The key to nptech and developing software for nonprofits is understanding the problems and needs they have and building solutions. These needs keep evolving with time and to keep up with them, there needs to be constant connection and conversation with those who use your software i.e. your customers. For us, that comes through our customer support channels as well as well as our social media conversations through comments on our blog, Twitter and discussions on our Facebook page. A lot of the conversations we have had with them and the ideas they have shared with us have gone into making the DonorTools software even better.  The feedback we’ve received has helped us constantly innovate and build on the technology. In short:

Our customers help us as we help them.

We recently spread the word on the pledges and recurring donations capabilities we were working on and got some useful feedback from different customers on how it could be handled. Similarly, these ongoing conversations have helped provide us with some great ideas around other areas such as mobile donations and more. Keeping these open channels  of communication and using the ideas you get from customers can apply across all areas of NPTECH and the symbiotic relationship between customer service and customers is a path to better software. So a big “thank you” to all our customers and everyone who have helped us make DonorTools even better!

“Peter Singer is famous for posing a stunningly difficult question, paraphrased as, “If you are walking by a pond and you see a child drowning, do you save her? What if it means ruining a very fancy pair of Italian shoes?” Okay, if we assume the answer is yes, then why not spend the cost of those shoes to save 20 kids who are starving to death across town or the world? There’s really no difference. Or by, extension, invest in research or development that solves a problem forever… The issues are proximity and attention.

My take is that most people would instantly save the kid, but given the choice, probably wouldn’t take the road by the pond again any time soon. We like to avoid these situations, because these situations make us uncomfortable.”   Source: Seth’s Blog

As Seth points out donors fear doing something about a cause because it makes them uncomfortable. This feeling of discomfort is perhaps the biggest hurdle fundraisers are faced with and it stands right between a potential donor and a donation being made. Consciously making the donor comfortable at every step of the donation and fundraising process can make an impact on how many donation opportunities actually convert into a completed donation. Here are just a few ideas which could bring a tiny bit of direction and comfort to donors during the process most would prefer to avoid:

• Have a clear message around the cause which highlights that every contribution is appreciated regardless of how much. It makes it ever so slightly more difficult to avoid donating something.

• Having said that, suggesting amounts can help provide some perspective on following up with an action rather than leaving a donor with another question mark which may have them walk away avoiding it. For example Donate $5, $20, $100, $500 or more can help provide some direction and comfort in the process as compared to not knowing how much to give.

• Connecting donation amounts to the change they can effect often helps provide some comfort. For example mentioning that a donation of $20 can buy X amount of food for the hungry and provide someone with Y meals.

• Equating donation amounts to daily spending items the donor can sacrifice for the cause can also help bring some clarity to the decision making. For example sacrificing $50 afternoon at Starbucks, a $100 hair do or $200 concert tickets could help change …

It’s all about keeping someone’s focus on the cause at hand and prompting for a ‘defined’ action in the form of a donation request. It’s about how to bring even a little bit of comfort to an otherwise uncomfortable situation.

Mashables recent post on the surge in the mobile applications market puts into perspective just how quickly the mobile applications market is exploding:

According to the study, created by Chetan Sharma Consulting, mobile app downloads should jump from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. By this time, the market will be worth 17.5 billion dollars, the study predicts, despite the expected lower price of mobile apps, which should drop from the current average of 2 dollars per app to 1.5 dollars in 2012.

Nonprofit organizations have a lot to gain from being able to operate better in a more mobile environment where they have access to their critical information on the move too. Beth’s Blog by Beth Kanter featured a post on the launch Zoetica’s iPhone application. Understanding the need for those in the nonprofit space to have access to their favorite nonprofit and social change blogs, their iPhone app compiles feeds from these publications which can be read on the move from your iPhone.   On the subject of how nonprofits are quickly tapping into the potential iPhone user base and embracing the iPhone trend Beth says:

I’m seeing more and more nonprofits add iPhone apps (or other mobile apps) to their marketing mix.  For example, just take a look at the explosion of mobile apps for museums.  and especially since the dramatic success of the Red Cross Haiti text fundraising.   But text fundraising is a whole different type of project than delivering content which might make a good “toe in the water with mobile” low-cost experiment.

Software and technology are enabling nonprofits to use mobile technology in important areas such as donor management and fundraising like never before and the iPhone seems to be the mobile channel of choice.  The iPhone interface in the DonorTools software is that enabler when it comes to being able to manage donors, donation or fundraising operations on the move. Off too a meeting with an important donor and don’t know much about them? Need to share reports on the fundraising progress with someone? It’s all good as long as the iPhone is within reach. …and that’s the wonder of this device and how versatile it can be! If the marketing and sales guys of the enterprise world are married to their iPhones and their Blackberry’s looking so inseparable… ..is it so hard to believe we fundraisers and nonprofit guys can find a best friend in an iPhone?

