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April 2012
How do you choose software for your nonprofit? With so many different types of software available, it’s difficult to even know what’s available, let alone what’s best for your organization’s particular needs. That’s why we created the Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits. This handy reference covers all the different types of software that might be useful to you—and we just updated it for 2012.
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February 2012
You want a donor database that will provide clean data, solid reports, and happy staff, but the software itself is only half the story. How do you choose the right system, and how do you maximize its capabilities? Fundraising technology consultant Robert Weiner walks through 10 common mistakes that get in the way of selecting the right database—and using it properly.
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January 2012
What if a percentage of the $150 billion spent annually in online shopping could be donated to nonprofits working to make the world a better place?That’s exactly the promise a growing number of web-based businesses are making—purchase something from an online retailer you find through their site, and they’ll send a percentage to the organization of your choice. Neither users nor their designated charities pay anything—the donations come from participating merchants, who pay the sites a commission for each online purchase referred through them.
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December 2011
An email list is one of the sharpest arrows in any nonprofit’s quiver. An effective list can maximize your reach, help foster closer relationships with constituents and improve fundraising. But what makes a list effective? For one thing, critical mass—the more people you can reach who are genuinely interested in your organization, the better.
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October 2011
(This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Times.) As user demand increases, vendors are adapting their donor management system offerings to support mobile devices and cloud computing, one of several recent market trends that are adding value and capability to the software. They’re also enhancing functionality that’s critical for nonprofits, like integrated email and ease of use, in many cases adding substantial functionality without raising prices.
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October 2011
UPDATED in October 2011! With more than 750 million people signed up for Facebook alone, there’s little doubt that social media can be a powerful part of most organizations’ communications mix. But what can it be used for—outreach and engagement? Event management? Advocacy? How about fundraising? For many nonprofits, it’s far more obvious that such tools can be useful than how to use them.
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Andrea Berry and Chris Bernard,
August 2011
This article was originally published in the August 2011 issue of The NonProfit Times.
Organizations use technology to engage donors, manage them in databases, and even accept their donation payments online. With a little creative thinking you can save staff time on this important step and increase the likelihood that donors will give again.
Such classic techniques as thank-you letters, phone calls, events and special gifts will never go out of style.
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July 2011
What tools can help you raise money and rally support for your cause through an online auction? We take a look at the software tools that are widely used in the nonprofit sector.
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Laura S. Quinn and Kyle Henri Andrei,
July 2011
Accepting payments by credit card is not necessarily difficult or expensive. We provide some tips and tools to process credit card transactions, both on- and offline, for organizations of all sizes.
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Andrea Berry and Stella Hernandez,
July 2011
Enlist your supporters to fundraise for you! A number of online tools make it easy for staff or anyone eager to help your organization to set up individual donation pages to engage friends and family in a fundraiser. We asked six nonprofit technology experts for advice on the tools and best practices they recommend to make this fundraising technique work.
Friend-to-friend fundraising isn’t new.
