FundRaiser Blog

1. People codes vs. Gift codes

The most important code usage tip (in my opinion) is to make certain that the assignment or attribute fits.  In FundRaiser there are codes that attach to name records (what I call "people" codes), and codes that attach to gift records (hence "gift" codes).  For the most effective assignment of codes, think of codes as "unique identifiers" that attach to either a person or a gift.  In other words, does the code have to do with the person, defining that person in some way?  Or does it have to do more with a gift, defining the gift in some way?  An example of people codes are the Category codes in FundRaiser.  Category codes, unlimited in the number that can be created and/or assigned, give us information about people such as life situations (parents, grandparents, students, seniors, occupation, hobbies, interests, relationship to our organization or another, etc.).  Gift codes, on the other hand, tell us about the gift, such as why the gift was given (Motivation code), or how that money is to be spent (Purpose code, for describing restricted/designated use gifts).  Make a list of all the things you need to know about a gift.  Make a separate list of all the things you need/want to know about your people.  Keep the lists handy, and, when in doubt, refer to them when wanting to assign a code.

In honor of   Happiness Happens Month  in August, I asked FundRaiser staff a few questions about how they make happiness happen. My questions were:

Below are our street-tested copings for creating happiness daily. It's not software tech support, but some of the suggestions have carried us, and our customers, through some sticky technical situations. If you are a FundRaiser customer, you know what a strong emphasis we put on offering the best technical support available at any donor database company, and this is one of the key ways we accomplish that. 

As Autumn's blog points out, August is Happiness Happens Month.  According to the dictionary, happiness is a "state of well-being or contentment", although many people would put a specific face on what makes them happy.  To be honest, I've never been too ambitious.  I've never expected a lot from life.  I've never been accused of being an "over-achiever".  Maybe that's part of why I've always considered myself a fairly happy person.  I've gone with the flow, accepting life's ups and downs, and floated merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, through the dream of life.  But I realize most people aren't this way.  And fund raisers, by definition, cannot be content with what they have, but must constantly strive to achieve more for their organizations.  That's where training can bring some measure of happiness, I believe.

For those of you who want contentment and a feeling of well-being when using FundRaiser software (and I suggest that it would increase your overall happiness with your work) then be aware that every hour you spend learning about how to use the software will pay you back in many hours of frustration and/or confusion avoided.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone in class say "I wish I had taken this training long ago.  It would have saved me so much time and aggravation", or some similar statement.  The truth is that no database program worth its salt is going to be totally intuitive to use.  If it has any power, it will require learning the steps to harness the power.  Most folks wouldn't consider just jumping into a plane and trying to take off without any training.  They know the consequences of crashing.  So don't just jump into the driver's seat of your database program (FundRaiser) without first learning some of the controls.  Otherwise you put your most valuable data at risk of crashing and burning.

At the beginning of August, FundRaiser Software celebrates Happiness Happens Day. What's more,  the whole month of August has been declared Happiness Happens Month, a good reminder to tune in to happiness, and spread it around.

Here are a few nice tidbits that I've collected so far:  the Gulf of Mexico is recovering really, really well from the horrific Deepwater Spill (read the article), crime rates have fallen significantly in much of the Western World (read the article), and finally, it  appears that we get happier as we get older - great news! (read the article).

As the training manager here at FundRaiser Software, I can think of at least four ways you can learn how to use your donor management database.  Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each will appeal to a different group of users.  This blog will, hopefully, lead you to the learning path that best suits you, by explaining each briefly, along with major advantages and disadvantages.

When FundRaiser is purchased, training "credits" are issued, and these credits can be used for live training webinars.  Each class is designed to be approximately one hour in length, and each covers a different area of the software.  There are specialty classes for those who have modules in addition to the basic package, too.  Each class costs one credit, no matter how many attend that session, so you can train multiple people at one time for a single fee.  The advantage is having a live trainer readily available to field questions.  The disadvantage is in fitting the pre-scheduled classes into your busy schedule.

As the need for emergency services throughout the USA continues to rise, overall donations to emergency management organizations have fallen. The local United Way of Moscow/Latah County is succeeding at holding its own because of two important factors. The first is their own skill and understanding of their community and its evolving needs, and the second is thanks to their donor management database, FundRaiser Select.

