FundRaiser Blog

I am so glad that spring is finally here! After a long, cold, gray winter, it has been a long time coming!

Having all of the windows open at work really jump-starts my annual spring cleaning. This year, I'm not just going after the dust bunnies - I've also been reorganizing my desk, my calendar, and my databases, and making sure that everything is updated and in tip-top shape for a busy year. Updating my software and contacts always seems to take a back burner to answering the phones, responding to email, sending out invoices, and putting out fires...and I suspect that a lot of our FundRaiser customers are experiencing the same challenges. But it's amazing how much more efficiently I can work with a clean desk, an updated calendar, and the newest fixes for all my different software applications! I've noticed, for example, that I can really walk into the office, sit down, and get started with my day, instead of spending 15 minutes sorting through all the notes and paperwork scattered around my desk. When I log in to our CRM software, I can see all the calls I need to make today right on my homepage, instead of them being buried in page 3, behind all the calls I was supposed to make yesterday or last week. I also updated it to the newest version recently, which took care of a pesky bug that was causing all of my scheduled tasks to appear an hour earlier than they were scheduled for, and gave me several new options for building reports. Updating my browser to the newest version of Firefox also solved some problems I was having with unexplained slowdowns and bad page loads.

Recently, Joshua and I had the opportunity to attend and exhibit at the 2011 National Religious Broadcasting Convention in Nashville, TN. I cannot easily describe how invigorating and inspiring it was to be surrounded by passionate, engaged nonprofit leaders for four whole days! It’s so easy to get so caught up with everyday management details, that I sometimes forget why I got involved in this business in the first place. The convention was a wonderful reminder of how much I love working with nonprofits. I can honestly say that I love my job because I get to work with the most important people in the world.While we were there, we also had the opportunity to meet with some of our clients, many of whom have been with us for a long time. Caleb, Jennifer (in photo at left with Joshua Shirley), and Josh Weiss from CrossTalk Ministries came by to meet us and could not have been more kind! They have been using FundRaiser since 1999, and are a brilliant example of a nonprofit who has really made the best use of donor management software, beginning with FundRaiser Basic and upgrading over the years all the way up to Professional Hosted! You can read the story or how CrossTalk has used FundRaiser to increase their donor base in their case study here. We also met Joe Emert (in photo at right with Joshua Shirley) from Life Radio Ministries, who spent a long time talking with Joshua about some of the ways he uses FundRaiser to manage their events, and to provide us with some thoughtful input for future development. Joe was so kind to share so much of his time with us.

On May 25, a few days after the tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, another set of tornados passed by my house in eastern Missouri. The storms moved north, touching down briefly in a few places. No one was killed, but where tornados touched down, they caused significant damage. One of the places hard hit was Dhammasukha Meditation Center in Annapolis, Missouri. I know the residents there (who are also FundRaiser users) and so I was happy to pack up my chain saw and go help them clean up last weekend.

Dhammasukha Center has two sections of buildings. The upper section was untouched by the tornado, but in the lower section nearly every building was destroyed. The only structures left untouched were the two with people in them, and even these had the shingles stripped from the roof. One of the women was sucked out of her door and thrown onto the porch of the neighboring building. There, she was able to grab a hold of the front door by her fingers and drag herself in. She and another woman hunkered down in a corner and rode the storm out, while trees fell on all sides and the other buildings were destroyed. Although the noise must have been intense, they both said they had the sense of absolute stillness and peace.

On Wednesday (June 1, 2011) FundRaiser sent a carload of volunteers to help with the disaster relief in Joplin, which is just 3 hours from here.  I was one of them.  These are my impressions…

We worked with a crew of about 20 from one of several disaster relief centers (I would estimate that there were about 200 volunteers just at this one, which was coordinated by the Baptist convention).  We were working on the outskirts of the worst of the damage – where there were still houses standing.  The houses might have lost parts of a roof, or had part of the house caved in, siding blown off, windows blown in, etc, but they were habitable and the occupants were there.

Today I was looking through my emails and I noticed that I have quite a few from customers who want me to update their contact information for billing  purposes in our database. I’m happy to do this, of course, but I also wanted to  point out a way that you, as a FundRaiser customer, can control your own contact information.  Accessing this information through our Customer Portal is just for you!

You can log in, set up multiple users, view free training videos, review help technical support help documents and interact with other users and the FundRaiser staff through the Support Forum.  Make sure you contact our Technical Support staff to obtain your username or you can reset your password on your own from the login page.

Recently, Joshua and I had the opportunity to attend and exhibit at the 2011 National Religious Broadcasting Convention in Nashville, TN. I cannot easily describe how invigorating and inspiring it was to be surrounded by passionate, engaged nonprofit leaders for four whole days! It’s so easy to get so caught up with everyday management details, that I sometimes forget why I got involved in this business in the first place. The convention was a wonderful reminder of how much I love working with nonprofits. I can honestly say that I love my job because I get to work with the most important people in the world.While we were there, we also had the opportunity to meet with some of our clients, many of whom have been with us for a long time. Caleb, Jennifer (in photo at left with Joshua Shirley), and Josh Weiss from CrossTalk Ministries came by to meet us and could not have been more kind! They have been using FundRaiser since 1999, and are a brilliant example of a nonprofit who has really made the best use of donor management software, beginning with FundRaiser Basic and upgrading over the years all the way up to Professional Hosted! You can read the story or how CrossTalk has used FundRaiser to increase their donor base in their case study here. We also met Joe Emert (in photo at right with Joshua Shirley) from Life Radio Ministries, who spent a long time talking with Joshua about some of the ways he uses FundRaiser to manage their events, and to provide us with some thoughtful input for future development. Joe was so kind to share so much of his time with us.

