April 2011

New Feature: Ask Idealware

By Chris Bernard, April 28, 2011

This week we're introducing a new feature on the Idealware blog. Ask Idealware is a series of short videos addressing questions often asked of our staff. The video format is a good way for us to answer questions as well as to reveal a bit more about ourselves, the people behind Idealware. In this week's video, our first, Andrea Berry reveals Idealware’s strategy for Facebook: how to reach people, what to share and what works.

Do you have a question for Idealware? Post it in the comments and maybe we'll record a video response.

Get Listed in the 2011 Donor Management Consultant Directory!

By Andrea Berry, April 26, 2011

We are excited to announce that in partnership with NTEN, Idealware is updating our Consumers Guide to Low-Cost Donor Management Systems! We're taking a detailed look at donor management systems and CRMs that cost less than $4250 in the first year. Make sure you’re listed in the included consultant directory so that nonprofits can find you when they’re looking for a partner to help choose and use a system-- don't miss this opportunity to be included.

We'll notify everyone who downloaded the first edition, and all the individuals and organizations on our substantial mailing list and in major nonprofit technology communities about this new update. We'll also work with our partners, like TechSoup, NTEN and the Nonprofit Times, to make sure the report is distributed widely.

The first version of the report, released in March 2009, received terrific feedback, and more than two years later more than 20,000 people have downloaded it. But a lot changes in two years, and we’re in the midst of researching a new version of the Guide. Through feature summaries, recommendations for systems based on particular needs, comparison charts, summaries of about 30 low-cost systems, and detailed reviews of ten of them, we’ll provide unbiased comparative information to help nonprofits narrow down their choices in a fundraising system.

But nonprofits need more than a system! They need consultants, like you, who can help them understand and implement them. To help highlight the consulting firms that can help, the Consumers Guide will have a Consultant Directory, included in the back of the PDF report.

We’d love to include you. To make the directory accessible to all, the price for a directory listing is based on a sliding scale, and start at $45 for small firms. Alternatively, you can make a splash in the directory with a half-page ad, at $1500. Take a look at the options now.

Don't miss the chance to be included in our Consultant Directory. The deadline is May 13th -sign up now to be sure you're listed.

Encouraging Grantmakers to Spread Technology Information

By Laura Quinn, April 25, 2011

ZeroDivide recently released a great report with recommendations to strengthen the quality and quantity of technology-related grantmaking for social impact It's a really interesting look at what 41 funders and 13 technology service providers (including me!) had to say about technology grant-making, including a lot of concerns about how and why to do it.

We've been working with grantmakers for quite a while now -- we've had the privilege to be funded by a number actively support technology education and knowledge sharing, and we've also been working to increase funders' comfort level with providing support in this area (for instance, our free "Raising Your Network's Technology IQ" seminar walks through a number of free and low cost ways to provide technology help to a network of grantees).

There's some great stuff in the ZeroDivide report -- it echoes a number of the things we've been hearing ourselves. For instance,

A lot of funders are investing very little in any kind of technology for grantees
Funders are uncertain of how to move forward to do more -- in many cases, they feel like they don't understand tech enough to invest
Grantmakers are unsure how to strategically invest in and measure technology work
There's a great unmet demand for technology related service providers (like us!)

I'd add, though, one more, important thing that we've found at Idealware: funders don't understand the critical role that they could have in connecting nonprofits to useful resources. The nonprofit sector is very diffuse, but most organizations are funded by some foundation. In turn, the foundation sector is somewhat more connected (through national and state grant making organizations). Thus, if information passed to foundations would generally find its way to nonprofits, we could dramatically increase the amount of information and resources that nonprofits have at their disposal.

Take, for instance, the fact that TechSoup offers software at a steep discount. In our trainings, we find that generally somewhere around a third of the room has not heard of TechSoup. At all. Most foundations, however, are aware of TechSoup – many just haven’t thought about, or aren’t comfortable with, the idea of passing the information on to their grantees.

In fact, most funders, in our experience, don't pass on information to grantees. What’s more, the majority that we've talked to have no ongoing communication beyond grant logistics. They're uncomfortable recommending resources, feel that grantees might consider their recommendation to be an implication that using that resource is a requirement of the grant, and feel it isn't part of their role to support (or interfere in) "operational" things.

These are serious concerns, but in my mind, they allow some tactical challenges to override a huge strategic opportunity to strengthen the nonprofit sector. Something as simple as a monthly eNewsletter from a funder to their grantees could rounds up several resources, reports, or other things that the foundation thinks might be useful. This eNews would take little time, and provide a structure in which funders could easily pass on resources without implying that every grantee should immediately put them to use (the newsletter could even provide assurances that the links are informational only, and there won't be a grantee quiz later).

And if funders are uncomfortable finding or recommending useful resources, there are a number of trusted organizations that could provide a "resource of the month." Perhaps BoardSource, CompassPoint, or other support organizations would be willing to provide such a service -- I'd be really surprised if they weren't. Certainly we at Idealware would love to provide one or multiple links to technology resources a month -- just let us know!

