I live in Arizona (not Missouri, where our home office is located) and sparks are not normally welcome at this time of year, due to dry conditions and fire hazards that, each year, cost millions of dollars in loss of habitat and homes. So when our CEO, Autumn Shirley, told me about a new product we’re releasing, called “Spark”, with a tag-line of “Start something big”, my first thoughts were of some rather large wildfires that we’ve had here in the West.Well, I came to grips with my regionalized knee-jerk reactions, and took a look at this new arrival, and now I see what all the hoopla is about.
Many FundRaiser users are with organizations that have modest database needs, and a tight budget. That is, after all, why we released FundRaiser Basic (www.fundraiserbasic.com), originally: to have an “entry-level” offering that would help small nonprofits grow to a level that allows them to step up to FundRaiser Select or Professional (www.fundraisersoftware.com) when Basic’s abilities are no longer enough. And it’s that same thinking that prompted us to a modular approach, allowing customers to start with Select, for instance, and add modules for functionality as needed (like Pledge, Membership, and Volunteer management modules).
Over the years, one of the problems we found with that approach was that the cost of even Select was too much more than that of Basic. It was just too big a step for growing organizations to make all at once. And, for some, even Select has more functionality than necessary, like too many codes, too many data fields, too many options, etc.
SPARK is an answer to that situation that won’t be right for ALL current users, of course, as many of you are happy with Basic as it is, others are using Select/Pro already. But for those who need a Membership tracking component, or for those who just need more capacity for information storage, more coding possibilities, more efficient and versatile Word Processing, including email, but not all the capacity of Select or Professional, then Spark might just “Start something big”, at a price that won’t make your organization go down in flames.
Finally, for those of you who need a traveling solution, one that will be accessible no matter where in the world you go, Spark also has an “Online” version. For a small monthly fee, we can host your data on our secure servers, and you can get to your data from anyplace you have internet access. This can be a real plus for small organizations in which EVERYONE is on the go, trying to make it work, getting out and spreading the word about (insert your mission statements here)…
So, if Basic is just too little, but Select seems just a bit much, there’s a new arrival in our FundRaiser Family that might just help you grow without so many growing pains: Spark… start something big. Main Site: www.fundraisersoftware.com Basic: www.fundraiserbasic.com