Through these columns, you’ve probably come to realize that there’s a lot more to fundraising software selection than just deciding what to buy. Should you go it alone? If your organization is small, with only a few programs and campaigns or a small donor base, you’ll probably be looking at entry-level products. If that’s the case, you will be able to evaluate the available systems in-house to make a choice.

However, once you reach the mid-range and high-end levels, the options can be considerably more complicated. You may want an experienced consultant to help with the evaluation. Depending on the skill set of your staff and the availability of their hours, partnering with the right consultant can be a smart choice for long-term savings.

Good consultants save you money

A good consultant can provide services before, during and even after your software purchase. The range of offered services can vary widely. Consultants may only demonstrate and recommend software, or they may assist you with evaluation, implementation and training. Others provide additional services like customizing or optimizing the system for your organization’s specific needs. 

If, in your preliminary evaluations, you’ve been able to narrow your selection to a few choices, look for a consultant who has experience in your targeted solutions. Consultants who have previous experience with the chosen fundraising software can accelerate a complex implementation.

Here are some considerations to determine if consulting services are right for your organization:

• Does your staff have both the skills and the time to manage the evaluation, selection, and installation of the software?
• Does your staff have the skills and the time to manage any hardware and product integration needs?
• Will you need training and support after the purchase?
• Do you have a budget to hire a consultant?
• What would be the opportunity cost to your staff if you do it yourself? Does that benefit outweigh the cost?
• Do you want a local contact if you need help with some aspect of the system, or will support from the vendor alone be adequate?

Again, keep in mind that the opportunity costs of self-implementation are often hidden until you are deep into the project. The incremental costs associated with engaging professional services can pay long-term dividends, since you can be up and running much faster and with greater efficiencies.

Software pricing and budgeting

There is a wide variety of purchase prices for different levels of fundraising software. However, it’s vital to remember that the purchase price isn’t always the complete cost of the solution.

Typically, there will be incremental costs such as additional user licenses, data conversion, additional staff training and annual technical support, or additional hardware to support the solution. It’s important to understand all the associated expenses beyond the software price tag to know your true cost of ownership. 

$1,500 and under

Products at this level are usually simple programs designed for organizations running modest development programs. In most cases, they have basic constituent management capabilities (tagging, indexing, sorting, etc.) and come with a few report templates. Generally designed to export data to a word processing program for mailings or a spreadsheet for reports, these solutions can help small organizations get organized. That said, they could be quickly outgrown as your organization becomes more sophisticated with its fundraising strategies.

$1,500 to $7,500

These products are a major step up from the previous category. In general, they’re able to reside on both a network and workstation. They have all the features required for most development operations, including extensive constituent tagging and coding, activity tracking and reporting capabilities. Products in this range should include a wide array of pre-designed reports and report-generating capabilities, reducing the need to export data to a word processing or spreadsheet program.

At this level, look for additional features to facilitate donor communication, either by e-mail or mail. The solution should also include basic volunteer, event and membership capabilities as well as relationship mapping. Important items to evaluate in these solutions are ease of use, flexibility and required training and setup costs.

$7,500 to $15,000

The products at this level have all the elements previously mentioned, plus even greater flexibility. They tend to include a broader array of information-capture and data-management capabilities, as well as more comprehensive tracking and analysis functionality for specialized development operations. Most of the programs in this range offer an assortment of equally comprehensive add-on modules (generally for an additional cost) to handle deeper, specialized needs not addressed by the previous solutions.

$15,000 and up

At this price range, you’ll find fully customizable systems for large institutions or organizations that are designed to work with large networks, often in multiple geographic sites, and manage massive amounts of data. These solutions often have very advanced functionality in specialty areas for large organizations’ specific needs, such as alumni management for universities. They tend to integrate directly with other systems used at the organization, and often require a consultant or dedicated full-time IT staff to install.

Keep flexibility in mind

Regardless of the package you choose, flexibility and customization may be critical selection criteria. Ensure you can define the categories that are familiar to your organization. In addition, make sure the solution gives you the flexibility to change after setup, and that your chosen solution can accommodate the cross-section of supplementary information most valuable to your organization.

In next month’s final article, we’ll look at resources to assist you in selection, as well as some key questions to ask the vendors. Happy evaluating!

Heather Burton is a senior marketing manager for Sage North America’s Nonprofit Solutions business. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maine and prior to joining Sage worked in the semiconductor industry. During that time, she began her community involvement and worked on her company’s charitable giving team, which provided the opportunity for her career change to a full-time fundraiser. 

Just before joining Sage in 2005, Burton worked in several development roles and as a loaned executive for United Way. She also led volunteer fundraising teams for a local hospice. Because of her technical expertise, Burton continually finds herself consulting on everything from software selections and implementation to web site development practices.