Quantum Facebook Mechanics

By Kyle Andrei, April 18, 2011

There’s a common philosophy in quantum physics, that by observing or measuring a phenomenon, you actually change the outcome. The classic experiment involves placing a cat in a box with a small amount of radioactive material. The box is then closed and sealed, so no one can look at what’s happening inside. At any time, the cat could be either alive or dead, but the moment someone opens the box to find out, it can only be one of those.

In our recent survey over how nonprofits are using Facebook, we asked how organizations measure their success or failure with the tool. The answer: they don’t (mostly).The majority of respondents indicated that they had no quantifiable method for measuring how their Facebook pages were doing. Just like the cat, were these pages alive or dead?

Fortunately, of the people that WERE measuring, a lot of people had some really cool (and cheap) ideas, other than just looking at how many people “like” them.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to know how many fans you have. You can’t really accomplish much on Facebook if no one new looks at what you have to say, it’s just that by comparing your fans from one week to the next, you miss out on a lot of other important stuff. Facebook provides its own app for Page admins, called Facebook Insights, which can tell you how many people view the page each day, how many like it each day, and so on. If you post a lot during the week, but most of your fans view the page on Friday nights or weekends, how can they really participate in the discussion?

Many nonprofits on Facebook rely on it to bring new people to their website, which is usually where your new volunteers would sign up, or people could make donations. Did you know that you can use your web analytics software to track how many people come to your website from Facebook? Strong tools like Google Analytics (which is free), keep track of what pages or links bring viewers to your website, so you can have an actual number instead of a “guesstimate” (I hate that word, absolutely hate it).

Some organizations responded that they ask new constituents how they found them, which can work, but the more robust way is to distribute a survey. Using an online tool like Survey Monkey, you can make a quick little survey for your email list, and find out more than just who found you through Facebook, and do it for free.

Also, if your organization accepts online donations through Causes.com, makers of the popular Facebook App “Causes,” they tell you how much money you’ve raised. Since people usually only access Causes through Facebook, you don’t need them to tell you where your donors are coming from.

In case you needed an extra push to try out one of these methods, our premlinary data suggests that those measuring their Facebook stats a little bit, even just looking at them from time to time, are 73% more likely to be seeing tangible results from Facebook than those who aren’t measuring. So, is your Facebook alive or dead? You won’t know until you open the box.

Sneak Peak of New Facebook Research

By Kyle Andrei, April 13, 2011

This blog is a preview of Idealware's new Nonprofit Facebook research, originally posted on Beth's Blog.

Who’s seeing success with their Facebook page? In February, Idealware distributed a survey (thorough an informal email outreach) to over 500 nonprofit professionals who were using Facebook at their organizations. Well, the data is back, and we thought we’d share some of our most important findings—success!

Well, specifically, how successful people were in attracting new constituents. We asked survey respondents whether or not they felt they had attracted new constituents (donors, members, volunteers, clients, or event attendees) through their Facebook page. And people did indeed see successful results.

The percentage of respondents who said they they’d seen “a few” or “substantial” new constituents of that type, who also said that attracting that type of constituent was important to them.

Nonprofits felt that Facebook was working best for them in attracting event attendees. Given Facebook’s Events app, this information isn’t terribly surprising. It’s a simple matter to create your event on Facebook, distribute it to your fans, and let them distribute the invitation to their friends.

People didn’t see as much success with new donors and volunteers, though. Why is that? Are Facebook relationships too casual to warrant giving time or money to an organization? Or are potential donors or volunteers not on Facebook in the same numbers?

In addition to constituent impact, we also asked respondents about what we call “measured results,” those goals that don’t directly involve constituents, and can be easily quantified. These included website traffic, donations, email list size, and moving people to action (advocacy actions).

The percentage of respondents who said they they’d seen “some” or “substantial” effect that they would attribute to Facebook. The percentage of “Moved People to Take Action” and “Increased Donations” are out of those organization who said those actions were important to them, while “Increased Website Traffic” and “Increased Donation” are based on all respondents.

Respondents reported the most success with using Facebook to direct new people to their websites, with more than 75% saying they’ve seen an increase in web traffic. With free web analytics tools like Google Analytics, tracking who followed your link from your Facebook page is one of the most measurable goals included in this survey. And more than 65% said that they’d had some success with moving people to take some form of action for a cause, like signing petitions or other advocacy actions. Online petitions and other political or advocacy actions are easy to do, demand little time, and are easily spread through Facebook and other social media.Following in suit from the constituent impact, donations saw little success; less than 30% saw success. Surprisingly, respondents didn’t have a huge amount of success with increasing their email lists via Facebook either – only 42% saw results. Maybe people aren’t including links or widgets to allow their fans to sign up, or like one person mentioned, fans may prefer to be contacted through Facebook messages and updates, instead of through email.

We’re continuing to analyze the data, and are conducting a series of interviews to round them out. Stay tuned for more information and a (free!) research report from Idealware in May.

