Often when we talk to organizations we hear different things about their software and its usage in their organization. What people say might be different depending on their role in the organization, one thing is consistent. While details matter – we could talk all day about the details of things like tags or integration with Quickbooks, the most important thing is that your organization actually uses your software.
Here is what we think will make you actually use the software:
1) Work from anywhere!
You should have an online donor management system that allows all of the staff, volunteers and others that need to access it. This means that it can be gotten to from anywhere in the world on many different devices. I recently was looking up notes on a constituent with my iPhone on our database in Donor Tools before walking into a lunch with them. Since Donor Tools is a web based and online I could do this. As a bonus, you can have unlimited users, and they can all be on the system at the same time, at no extra cost.
2) Be easy!
Keep it simple, stupid! To make sure your staff adopt the product, make sure that they don’t feel the need to read books about the product before using it. Make it simple and they will actually enter data and notes without feeling weighed down by a user-unfriendly beast.
3) Play nice with others!
Communication is the key to making the world a better place, and this goes for your software too! Make sure your software talks with things like your accounting software, social media, email campaigns, direct mail, website and anything else you can think of. One of the best things about Donor Tools is that it is a Donor Management system that has an open API. This means it talks with other pieces of software and it can do a lot of custom stuff!
Remember, the only thing better than great software is great software that you can actually use!