The features Cretia Bunney, executive director at United Way of Moscow/Latah County, uses in FundRaiser are all core features. They are easy to learn. Even with very limited time, any organization can maintain the necessary records. Cretia works at United Way of Moscow/Latah only one day a week, and in that time is able to do this tracking in FundRaiser as well as her other office work.

The Sacred Heart Radio case study includes a reference to a feature in FundRaiser, called Recurring Gifts, and I want to point out to everyone that you don't need the Donor Portal version of the program to take advantage of it.  It is particularly helpful for those with Donor Portal, since it not only allows a donor to set up their own regularly-scheduled donations, including bringing them into FundRaiser, but also allows for special "thank you" letters dependent on whether a payment is accepted, rejected, a card is expired, or about to expire.  But even if you don't have the Donor Portal, recurring gifts can save you a lot of time, if you have one of the following situations:

If, for instance, you have 50 people who give on a monthly basis, regular as clockwork, the same amount each time, you can save a lot of time by entering the donation only once per person (as a Recurring Gift setup) and then have FUndRaiser produce the actual gift entry each time it comes due.  You can offer each of the donors a preference on what day of the month they'd like their gifts processed.  Once a Recurring Gift is established, it's just a matter of running the utility to process Recurring Gifts to have FUndRaiser build the gift records.

Sacred Heart Radio is fortunate in their problem—they need to process lots of online donations. For this reason, Beverly Hill, office and database manager for Sacred Heart Radio, was eager to implement the automatic entry of online donations that is offered through the FundRaiser Donor Portal. Sacred Heart Radio is a national Catholic radio station. They are users of FundRaiser Professional with the Donor Portal for online donations.

“We promote online donations strongly and it is working for us. As a radio station, we have access to the airwaves. We use public service announcements that say ‘visit us online and click donate’,” explains Beverly.

Note from Sasha: I have worked with Robert L. Weiner at the TechSoup forums where we have both been volunteer forum moderators in the database and software section for many years. Come visit us there sometime! Over the years, I've come to respect his depth of knowledge and skill at sharing about best practices for using donor databases. This article by him is one of my favorites. Robert is an independent technological consultant to non-profits and is not affiliated with FundRaiser Software. I'm sharing the article because I believe it is one of the most concisely helpful resources written on the subject of donor database best practices, and that FundRaiser users will benefit from reading it.

After people, data is your most important asset.-- John Kenyon

Most nonprofits dream of the simplest form of fundraising-- an angel who walks in the door and freely offers money. For a few organizations this dream comes true... at a cost. Those organizations are very dependent on one or a few donors. What's more, staff fundraising skills languish.

In an effort to avoid this very situation, the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home began to take proactive steps to move from endowment-only funding to individual donor support. Support from a broad base of individual donors creates a solid base  for organizations. Donor management software helps keep details organized for development aimed at individual donors.“I want to make sure that the Home is here in the future,” says Ward Orem, CEO of LLDL Home. “Up until 5 years ago, we didn’t have an aggressive development program. Our work was supported by an endowment but not a huge one. Whatever modest development efforts we made were scribbled on notes and kept in a binder.”“However, we could see that at the rate at which we were dipping into the endowment, we would eventually spend ourselves out of business. It was sort of a draconian doomsday projection but it was crystal clear we couldn’t keep withdrawing money from the endowment if we were going to sustain ourselves into perpetuity. The economic downturn drove the point home, but we already knew we needed to do things differently.”“As development folk, we recognized that the bulk of support comes from individuals,” says Ward. He knew he needed a solid infrastructure for donor gifts.

