What's the difference between FundRaiser Basic and FundRaiser Select?
There's a world of difference between FundRaiser Select and FundRaiser Basic. But, first, if you are an existing FundRaiser Basic user, you will be glad to hear that all your FundRaiser Basic data, including your letters, will convert to FundRaiser Select format in one simple operation that you run yourself. There is no re-keying of data when you stay within the FundRaiser Family.
{slide=1. Unlimited coding:}In Basic, you are limited to two codes per donor and one per gift. In Select, there is no limit to the number of codes per donor, and you have 4 per gift: Motivation (called Source in Basic), Fund, Purpose, and Solicitor.
{/slide}{slide=2. Three Spare Fields:}These are user-defined text, code, date, number, or checkbox fields that you configure as you desire. For example, you can have one for social security number, another for marital status or ethnicity, and a third for a follow-up date.
{/slide}{slide=3. More Donor Fields: :}Anonymous, inactive, mail exclude, send no gift thank you's, send End of Year, public name, report name, formal and informal salutations, gender, employer, dates of birth, birthdays, mobile phone, other phone, donor type, donor solicitor, mergeable text (add a personal note to your next letter), and more.
{/slide}{slide=4. More Gift Fields: }Mode (check, cash, in kind, etc), Motivation (instead of Source), Purpose, Solicitor, two thank you letters (each donation can have two different letters and you can batch-print them all at once), Gift Type (includes "Later" for phonathon pledges), check number, receipt number (including automatic numbering for our Canadian users), date of deposit, batch number, foreign currency, value and description of any benefit given to the donor (for US IRS reporting purposes). And an unlimited notes area.
{/slide}{slide=5. Email System:}This is a complete email management system for sending, receiving, and archiving all your donor emails. Whenever you print letters, you have the option to print and/or email those letters to your donors. Email is sent as one message to one person, with the subject line and message custom mail-merged for each person. Incoming email is automatically sorted; "bounceback" messages are processed (when the donors change their email addresses).
{/slide}{slide=6. Queries (Groupings):}First, you have many more criteria, and much more flexibility, including the ability to have one criteria OR another and NOT a third. Second, you can save your queries (they're called Groupings in Select) for later use. Third, you can delete a Grouping from the Master file (great way to purge old inactive records) and you can assign the same code to everyone in a Grouping.
{/slide}{slide=7. More Reports:}More reports, more options, and the ability to define your own report:
- Donation Summary Report - gives a breakdown of donations by a variety of factors including codes and giving levels.
- Donor Level Report - breaks your donors into user-definable giving levels for any time period.
- New Names} - shows how many new names you have recorded per month over the years
- New Donors} - a new donor is someone who has given for the first time. This report shows how many new donors you have had per month over the years.
- Solicitor Summary - for those who assign donors to board members and other volunteers, especially during a fundraising campaign.
- Correspondence Reports} - for any of the sections that batch-print letters, you can also print a report showing who is to receive which letters.
- User-Definable Report - you pick and choose the fields (columns) you want on the report, and the order in which the report is to be printed.
{/slide}{slide=8. Reminders:}
The Tickles Tab is a multi-purpose reminder system for laying out important tasks and managing deadlines.
- Map out grant application tasks
- Assign tickles to individuals or to all staff members
- Attach tickles to donor records
- Manage tasks with the flexible tickle reports
{/slide}{slide=9. Improved Word Processor:}
You can include graphic images like scanned signatures or logo's. Also, bulleted and numbered paragraphs, fully justified text, and a controllable ruler with tab stops and indents. Plus, you have many new merge functions including some with tables for neat formatting of mini-reports.
{/slide}{/slide}{slide=10. Other New Features:}- Duplicate Checking. Yes, FundRaiser Basic checks for duplicates as you type them in, and so does FundRaiser Select, but Select will also check for (and remove, if desired) duplicates in your list as it exists after the records have been added. This is especially useful after you import a new list.
- Backups that can span multiple disks and are Zip-compatible (can be opened with WinZip)
- Better code management. Change or delete a code and FundRaiser updates all accounts. Merge one code into another. Mark a code as inactive, and it will not appear on your dropdown lists.
- Better Internationalization. Select picks up your preferred date format and your currency symbol from the Windows settings. You can also tell FundRaiser what term to use instead of "State" (we're listening to you, Canada). Telephone and postal code formats can be set to your personal preference. You can even record donations made in foreign currencies and record the converted local currency amount, and be able to merge either or both in your thank you letter or receipt. You can also modify and add to the country addressing standards that come with FundRaiser.
- Automatic Lookup of City and State/Province from the postal code. For addresses outside the US, you will have to make the first entry for each postal code yourself (in order to build a lookup table), but the lookups will be automatic after that.
- Popup yellow "sticky notes" that alert you to important information about your donors.
- Tickler reminder system. These reminders can be tied to a donor and/or a staff member and FundRaiser will alert you (or that staff member) when the reminder is due. Once completed, these notices can be saved as the donor's case history. Reports help you to manage this system.
- Password system. This not only controls who is able to enter the program, it also controls what areas each user can have access to. For example, your assistant might have almost full access to everything, while the receptionist can only do lookups and is not shown any financial data.
- Alternate Addresses This is how you handle multiple addresses for the same person. It might be a date sensitive address, as with Snowbirds (who go south for the winter) and students, or it might be code-related, as with Home/Business or Student/Parent.
- Bulk Mail This is mostly for the USA, but has its uses elsewhere, too. It is used primarily for updating the addresses and ZIP+4 codes, but can be used by anyone who sends their data out to be processed and updated by a service bureau. It also adds tight integration with USPS NCOA (National Change Of Address) processors so that you get the current address of donors who have moved in the past 3 years. It tightly integrates with ZP4, a low-cost CASS-Certification and address verification program from Semaphore Corporation.
These are extra-cost addon's that give you extra functionality that would otherwise be available only in our top end program, FundRaiser Professional
Installed Products Overview
The FundRaiser Family offers both the online and installed products. If you are looking for the speed and security of a locally installed desktop product, read further here for more about FundRaiser Select or Professional. For the remote access and flexibility of an online product see our FundRaiser Online page.
Our desktop software offers users the peace of mind that comes with knowing that sensitive donor data is not being transferred over the internet. Both FundRaiser Select and Professonal "climb the ladder" of capability and sophistication. You can start at the level that is appropriate for you now, and upgrade later as your organization and needs evolve. Upgrading is easy and economical; your data converts from one program to another in a simple and quick operation and 100% of your previous purchase is applied to the cost of the next program.
FundRaiser Professional (interest-free installment plan available) is our flagship program, and the real workhorse of the Family. It contains dozens of powerful, easy-to-build reports, merge functions, and enhanced Grouping criteria. User-defined fields make the sorting and reporting functionality virtually limitless. Professional boasts powerful features not found in any other FundRaiser program.
FundRaiser Select (interest-free installment plan available) features unlimited coding, extensive data fields, powerful Query flexibility, built in reports, a top-notch word processor, and a multi-user option. Select is designed to grow with your organization by offering the flexibility to build upon its features and functionality with a full suite of expansion modules.
FundRaiser Expansion Modules are included in FundRaiser Professional and are available as optional expansions to FundRaiser Select to customize your application.
For more information about installation options, please visit the multi-user options page.
Using any of the FundRaiser programs will help you to grow. By increasing the time you have to devote to direct fundraising, it helps you to increase your contributions. As both you and your organization grow, the decision to step up to the more sophisticated features and techniques of the next FundRaiser programs will be a natural progression.
All our programs are guaranteed... if after giving it a good try, you're not happy with a FundRaiser program, send it back for a full refund. We are dedicated to giving you what you need to make your fundraising work easier and smoother.
If both Select and Professional are more than you need right now, check out our simplest installed program, FundRaiser Basic on the FundRaiser Basic website.
Case Studies
Is FundRaiser donor management software right for you? Will it solve the particular problems facing your organization? The following case studies cover a wide variety of organizations and fundraising activities, and show how many of the features of FundRaiser work in real life situations.
See Also:
- Organizational License
- Hardware and Operating System Requirements
- Multi-User Options
- Interest-Free Installment Plans
- Upgrading Policy
Multi-User Capability ($400 per additional user) This is an addon that lets you have as many people using FundRaiser at the same time on your network. Basic is the perfect solution for the small nonprofit to store all donor and giving information in one location, and easily keep track of all the details.
As a FundRaiser Basic user, you get a 10% discount off the regular purchase price (including any modules you buy at the time). Plus, if your budget requires it, you can pay for it all over time with no interest. All nonprofits automatically qualify - no credit history is even checked.
There is one other optional cost of which you should be aware. That is for Annual Maintenance Plan , which is what we call the service that provides you with unlimited tech support on a toll-free line (US and Canada) and all program updates plus a few other services. When you purchase FundRaiser Select, you receive 90 days of Annual Maintenance Plan to get you started. After that, it is optional. But it is a service that over 80% of our users continue to renew.
FundRaiser Online and FundRaiser Hosted work exactly like the current version of FundRaiser installed on your computer. The difference is that you can run either from anywhere: home, office, library, hotel room…. you name it. You can let board members or other people have access to it, and you can limit what they can do and what they can see in the program, just like the regular version of FundRaiser. 
