Many groups devise ways of keeping track of their donors using Access or Excel. See this article for eight ways to know when it’s time to invest in an off-the-shelf fundraising software program: How to know if you've outgrown a program like Microsoft^® Access or Excel.

Other organizations may be trying to maintain their donor relations with QuickBooks^®. See this article to understand the limitations of accounting software when used to replace donor management software: What Are the Limits of QuickBooks^® For Your Donor Management.

Fundraising software (more properly called "donor management software") helps you keep track of your donors and prospective donors and all the information associated with them, including contribution data. It helps you manage your donors by dealing with routine correspondence chores, and helps you manage your fundraising activities with a variety of reports.

Developing relationships with your donors is central to all fundraising efforts. Regular contacts that convey the importance of your mission through stories that touch your donors hearts or incite their passion keep the donations coming in. It takes a human to truly connect with another, but good software simplifies the mechanics of the process so that you can focus on what you do best.

 

Most organizations find that using a donor management program increases donations and reduces costs, while reducing stress and frustration. Here's how:

• Organized data maintenance: all donor information (name, address, phone, etc) and giving history, plus notes about a person is in one place, which is easily accessed. In addition, you keep track of which mailings the donor has received, what events she attended, why he gives to your organization, and lots more. Pretty much any data you can think of gathering, you can and should keep in this program.
• Increase your level of fundraising with less time and aggravation: Whether it's simply automating the printing of thank you letters, tracking the effectiveness of 4 different variations of a mailing, or implementing a new membership program, donor management software will make it possible.
• Increase your productivity: Reports that track each fundraising activity (appeals letter, newsletter, event, etc) and show you just what works and what doesn't will impress your Board of Directors, and give you the information you need to make improvements. Tracking volunteer efforts, board member visitations to major donors, printing lists of donors and phone numbers for a phonathon . . . the ways a donor management program can help are limited only by your imagination!

Any donor management program should be able to help with each of the following:

• record-keeping
• letter-writing
• sorting donors into groups
• reports
• Ideally, there should be a growth path so that you are not stranded at a later date with a program that you have outgrown.

So, now that you know what donor management software can do for you, why should you choose a FundRaiser program?