training – Universally every vendor will say they are good> The best way to check is to use a trial version and try to set up a few basic via the help of the support. Especially try instant messaging support since it is immediate, provides a written record of the chain of communication and allows the support person to assist multiple people at the same time! (It is the future of support and will end long on-hold wait times, voice mail and return calls when you are not there!)
How to choose – This is always a slippery slope. Keep in mind it has been my experience in implementing 20,000+ such systems over the years that the average NPO uses roughly 25% of the total functionality available. Therefore, it is sort of scary then to be analyzing the other 75% in some cases. Focus in on what the users will be doing and using 80-90% of the time. Those items must be intuitive, easy and yet very functional.

The matrix area is next in the report and certainly points out many fine functions that such systems can do. Please allow me to offer a question or two to ponder. How many of you have either an iPod or iPhone? It is hard to imagine parts of our life without those for many of us. What if Apple had used the matrix for CD players as a guide to planning and building the iPod? What if Apple used a cell phone matrix as a guide to planning and building the iPhone? (note the history sections in both links). My key point is such matrixes do not encourage or reward innovation and ease of use breakthroughs. They actually punish them. Can you imagine how early automobiles would have fared in a horse and buggy matrix?

In the early days of eTapestry such reports and product comparisons had no idea of where to place our product.

I fondly recall discussing where and how this new web based product would and could be placed. It was only after much lobbying that certain new areas were used such as accessible via a smart phone or web based training or defining whether having every single customer on the same exact version of software has any merit. (By the way, if you have ever taken support calls you will vote for the exact version of the product being a top rated matrix item!)

The end of the report provides a brief synopsis of each of the products outlined within the matrix section of the report. It also adroitly leads you to explore the companion report to this one. True marketing at its best...

By the way, if you are in to such product comparisons the latest issue of AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy has a full section on fundraising technology following the article "Are We There Yet?" Unfortunately there is not a link to the actual article..., maybe next year. In addition, if you would like to see what they think is important down under in Australia try here.

Are there any thoughts from the rest of you? Am I on target or off base with these thoughts? Please let me know with a quick email to jay.love@etapestry.com. I will try to share some of the viewpoints in future blog posts.

The Jay Love Blog : CRM

A Few Thoughts on the NTEN Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems