By Ero Gray - This is one post in a continuing series aimed at nonprofit organizations with limited access to IT staff. The advice and opinions here will tend to be most useful to small and startup nonprofits, which often need to make IT decisions and accomplish IT tasks despite not having qualified folks to help. It should be assumed that all suggestions here are my attempt to recommend the simplest/easiest/most effective options for most offices. Your office may be quite different (or it may not even be an office). Also, as I'll frequently note, IT staff are necessary for any organization to function for long.
Outside of basic emailing and use of office documents, computers are really all about databases. These can range from a simple spreadsheet, to a financial tracking application, to donor tracking software, to elaborate client processing systems. A database in its simplest form is just a collection of segments of information with a relationship. If you need donors' names to correspond to donations, or you need your clients' history to correspond to the staff member who worked with them, then you're talking about a database.
Financial tracking is obviously pretty important to keeping an organization running. Common options for this are Quickbooks, PeachTree and Fund-EZ. For a great rundown on common financial software, read the TechSoup article here or the Idealware article here. Your accounting staff should be as involved in this decision as your IT staff. Whatever you use, be sure to back it up regularly! (Each product will have its own approach to this-- make sure you understand it!)
One of the most common types of database used by nonprofits is the fundraising, or donor-tracking, package. This tool can be as simple as a spreadsheet or involve a $25,000 software investment. For small nonprofits, simple and useable is always going to trump the bigger packages; more elaborate systems often require ongoing training and customization costs, and key features wind up going unused anyhow. In the past only very expensive products were really practical for nonprofit use, but that is definitely no longer the case. Make sure you consider options at the low end of the price spectrum, like Giftworks and DonorPerfect, before assuming you need something 'better'. It's only better if it's actually better: paying more doesn't make it so.
Some good reading about donor databases can be found online, via TechSoup and Idealware.
In particular, I can't recommend this article highly enough.
Another frequently used and important type of database is the client or constituent tracking system; this is designed to help you serve your clients, and to know whether you're doing so effectively. These are often known by the acronym "CRM" (the R stands for Relationship, and the M for Management- the C can be customer, client or constituent depending upon the audience). Idealware has a number of articles about this: if you're just beginning to plan for this I'd recommend starting here and here, but keep in mind that both of these articles are quite old and many of the products and companies mentioned have changed substantially. Some no longer exist; others (SalesForce for instance) have surged in popularity and potential. This field is changing so continually, and the success of any given database depends so much on your specific needs, that you'll need to do some serious research and evaluation using sales staff and/or consultants.
Keep in mind that working with even small and simple databases tend to involve enormous amounts of pretty tedious work. Using a well-designed database saves you from tedium in the long run, and helps you fundraise better... but beware of assuming database transitions will be quick and easy. Any time you make a substantial change in your data systems, you'll probably be spending some time going through lists of information line by line. The silver lining to this cloud is getting a good chance to review important information about your clients, donors, or systems.
Next week: IT Without IT, Part 11: Security, Malware, Viruses, and Scams
Links to previous posts in this series:
IT Without IT, Part 1: Introduction
IT Without IT, Part 2: Choosing and Acquiring Computers
IT Without IT, Part 3: Operating Systems and Office Software
IT Without IT, Part 4: Antivirus Software
IT Without IT, Part 5: Simple Networking
IT Without IT, Part 6: Email and Websites
IT Without IT, Part 7: Email, continued
IT Without IT, Part 8: Document Sharing and Collaboration
IT Without It, Part 9: Backups
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