Nearly every citizen of the U.S., I believe, would agree that national independence from foreign powers is a good thing, and we celebrate our country's independence from Great Britain every year on July 4th.  But not all forms of independence are necessarily good, I think.  Let me elaborate.  When I was young, I was instilled with the idea that self-independence is a good thing, so far as providing for one's own needs, food, shelter, clothing, etc.  Hard work, I was told, was the key for obtaining that independence.  Looking back, I think that was a bit naive on my parents' part, but it certainly got me out of the house earlier than I might otherwise have left.  Few of us truly want to be independent in all respects, and most of us need some forms of interdependence to thrive and live full lives.  Successful marriage, rearing children, meaningful employment, team sports, all require interdependence to one degree or another.  And learning how to use donor management software as powerful and versatile as FundRaiser products requires a bit of interdependence as well.  So consider that trying to be too independent when learning the ins and outs of FundRaiser is not a good thing, and is probably a bit self-defeating, in that you will take longer to perform the tasks that you need to perform without a proper grounding in the use of the software.  Allow yourself the luxury of interdependence with our staff and other users in order to more quickly and efficiently reach your fundraising goals.  You'll see that, while not a bad thing in itself, striving for independence in all things may be a bit misguided.

It's not really an oxymoron.  There are several avenues for learning FUndRaiser software that allow you to be independent to a great degree:  training videos online; online FAQ's (Frequrently Asked Questions); the Help Contents HOW-TO section; FundClass Archives on our website for learning about fundraising itself.  These avenues of learning allow you to view the information at your leisure, on your timetable, without being dependent on someone elses's scheduling or priorities.  Someone else, of course, expended the effort to create or make available the information on the website, so there is a level of dependence on those folks (mostly our staff here at FundRaiser), but it's kept at arm's length, so to speak, through the media in which it's presented.

Membership initiatives can be a powerful way for your organization to increase donor loyalty and the size of gifts... but what do you actually mean when you say 'membership'? In fact, two very different types of outreach efforts are both called 'memberships' and they are managed in very different ways. Different staff skills are needed for each, as well as different donor database features. Understanding the differences between the two main types of membership will help you create a thriving outreach effort.

In a nutshell, donor management of benefit-driven memberships depends on keeping track of lots of different pieces of data, and following up in a timely manner on those bits of data. It is in fact, very much like accounting. Donor management of recognition-driven memberships relies on the tools that help you build relationships. It relies more on the people-side of development work.

The membership Management Module is available in 3 out of 4 FundRaiser Software levels, excepting only the entry-level FundRaiser Basic.  Which of the others (Spark, Select, or Professional) you choose amy depend on a combination of price and features available.  As the official "Tour Guide" for our online tours of the software, I always recommend starting at the least expensive level that has the features you absolutely must have, and working up from there in the future.  Sasha's recent blog does a great job painting the general picture of what the Membership Module can help you do, but in this installment, I'll explain the three versions that can manage memberships, starting with the least expensive and ending with the most versatile.  For a quick view, you can visit the comparison chart found here.

Key to a thriving membership organization, is giving each member the sense that they are your most important. How can you do that, when members have different reasons for joining and different preferences for how you communicate with them? Your donor database can be your closest ally. With it, you can tune in to what it is that motivates a person to be a member, and record special preferences. That will help you to give each member the sense that you have them specifically in mind when you communicate with them, even as your membership continues to grow.

In a donor database, each donor/member has a record where you can enter information that is specific to that member. These specifics can be as basic as name and contact information, however to truly personalize your communications you need to go well beyond that. By recording information on what is important to a particular member about your organization, you can tailor your messages to speak to those interests. If you know what brought a member to your organization to begin with, what events each person participates in, and what friends, business associates or relatives of a particular member also belong to your organization, you are well on your way to understanding how to best connect with a particular member. 

Here in southern Arizona (location of the FundRaiser training office), they are affectionately called "snowbirds".  They leave their main homes and "fly" south when the weather becomes cold and bitter, and tend to return in the spring, at least until retirement.  When I lived in Florida, vacationing Canadians were given the same nickname.  The populace of the United States is a very mobile one, and keeping up with any one person can be difficult.  FundRaiser Select and Professional have a feature that will help you keep up with your "migratory" donors and prospects, and it's called Alternate Addresses.  If you have FundRaiser Spark, or Basic, you may want to check into moving up to Select or Professional here.

Many folks have permanenet vacation addresses.  Many don't.  For those who don't, try to get email addresses and you'll still be able to reach them no matter where they are.  For those who DO have permanent alternate residences, simply enter them in the Alt Add tab in the Name Details section of their name record.  One thing to note is that there are two (2) different ways to tell FundRaiser which address should be used at any given time.  When you enter an alternate address, you have the option of assigning a code to the address, which can be handy for different "types" of addresses, like work vs. home, or current vs. previous, but you also have the option of assigning a date range to show when the alternate address will be occupied.  This is a much better solution , in my opinion, for vacationers, when you have a good idea what that date range will be.  You might want to store previous addresses, and, when someone moves, you'll be able to "save" the old address as an "inactive" alternate address, too.  You can pull an alternate address into the primary address page just as easily, from the Alt Add tab.

Memorial giving feels good. A donor is able to give to an organization they or a loved one values, and at the same time express a positive connection to someone important to them. Because of the all-around 'feel good' of memorial giving, organizations who successfully promote this kind of donation reap the benefits not only of the gifts, but also the extra good feelings associated with the gifts.

Letting your donors know that they can give to your organization in honor of someone can be very simple and straightforward. Becky Lindberg of First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center and a FundRaiser Select user says, "it is such an easy painless way to keep people connected to your program."

With Memorial Day just around the corner, it's good to know that there are ways to record memorial gifts even if your version of FundRaiser is not equipped with the Tributes Module.  The Tributes Module is a great tool not only for keeping track of memorial gifts, but also for sending the right correspondence to the next of kin of the person being memorialized.  It can also handle creating lists of memorial gifts during a particular time period, which can then be used in newsletters, etc.  But not everyone has FundRaiser Professional (Tribute Module standard), or Select with the optional Tribute Module.  So what can a Spark, or Select, user do without that module?  Or, for that matter, what could you do in Professional without using that module?  These three tips will give you an alternate route to keeping closer track of memorials.

The Motivation code answers the question "Why did this donor give us this gift?".  If it is in memory of someone, whether a relative, friend, veteran, or "all who have served", this code can make it easy to pull out tribute gifts into reports, and easy to pull out groups of people who have given these types of gifts.  If you've already been doing this, then you can target those who have given these types of gifts in the past for a special mailing to encourage them to give in this way once again.  You can have different motivation codes for different types of tributes, if you like, too.  You might have "Family Memorial", or "General Memorial", or "In Honor", or "In Celebration", etc.  It really just depends on how much separation you need in dealing with the different types of gifts.  It's not so easy as the Tribute Module, but it can be done.

In honor of Mother's day, we're running a case study , written in 2010 that shares how FundRaiser is used to create a personal feeling for appeal letters sent out from one central location on behalf of several Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) chapters in Florida.

Fundraising appeals for many MADD Florida chapters are produced and mailed from one central office, but donors won’t be able to tell. With personalization, these letters will look and sound local, addressing the local activities of the closest chapter.

Mother's Day was begun, back in the early 1900's, as a celebration of the person to whom we owe our very existence, but quickly became so commercialized that even the originator of the day became disenfranchised with it.  If we want to truly celebrate our mothers, we can do better than giving flowers or a dinner out, I think, and FundRaiser can be a part of that effort.

FundRaiser recently got an upgrade to the Tributes module, in that there is now an "In Celebration of" tribute type, in addition to the usual "In Honor of", and "In Memory of" tributes.  You might consider an effort to solicit donations "In Celebration of Mother's Day", as an alternative to the gifts, cards, dinners, flowers, etc.  A donation to (your worthy cause here) can be a loving tribute that lasts longer that it takes to read a card, eat a dinner, or for those flowers to wilt.  Using the Tributes Module (optional in Select, standard in Professional) will let you easily track these types of donations, create lists of tribute donors for newsletters, as well as send appropriate correspondence to donors AND to the mothers they are honoring in this way.  If you don't yet have the module, you can learn more about it here.

Recently, the number of unwanted and abused animals Whatcom County Humane Society  (WHS) cares for has risen to over 3,000 a year. In addition,  WHS wants to providing more and better services for all their animals. This means ongoing improvements in fundraising techniques and effectiveness. Improved doesn’t mean complicated, though.

They use simple coding and reporting to track the progress of campaigns. “We are just about to do our Masquerade Gala which is our biggest fundraising event of the year,” says Amy Reidesel of WHS. “In the database, I mark incoming donations with motivation codes. I use a code for: