Fundraising Software
Get the best fundraising software for your organization. Compare product reviews, pricing below. Read our buyer’s guide for more help.
Fundraising Software Buyer’s Guide
For your non-profit organization, donations likely make up a significant portion of your operating budget. If they don’t, they can! The right donor management software can make a big difference in your ability to raise funds to help accomplish your mission. Most organizations will have some type of donor or constituent database. But is it the right system? The right solution will help you raise more money, execute more effective campaigns, cultivate stronger relationships with donors, grow the constituency, and expand your reach. Read on to find out more about your options and how to find the best solution for your organization.
Fundraising and Donor Management Software
Fundraising and donor management software applications allow for tracking the acquisition of donor contributions and for facilitating related communication and data management tasks. Fundraising software applications are a critical IT resource for non-profit organizations which depend on the support of contributors to deliver resources and services.
Important benefits enabled by fundraising software applications include:
- Reduction of the workload associated with fundraising tasks via automation of repetitive tasks such as emailing donation solicitations and managing recurring payments and gifts
- Increased per donor giving rates based on the coordination of optimal follow-up and audience targeted messaging
- Improved rates of secondary contributions from donors based on increased ability to continue communication with contributors
Key Features of Fundraising Software
| Functionality | Definition |
|---|---|
| Donor database | Donor database capabilities provide the ability to track contact and transactional/communication histories with donors and prospective donors, allowing for improved fundraising and better reporting |
| Membership tracking | Capabilities that support registration access to specified privileges, often as a result of one-time or subscripton payment |
| Credit card processing | Features that support donation or registration payments via credit card |
| Contact management | Contact management allows for information about contacts and communication/events histories related to contacts to be entered into a centralized management system |
| Events tracking | Support for event scheduling (such as calendaring) can be important for non-profits who drive fundraising with event activities |
| Volunteer management | Volunteer management functionality provide features to track individual time commitments |
| Email template management | The ability to create, store, and edit fundraising email templates can help refine the effectiveness of donor communication and create efficiencies by preventing individual fundraisers from having to craft custom messages from scratch in common situations |
| Online donation portal | An online donation portal provides another access point for potential donors, providing a means of increasing fundraising revenues by tapping into new channels for fundraising |
| Matching contributions tracking | Support for corporate matching services provides another means of increasing per-donor giving rates |
| Fundraising/campaign tracking | Fundraising/campaign tracking capabilities provide reporting analytics to identify why fundraising activities have yielded the best results, enabling a refinement of ongoing fundraising efforts |
Simplify Your Fundraising
Software should help keep your efforts focused on the people you serve rather than the donors who give so generously. Too many organizations make fundraising overly complicated. And, that can stand in the way of raising funds and serving your cause. Fundraising should be fun, simple, and easily managed. If someone wants to know where they are with their giving and how much they owe, this should be a simple thing to report. Find out who is paying your organization, how much and when.
The right fundraising and donor management software should provide the following important reporting capabilities:
- Easily track gifts, pledges, soft credits, matching gifts, in-kind donations, grants, corporate sponsorships, and memberships.
- Create reports for your internal tax purposes as well as providing donor statements for donors’ tax purposes as well.
Fundraising and donor management software can be used not only for after the fact reports, but it can provide valuable information before your fundraising efforts even begin. Some software can help identify the demographics of your donating community. Demographic insights allow you to predict probable donors so you can target your efforts accordingly. This can greatly improve the success of your fundraising campaigns.
There are multiple standalone products available for your non-profit needs. Many fundraising and donor management systems have accounting interfaces that can makes it easy to transfer transactions directly to your accounting system.
Save Time and Money by Streamlining Your Processes
The software you choose should pay for itself by increasing donations, freeing up time by increasing operational efficiency and improving donor satisfaction. With the right software, every letter, email, phone call, activity, donation, campaign, event registration, survey, volunteer, relationship, and more is tracked in one place.
Efficient fundraising combines a realistic development plan with appropriate staffing and the financial and technical resources needed to achieve your plan. Fundraising and donor management applications let you control your entire fundraising process from goal setting to achievement. Donor focused fundraising strategies can be easy to implement and track with the right solution.
Online Fundraising
The Internet has truly transformed the way non-profits operate. Whether it’s connecting with constituents and building awareness for your cause or processing online donations, your organization has a vast amount of online tools available to you.
- Process donation and registration transactions via your website.
- Set up programs for recurring gifts and credit/debit card payments.
- Use online event management features for collaborating efforts between staff and volunteers.
- Link your system with social networking tools.
Fundraising Event Management
Does your organization host fundraising events? Many fundraising and donor management solutions even include functionality designed to help organize and optimize the results from events such as galas, balls, tournaments, luncheons, conferences and meetings.
- Get comprehensive, template based registration forms that are customizable to your events.
- Automate emails generated for invitations, registration, donation acknowledgements, etc.
- Solicit and manage volunteers (select locations, assignments and individual tasks)
- Copy, clone and revise events from year to year.
- Report on all participant and sponsorship history across all events.
Next Steps
Finding the right system to track all or your relationships and plan for campaigns can seem like a difficult task. But it doesn’t have to be. Our free software search service will help save you time finding the right program for your organization. Get started today!