Truth: Most nonprofits don’t have large CRM-like teams to run several queries and use an extensive data analytics engine on the fundraising data. They look for a simple and quick way to get clear reports on their donations, targets, progress and information on donors in an easy-to-understand reporting format and make smart decisions. They need quick, no-nonsense reports that give them clear insights and help make quicker decisions.

Simplicity is good. At least that’s what we believe from experience in fundraising and “keeping it simple yet powerful” was the note written on a post-it and stuck on the PC while DonorTools and it’s reporting capabilities were being developed. While occasionally, few nonprofits may need to really break down their donor management and fundraising  databases to create deeper analytics most users need crisp insights into the important areas such as:

-    Tracking online and offline donations -    Analyzing donations by source -    Tracking funds -    Tracking donations by payment methods -    Setting and measuring progress against a fundraising target -    Comparing donor information

And similar key metrics that help improve the fundraising efforts. By keeping your analytics metrics simple reports and creating them become more accessible across all authorized users of the donor management software. You don’t need to be a professional CRM analyst to generate quick reports when needed. More often than not, the last thing you need for your fundraising intelligence reports is pages of data analytics options, graph generation engines, report creation modules and all that jazz. All the same, on the chance that you do want to create more detailed reporting forms, data can easily be exported into Excel or QuickBooks and extend the reporting capabilities when required.

While one could argue while selecting a donor management software system the more extensive and the more bells and whistles the analytics component has the better it may be, at the end of the day having the right insights is more important having just many insights. Complicating an important area like reporting and analytics is just going to make things more difficult to use and manage instead of simplifying it and making it easier. After all, good decisions are a result of having access to information that brings more clarity to your nonprofit, not complications. Keep it simple…you’ll love the results!

‘Transparency in working’ is a cornerstone of social web and whether it’s companies using social networks, collaboration tools, online communities and more, all these technologies are a step forward in creating an open work environment where customers and others can freely engage with the business  and everyone can observe interactions, communications and processes. Businesses have taken a more social, more accessible, more human persona and as a result , created accountability and trust among those who seek it. Luckily, with the right technologies the same can be applied to Church administration when it comes to extending it’s financials to those who insist on accountability.

Here is an extract of an article by the Crown Financial Ministries that highlights financial accountability in church administration:

The American public generally has high expectations of religious organizations and churches. For the most part, donors and attendees recognize that enormous needs exist that the church is called upon to meet, and they usually want to respond adequately to help the church meet those needs. However, they also want to be assured that the funds they give, many times sacrificially, are being used effectively and that the church is actively involved in ministering in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. So, there can be no acceptable alternative to financial accountability.

The donor management process is precisely one of the areas into which the public seeks some level of transparency and with a web based donor management software like DonorTools restoring faith in those who doubt (pun intended) can be done with a few clicks of the mouse. Our “Audit History” creates a feed of every action within the account. When someone signs in, when changes are made to the data, when donations are made, towards what funds donations are made, when account changes are made and more. This helps develop a constant trail of all the activity of every user and admin within the donor management system which builds transparency and accountability with no extra effort.

The “Funds And Sources” feature is a great way to link donations received to the funds to which they have been allocated to making it simpler to track down a donation or display the progress on certain funds when people need to know what’s happening with them.  The next time someone in the Church asks “what’s going on with the building renovation work we donated towards which was supposed to start last week???” With a few clicks on DonorTools one can share how they’ve only reached 50% of the “building renovation fund” goal that was set and clarify why the work has been delayed. In the era of the social web where lack of accountability and transparency is a thing of the past, Churches and charitable organizations can leverage great web applications where it matters the most and (for lack of a better way to say this) renew people’s faith in more ways than one.

I was just going through some interesting 2008 statistics from a study of 3000 donors across 23 major nonprofits by the Christian Foundation Grants. Although more recent figures should have changed, the research showed:

• 80 percent of those surveyed made donations both online and offline.

• 51 percent of those surveyed said they prefer giving online.

• Only 40 percent of those surveyed said that most charity websites made them feel personally connected to their cause or mission.

• 74 percent of those surveyed said it was appropriate for the charity to send an email reminding them to renew an annual gift.

Like most other areas, nonprofits are also experiencing a rapid change in the way fundraising and donor management is being done as a result of social web trends. Are we running the risk of losing the personal connection between donors and nonprofits as online donations increase and donors prefer giving online? Are nonprofits losing the personal touch that was the foundation of the relationships with donors? Not necessarily. What is required is to adapt those social donor management skills to the social web , build and strengthen bonds with donors online just as one would offline. A recent Mashable post on Twitter Fundraising highlighted the importance of

-recognizing volunteers and donors -keeping contributors in the loop with updates -keeping track of developing relationships.

