Hopefully you have noticed by now that I am quite well-versed in the world of sport and communications. Now I would like to show you my expertise in another subject: fundraising. My day job is with a 501(c)3 non-profit organization here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The term non-profit is a bit of a misnomer because it suggests that the organization does not exist to make money. It is true that the purpose is more about providing a service that benefits the residents of a particular community (Kenton, 2020). However, the organization still needs to have the appropriate financial resources in order to do so.
That’s where donors come in. The generosity of corporations and individuals alike allow organizations like ours to ensure that we can meet the needs of our population. We want to maintain that connection to the people who have contributed to us, so we keep records using an online database. There are several options available for tracking donor data but for the sake of simplicity, I will tell you about the two systems that I have used: Raiser’s Edge 7 by Blackbaud and Little Green Light (LGL).
The Raiser’s Edge software we used was installed on the network of our computers. It was simple enough to manually input contact information on a constituent and any donation they made. Importing records could be a challenge though, as well as creating exports if we wanted to look at, say, gifts that have been made in the current fiscal year. On the other hand, I can not only import and export records in a matter of minutes on LGL, but I can also track upcoming grants with it as well.
Now I was part of the decision-making process to switch over to LGL, which is why I’m so partial to it. Ultimately, the software that a fundraiser chooses has to fit the capacity of his or her program, both from a functional and economical perspective. In that sense, I would recommend reaching out to other non-profit agencies in your area to get a feel for what software works best for them.
Reference
Kenton, W. (2020, April 29). Nonprofit organization (NPO). Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/non-profitorganization.asp