Apps, Unleashed

By Jay Leslie, April 8, 2011

Most of us who are smartphone users are well-versed in the use of apps, but what exactly are they? Is app just hipster-ese for an "application" that runs on cool things like iPhones and Droids? Eh, sorta, but not quite. The word application for me calls to mind feature-bloated, inefficient software that greedily gobbles up the fruits of Moore's Law and leaves users in the pits complaining about the speed of their brand new umpteen core Pentium-driven laptop. I think of apps, on the other hand, as low profile, lightweight programs written with a clear focus. They can either run on their own, e.g. Angry Birds and DocumentsToGo, or serve as pretty wrappers that facilitate access to information and functionality that live largely in the cloud, e.g. Flixter, Seesmic, and Shazam. Popularized on BlackBerries, iPhones and Droids, apps until recently have been creatures tehtered tightly to the smartphone-osphere, but Google seems bent of changing this.

In addition to bookmarks, most visited, and recently closed at the top of their new tabs page, users of Google's Chrome web browser might have noticed a new category labeled apps under which appears icons for Entangled, Pogo, and Web Store. I still don't know what Pogo and Entangled are (I deleted them) but Web Store intrigued me so I clicked it and found a somewhat watered down version of the Android Market. "Hmm, I get it." I thought, " Web Store as rabbit hole into a future where Google's dream of browser-as-operating system has come alive." Mashable states, correctly in my opinion, that many of the Web Store's current offerings are little more than bookmarks, it goes on to say "that [some offerings] really push the boundaries of what we expect from a web app."

Ah, the possibilities. Maybe a Salesforce app that offers an a user experience that lets you completely forget you're working in a web browser? Or an app that lets social workers easily access information at a client's site with a cloud-based case management system, without worrying about whether or not there's a WiFi connection.

The technology exists and is in the wild, so this doesn't have to be just idle speculation about a possible app-driven future. Check out what exists and think about how an app could help your organization and advocate to get it built. Dive in now and see where the rabbit hole might lead.

Six Tips for Navigating the Vendor Demo

By Andrea Berry, April 5, 2011

Here at Idealware we watch a lot of software demos, and I mean a lot (Jay, our senior researcher, has sat through over 30 in just the last few weeks). And with experience comes wisdom, or at least a thorough understanding of the demo formula.

First, cue the power point about the vendor’s commitment to the nonprofit field and an overview of their perspective. Only after that (often way too long) slide show do we get to jump into the demonstration. Remember, standard demos most often highlight the tools strengths while trying to breeze through weaknesses.
This formula makes sense, I mean the vendor is making a SALES pitch. The problem is you don’t want a sales pitch, you want the nitty gritty details of what the tool does well and where is it lacking.

So how in the world can you cut through the marketing lingo and get to what you really want to know? Here are some tips from a team who does this all the time:

Skip the power point. The power point is most often a marketing pitch about the vendor, why they are the best and why their tool is the only one for you. This is all great information, but let me tell you, they are all pretty similar. What you really need to spend your time on is seeing the tool in action- don’t spend more than 10% of your time watching a slide show.
Come with a list of questions that you ask to each vendor, including a list of features that you want to look at. This will give you the ability to compare apples to apples and ensure that you see everything that you need to see, not just what the vendor wants you to see.
Ask your questions one at a time. If you ask two or three important questions at one time a good demo-er will cherry pick the question that shines the best light on the system and may not ever get to the others. Asking one question at a time will ensure that you get all the answers you need.
Ask the demo-er to run through a series of real life processes to see how things will actually work. For example, if looking at donor management systems, ask the vendor to show you the process for entering a gift, creating a new donor, creating a mailing list and generating a report (or other processes that are important for your org).
Don’t get distracted by the bells and whistles. Remember that no matter the number of fancy or fun features, the system still needs to do what you need it to do!
Stick to your budget. Make sure to get quotes on exactly how much it will cost you to get the system up and running. Know the start up costs and how much the ongoing costs will be. And don’t forget support and upgrade costs! Often the sticker price is just a starting point.

An informed consumer is the best consumer! Do your research and due diligence. Ask the vendor to give you a list of other organizations who are using the tool so you can do some reference checks (a good tip here is to ask for a list of a specific type of organization similar to your own so you can avoid getting the vendor’s go to reference and instead actually access general users). And make sure to know more than the name of the system going into the demo (shameless pitch alert) by reading about how the tools you are looking at compare in one of Idealware’s articles or reports.

Okay, now go and have fun! Grab your coffee, something to take notes with and demo away!

New Month, New Article!

By Kyle Andrei, April 1, 2011

It’s a new month, and we have a new article! We’re really proud of this one. Be sure to read A Few Good Donation Assurance Tools.

We’re betting you’ve never even heard of Donation Assurance software, but every fundraiser dreams of an easy way to meet their goals. Here’s an excerpt:

“Do people pledge money to your organization, but not follow-up with donations? Are some repeat donors difficult to contact? Does your staff spend more time on cold-calls and funding drives than on your organization’s mission?”

Read more to find the best tool to help you reap the benefits of Donation Assurance.