The Jay Love Blog : NTEN

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 You see, such background information does not become outdated in 30-60 days like the matrix will due to new releases.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 Largest Gathering of Technical Folks in the Nonprofit Sector

Jay Love — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Yes, earlier this week I was part of the WiFi/laptop festival known as NTC.

This annual event, usually in the SF Bay area, continues to grow and thrive. They have certainly found their niche with an ever increasing gathering of truly passionate folks focused on the common mission of putting technology to work for the missions of NPO's. This year the event sold out early and truly lived up to the anticipation of seeing packed rooms for every session.

I was often a speaker in the early years of NTC. However, this year I was able to function as a participant, networker and part of the anchor vendor sponsor's ground team. Each of those assignments had certain benefits in making my two days there more worthwhile.

I am going to focus in on the participant aspect with a few observations and perhaps an opinion or two. I am hoping that the opinions bring a few replies that I may share. Please let me know your thoughts by just clicking on jay.love@etapestry.com and shooting me an email.

First, it was neat to see many of the larger sessions being piped out live for people to view via the web. Facilitating such technology is what should be done by such an organization and they more than made it happen. A big :) for all of those involved!

Next, it was quite a site in the large ballroom for the keynote sessions where everyone attended. Literally every seat was taken plus virtually any floor space on the sides and at the far rear of the huge room. Even with advanced planning they ran out of IP addresses for the laptops firmly entrenched on everyone’s legs. I wonder how many real time updates were being posted during the sessions?

I attended several of the sessions, particular the ones focused upon case study results within actual non-profits. In some cases truly revolutionary breakthroughs were showcased reflecting the integration of various technologies. Unfortunately most of the breakthrough examples were not within the budget reach of most charities. Only those with budgets who could withstand six figure outlays or larger with consulting firms were the lucky recipients of such integrations. Hopefully, those can be packaged in some manner so the other 94% of the NPO’s in the sector can utilize. (Most of you know that leveling the playing field in technology for that other 94% has been my mantra for virtually all of my 25 years in the sector.)

A couple of the sessions showcased the use of integrated solutions based upon so called "free or open" solutions such as Salesforce.com or Plone or Vertical Response and various others. As I watched the consulting firms involved talk about how they had assisted in making the integration of these tools happen for mere $15,000 to $30,000 investments, I could not help but wonder if most of the audience had any idea that such integration of CRM/Database tools with web tools/e-commerce pages and powerful email engines are standard offerings for many solutions from vendors like Blackbaud/eTapestry. We even have a new partnership with PayPal that is providing web site creation/hosting plus e-commerce/on-line donations plus CRM/donor database plus mass email functions within a single product that has no upfront or subscription fees for the small non-profit called BlackbaudNow.

More importantly, such solutions from well known vendors carry a few advantages that I just have to post here in my blog. Yes, I know it is a bit self serving, but they are so vital that I must state them or I am not being true to my mantra! Below are a few of the key advantages of dealing with a known vendor for such integrated solutions. They are:

You do not have to bear the development costs, which many times are NOT fixed fees
The solutions are backed by top notch ONGOING support at a reasonable price
The worry of new updates/versions to portion of the applications used breaking the integration and requiring more development costs goes away!
The solutions are upgraded and enhanced annually by the vendor based upon combined suggestions of the end user community
The vendor is obligated to fix any bugs that are found, usually for free
Proper training in a wide variety of formats is provided
Other NPO’s are using the solution and may be part of a user group community
The solution is kept upgraded and thereby functioning on new versions of operating systems, web browsers, MS Office and other backbone related systems
Many vendors scale the solutions and pricing so that the other 94% of market can actually afford to purchase and use on an ongoing basis
Additional add-on functions will be made available over the life of the solution

There you go ten quite important advantages in my opinion. These have been formed from all sides of the issue over the last 25 years. Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

I look forward to next year as the nonprofit world, via the NTEN Conference, will again showcase technology and the people behind the technology making it happen for all of us involved in some manner for charities large and small. Long live the geeks, CTO's, DBA's, CIO's and IT staffs who truly care and support the missions that matter to so many of us!