Recently, Joshua and I had the opportunity to attend and exhibit at the 2011 National Religious Broadcasting Convention in Nashville, TN. I cannot easily describe how invigorating and inspiring it was to be surrounded by passionate, engaged nonprofit leaders for four whole days! It’s so easy to get so caught up with everyday management details, that I sometimes forget why I got involved in this business in the first place. The convention was a wonderful reminder of how much I love working with nonprofits. I can honestly say that I love my job because I get to work with the most important people in the world.

While we were there, we also had the opportunity to meet with some of our clients, many of whom have been with us for a long time. Caleb, Jennifer (in photo at left with Joshua Shirley), and Josh Weiss from CrossTalk Ministries came by to meet us and could not have been more kind! They have been using FundRaiser since 1999, and are a brilliant example of a nonprofit who has really made the best use of donor management software, beginning with FundRaiser Basic and upgrading over the years all the way up to Professional Hosted! You can read the story or how CrossTalk has used FundRaiser to increase their donor base in their case study here.


We also met Joe Emert (in photo at right with Joshua Shirley) from Life Radio Ministries, who spent a long time talking with Joshua about some of the ways he uses FundRaiser to manage their events, and to provide us with some thoughtful input for future development. Joe was so kind to share so much of his time with us.

It was exciting and rewarding to visit the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention for 2011. Autumn and I met so many people who are continuing to increase their reach on the world and were looking for a way to keep the relationships with their contacts intact. We are happy to announce two new FundRaiser Basic users, Revelation Ministries and Faith Radio. Our new FundRaiser Online user is Focus on Life radio. We hope in the years to come their efforts are maximized and personal.

Okay, so it’s 2011 and I’ve been working with PC’s for nearly 30 years, yet I’ve never before “blogged”. In preparation for launching a Tech/Training Blog for FundRaiser Software, I’ve searched for definitions and examples of blogs, and have discovered that there is no single approach to blogging, nor is there a real standard against which to judge a blog’s merit. Bear with me, please, as this blog develops, and feel free to email me with your suggestions for topics of interest. You can reach me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Okay, so it’s 2011 and I’ve been working with PC’s for nearly 30 years, yet I’ve never before “blogged”. In preparation for launching a Tech/Training Blog for FundRaiser Software, I’ve searched for definitions and examples of blogs, and have discovered that there is no single approach to blogging, nor is there a real standard against which to judge a blog’s merit. Bear with me, please, as this blog develops, and feel free to email me with your suggestions for topics of interest. You can reach me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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You can now view all of the training videos at any time, if you are a FundRaiser user with current support. Just log into the Customer Portal and click on the Training Video tab. There you will see links to:

FundRaiser Online works exactly like the current version of FundRaiser installed on your computer. The difference is that you can run it from anywhere that you have internet access:  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 with the regular version of FundRaiser. Read more...

Until recently, Mariemont School Foundation kept their donation records on Excel spreadsheets and pieces of paper. Encouraged to adopt donor management software by a new development director, they have quickly seen an increase in donations and members.The Foundation was established fifteen years ago and was very slow growing. "Records were kept in notebooks and on Excel spreadsheets. There were multiple Excel sheets. Nothing was ever carried over, so a new sheet was started every time," says Ann Pardue, on the Board to Trustees for the Mariemont School Foundation, and now the main user of FundRaiser. Read more...

Donor relations at Childcare Resources were limited when Pam King started her job there as the new Executive Director. "Letters were sent to the entire mailing list. We had no software, so we weren't able to personalize them or target them to sections of our donor base. Many donors were sporadic givers, giving once every few years, but there was no way to track giving history so it was hard to follow-up in an effective way." Childcare Resources helps lower-income children receive high quality childcare.

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What do schools have in common with theatres and hospitals when it comes to fundraising? The answer is that all of them have a source of potential donors among the people who have benefited from their paid services. When schools focus their donor cultivation on parents, alumni, and the close relatives of students and alumni, they are likely to see a very positive return. Knowing this has led several private schools who are FundRaiser users to succeed at increasing their donations over the last few years.

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If you work best with an 'in person' trainer, need to get up to speed fast, and/or want to work directly with a trainer with your data and fundraising task, onsite training might be the way for you to go. It was for the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home.

Letter appeals are an integral tool to fundraising at US Labor Education in the Americas Project. USLEAP uses them not only to raise money but also to keep donors informed. "We send out four letters a year to repeat donors and an occasional letter to lapsed donors depending on time available," says Rachel Wallis, Development Associate, and a FundRaiser Professional user. The repeat mailings are worthwhile. "Twenty percent of our donors give more than once a year in response," she says. Read more...

At FundRaiser Software, we have a policy of every month having at least one 3-day holiday weekend.  In August, the US has no official holiday for some reason, so we create our own. We used to celebrate the Australian holiday of Picnic Day in August. What a fine tradition!  But, we recently discovered that August is also Happiness Happens month, and we couldn't resist.  So we have combined the old-fashioned fun of Picnic Day with the spontaneity of Happiness Happens Day.  It just doesn't get any better. If you would like to know more about the Happiness Happens movement, visit the website of the Secret Society of Happy People, www.sohp.com .  So our FundRaiser users can join us in celebrating happiness, we're offering a free copy of Don't Even Think of Raining on My Parade: Adventures of the Secret Society of Happy People for any FundRaiser purchase of over $200. Whether you need to upgrade, update, renew support, purchase a module or add additional users, we'll be thrilled to hear from you! Call us at: 800-880-3454 ext. 3

Just today I received an email wondering if it is possible to create custom labels in FundRaiser. The organization is member-based and they wanted to be able to make their own name tags with particular information from the database displayed.

Here was my response, and it may be helpful for you, too: