Choosing Software for

Non-profit
Organizations

Copyright 2015 Peter Turk

Peter Turk
peter.turk@sumac.com
January 2015

The
Fifth
Demandment
Ira Nayman, Welcome to the Multiverse, 2013
Information is sacred. Not, we hasten to
add, in a way that would threaten
anybodys deistic beliefs; more in the sense
that it is the lifeblood of the organization.
Not, we hasten to add, in a way that would
threaten anybodys medicalistic beliefs,
either. Look, were trying to tell you
information is really, really, really, really,
really important, and thats five reallys, so
you know were serious. Treat information
with five reallys of respect.

Objective

Manage Relationships With Constituencies

Create Organizational Memory

A Database
One place to store your data
Shared
Non-redundant

Functionality

Functionality Basic Efficiency

Basic data sharing: group contact (client)
management
Automate routine operations:
donation processing
bulk mailing: mail merge, labels, email

Functionality Communication
Relationships between contacts
Communications: record and manage all types of
communications

Functionality Analysis
Built-in reports
Searching for anything you can think of
Ad hoc reporting
Terminology: knowledge management, decision
support

Functionality Computer Stuff

Configurability
Complete import and export (data management)
Documentation and help
Security (user profiles)

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Functionality Desirable
Campaigns
Prospect rating
Reminders
Moves management (workflow management)
Mission-specific functionality
e.g. box office, auditions, course registration, case
management, sponsorships

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Functionality Integration
(No Islands)
donate to you: campaigns, donations, pledges,
proposals, prospecting
give you money: auctions, funding programs and
requests
buy from you: payment processing, sales, ticketing
work for you: auditions, time tracking, volunteers
participate in your activities: course registrations,
events, memberships, submissions, tour booking
communicate with you: communications, contacts,
email, reminders

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Benefits
efficiency: Do things more quickly with less effort.
effectiveness: Do things that could not be done
before.
enhance relationship with community: Provide better
service, reach higher revenues.
building organizational memory: Build an
information resource that can be used day-to-day and
mined for future work.

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Time Line

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Selection Step 1 Selection Criteria

Activities:
decide who is running the selection process
set scope: who will use the software to do what
build internal consensus on requirements
approximate budget
decide whether to buy or build
Costs:
consultants to help select the software
staff time

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Selection Step 2 Contact Software

Vendors
Activities:
identify those that might do the job for you
determine rough pricing and functionality quickly
so that you dont waste their and your time
column fodder is nasty
Costs:
staff time

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Selection Step 3 Demonstrations

Activities:
arrange demonstrations
have the right people there
allow sufficient time (at least two hours)
identify in advance what you want to see
if they wont show it to you, it doesnt exist or is too
hard to use
Costs:
staff time

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Selection Step 4 Check

Activities:
check references (what parts of the software do
they actually use, what is good, what is bad)
check type and quality of after-sales support
check documentation
check user groups
check organization
Costs:
staff time

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Selection Step 5 Internal Buy-In

Activities:
get agreement from internal interested users
get agreement from board
inform your IT consultants
Costs:
staff time

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Selection Step 6 Make A Deal

Activities:
negotiate with the vendor
sign the contract
vendors usually have a standard contract
some room for negotiation on services
price is always negotiable
Costs:
initial license fee
annual renewal fee
installation and training fee

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Selection Step 7 Data Conversion

Activities:
get data out of your existing systems
put the data into the new system
Costs:
staff time
data conversion fees
IT consultants

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Selection Step 8 Installation

Activities:
upgrade your computers as required
put the software on your computers
Costs:
new computer gear
IT consultants
database manager license fee

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Selection Step 9 Training

Activities:
learn how to use the system
learn how to administer the system
Costs:
travel to training location
staff time
course fees

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Selection Step 10 Ongoing

Operations
Activities:
install updates to the software as they arise
retrain staff as new versions are released
perform regular data backup
Costs:
IT consultants to (re-)install the software
support fees
staff retraining time
this is where most of the cost resides

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Software Costs: DIME

Development
Introduction
Maintenance
End of Life

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Software Costs (1)

Development
Introduction

network, server, and workstation upgrades:

hardware, software, installation, integration
purchasing
migration (export, convert, import data)
installation (server and workstation
software)
initial training

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Software Costs (2)

Maintenance

infrastructure, electricity, cooling

security, backup
performance: technical (i.e. users waiting)
performance: usability (i.e. users figuring
out how to do something)
upgrades to server and application software
(staff and consultant time)
ongoing training (staff and consultant time)

End of Life

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Beware

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Beware
web sites that purport to be objective but actually
front for a software vendor (fundraisingsoftware.org)
result-selective consultants: (a) pretend to be
objective but always recommend the software that
they re-sell; (b) cost so much they must recommend
expensive software
hidden fees
price does not indicate what will work best for you
the answer to Can it do X? is always Yes. Ask:
Show me.
What does X cost?
What would it cost to enable it to do X?

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Beware The High Cost of

Free/Custom Software (1)
documentation: What will it cost to document a custom
package?
training: Who will train you to use a custom package?
support: How fast can you actually get in touch with a
university student, during exam time, or Summer when he is
planting trees in B.C.? When the student graduates, moves
away, or loses interest, all support disappears. A year or two
after that the system will stop because of a system software
change or need to move to a different operating system.

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Beware The High Cost of

Free/Custom Software (2)
data conversion: What will it cost to import existing data,
clean it up, find duplicates, etc.
fees paid to the volunteer: Often non-zero.
inevitable need to switch to another system in two or three
years: This entails real costs. You will need to export the data
from your custom system and import it into something else. Is
the custom system even able to export data?

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Beware The High Cost of

Free/Custom Software (3)
lack of integration means data will be duplicated: Volunteers
in one database, donors in another, adds data entry burden.
time to start: Custom software must be developed, tested, and
re-developed. How much time and effort will it cost you to
spend time working with the developer as he gives you new
releases, you try them, find them lacking, and cycle back to
get another release? This will take many months.
data loss: Almost every in-house developed system we have
displaced (there have been lots) has contained bugs that
caused it to lose track of data or record things incorrectly.

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Architecture

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Architecture Terminology
User Interface
Application
Data Management
Data

user: you
user interface: presents the application on a
display-keyboard-mouse
application: the functionality that you want,
e.g. add a contact, delete a reminder, receipt
a donation
data management: a database management
system (DBMS); usually a relational
database using Structured Query Language
(SQL) for managing the data, e.g. Access,
DB2, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server
data: the stuff that needs to be stored

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Architecture Single User

User Interface
Application
Data Management

Is there more than one

person in your organization?

Data

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Architecture Multi User

(Hosted)
User Interface

User Interface

Application
Data Management
Data

Possibly hosted by an
Application Service Provider
(ASP) providing Software as
a Service (SaaS).
Where is the data?
Confidentiality issues, if data
is sent over the open Internet
or stored outside of Canada.
What if your ISP or ASP is
down or bankrupt? Can you
get your data out?
Costs? Nickles add up.
Usability concerns.

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Architecture Multi User

(Client Server)
User Interface

User Interface

Application

Application

Data Management
Data

Need to update the

application on multiple
machines. How easy is this?

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Success Factors
Functionality. Access to the functionality (i.e. ease of
use).
Big bang rarely works. Go step by step. Set a small
number of basic objectives.
Organizational desire to use the software and make it
work.

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Giftworks Muskoka Conservancy

Integrates well with Quickbooks - when a donation comes in,
it creates a charitable receipt record in the accounting
software
Allows you to track types of supporters, providing their entire
history with organization member, purchased product,
events, etc.
Can be complicated to use Easy to learn the basics, but
learning in-depth functions can be a time waster
Lots of on-line support, and in-person support
Provides for multiple users in the office

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Giftworks Couchiching Conservancy

More difficult to use when computers are not networked
together
Some challenges in setting up and training staff
Gaps in service
Tanya Clark
Development Coordinator,
Couchiching Conservancy

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Sumac Ontario Farmland Trust

Transferred to Sumac from Giftworks, Canadahelps and
Paypal was looking for an integrated system
Unlimited customer support included
They now use payment processor iATS which is compatible
with Sumac

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Closing

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