By building a process of listening to what donors are saying (on social sites) and keeping conversations going with them in the form of replies, re-tweets, direct messages, emails and more, that personal connection can be forged back into fundraising and strengthened like never before. For example, how many donors can one personally meet and converse with offline in a single day? Few….if you compare it to how many you can connect with through the social sites enabled donor database that the Donor Tools software now sports. With the ability to pull up social accounts information on a donor such as their Twitter accounts and Linkedin profiles it’s possible to quickly know your donor and engage in conversation making them feel connected to the nonprofit and it’s work.

With the right tools and the right approach, the changes we are going through with social technologies is not likely to diminish the connections and relationships between donors and nonprofits. If anything….it can strengthen them.

Historically donor management software has told you about things about your donors that have already happened. While your donors’ history is important, it’s also important to know what’s going on in your donors’ lives right now. Social media can help you learn this and many other pieces of information. Social media is here to stay and there are many experts in the field that can help you learn how to best use tools to connect and have meaningful connections to your donors. Some of the highlights of what you can accomplish are:

Be a psychic – know what’s happening now

Ever want to know if your prospect is in a good mood before you call? Maybe they are in a bad mood? With a little bit of knowledge and insight (and a few keystrokes) you can be better prepared when you do communicate with them.

Images and Videos

Want to put a face to the name? Doing some research on the web lets you do this in minutes. Photos from profiles on these social media sites, using image search are paired well with youtube videos to help you get the look and feel of your donors.

Listen

Lots of social media gurus say the first step in doing anything with social media is to listen. There is a ton of content and information available on the web. It takes some time to go through the process of finding these people and seeing what they are saying and what they are doing.

Relationships Matter

Understanding motivations and connecting with people on a personal level can help create stronger relationships with your contacts.

How do you do this?

We recently launched our first step into integrating your donor database with social media with our nonprofit fundraising software. It can help you incorporate all of these fundraising and social media best practices with less work. Here is how we help solve the problem with our first step into social media integration:

• Import Twitter streams for donors
• Search and connect with contacts on the social web
• Import Twitter photos for contacts

We want to know what you think

If you have some ideas about how social media should be used with you donor database let us know in the comments or if you want to suggest a feature we should include in the next version let us know.

Awareness leads to building communities around your organization. Building communities can translate to building support. Building support translates to more donors. Twitter among other social networks and social media sites will be a key destination for fundraising. The site which hosts thousands of nonprofits among other organizations and people has been instrumental in collecting aid for Haiti and other relief for other global disasters. It’s been central to spreading awareness on so many causes and been a platform for so much work to happen that it’s a channel that can’t be left out. We’ve been busy here at Donor Tools working towards Twitter integration which will be core to the donor management process as we see it. With all the buzz and activity from nonprofits on Twitter in the last year or so it just goes to show less can be more and few words can make massive difference.

Interestingly, the statuses simply read vague colors like ‘pink’, ‘white’, champagne gold’ and when you see everyone doing this and have absolutely no  idea what is going on but everyone seems to be in on it the effect is simple…you think….”I want in on it too!!!” So you turn to Google or Yahoo to see what’s going on and find that it’s linked to breast cancer awareness. While this is the point where unfortunately (or not) guys have to drop out of the game women jump on board with the trend and join the bandwagon by updating their own statuses, The end result may look like millions of people playing a silly game online but the effect was millions of people inadvertently becoming  a little more aware about the seriousness of breast cancer. An article published in Dallas Morning News by Darla Atlas highlighted the effect of the trend for Komen Foundation For The Cure Of Breast Cancer whose Facebook page got 134,000 fans on the first day alone.

While this is not the most recent news, it’s still a a fantastic example of what the combination of social software and the work of non-profits and activities like creating awareness for a cause. The campaign which tapped into our curiosity and created awareness is a stroke of genius to say the least. Strangely it’s still not clear exactly who this genius is and where this all started. If only we did.

When it comes to nonprofit organizations and hosted or web based software the partnership just can’t get better. They are just an ideal match! By moving administrative functions and collaboration activity online, nonprofits can really harness the power of volunteers in a way a centralized office environment can not match. Just about any function that’s critical to the working of a nonprofit can be managed online. With social networking tools like Ning and others volunteers can have discussions, share ideas, plan, communicate, collaborate and more. Online document and file sharing ensures that paperwork and administration can be shared and done by volunteers as long as they have access to the web. Specific functions like accounting and donations management has been made simpler using hosted solutions like Paypal and our very own Donor Tools. The possibilities are endless. Whether working with volunteers or full time employees working remotely, managing different administrative functions and running day to day operations becomes a breeze with the right web software tools.

While there are pro’s and cons to both centralized and distributed workforces based on volunteers and there are good arguments that can be made for both, we’ll save that for another time. For now, for those who choose not to be bound by working with excel sheets on the office computer there some really great alternatives to desktop software. Web based alternatives that can not just match what you can do on a desktop  but do it blindfolded with both hands tied behind it’s back, make it look as easy as pie ….and let’s you work from wherever you choose to. Now how can you beat that?