Fundraising Software: Your Money-Making Machinery
Greetings, The NonProfit Times NPT TechnoBuzz The Latest in Nonprofit Fundraising Tools and Office Technology ---------------------------Advertisement--------------------------- Does your financial management software rely on multiple third-party applications to achieve a workable system? Serenic Navigator, powered by Microsoft Dynamics NAV, removes that burden. Navigator features core financials coupled with FULLY INTEGRATED ERP applications. To learn more about the financial management software that is helping nonprofits everywhere fulfill their mission, visit http://ga0.org/ct/apA_y961eYNj/. ------------------------------------------------------------------ January 2007 In this issue: Fundraising Software: Your Money-Making Machinery 13 Tips for Effective Tagging How to mark sites so you and others can find them Sending HTML Email With Just Microsoft Office 2003 Quick Start Ideas ---------------------------Advertisement--------------------------- Cause Marketing Forum Learn to create successful business alliances Visit http://ga0.org/ct/CdA_y961eYN4/ for valuable tips and program information. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome Can you feel the buzz? It's NPT's TechoBuzz, the new e-letter from your friends at The NonProfit Times covering the technology involved with fundraising. And, we mean everything, from software to Web technology to telephones to copiers to hardware to tips on how to do things on the cheap. Each issue will have something a technical person will hopefully find useful. The issues will also include information for those who are and technically faint of heart and those who are the soft shoulder on the Information Superhighway. As always, drop me a note and let me know what you think. My email is ednchief@nptimes.com Paul Clolery Editorial Director The NonProfit Times Fundraising Software: Your Money-Making Machinery By Tim Mills-Groninger You could say that fundraising software prints money. Fundraising is one of the few nonprofit activities where return on investment (ROI) is measured in real dollars. It is also an arena where marketing is purest; a compelling message inspires the donor to make a gift without receiving anything tangible in return. In a perfect world, donors would seek out the organizations with missions that match their own values and thus make spontaneous gifts. In the less- than-perfect world we live in, it is a more cumbersome process. Prospects have to be identified, asked, and their gifts have to be processed and acknowledged. While it would be nice to be able to ask everyone, there are costs associated with asking -- both in the monetary expenditure and, especially with email spam, credibility. Fundraising software was invented to automate the labor-intensive part of identifying prospects, getting a solicitation to them as efficiently and cheaply as possible, and recording the results. Skilled users could segment donors and prospects on a limited number of factors and craft appeals designed to elicit the largest possible gift. It was far from a one-size-fits-all world, but it was certainly a few sizes fits many. Securing major gifts was largely independent of whatever software was in place. Solicitors, often volunteers, were matched with prospects and the cultivation and moves management process progressed in private until the gift was secured and entered into the database. Click here for the full story: http://ga0.org/ct/qdA_y961eYN6/ 13 Tips for Effective Tagging How to mark sites so you and others can find them Editor's Note: This article has been modified from Alexandra Samuel's Choosing Effective Del.icio.us Tags and Ruby Sinreich's Why Nonprofits Should Use Tags. How many times have you dug fruitlessly through the links you've saved in your browser's Favorites folder, struggling to remember how you categorized that site you wanted to remember? Or, how often have you been unable to locate information you needed -- simply because you didn't know what search word to use? Let's face it: the Internet is huge. It's tough enough to find useful information, let alone save it so that you can refer to it later. Wouldn't it be nice to classify information with your own keywords so that you could find it again easily? To share your favorite sites and links with others, without relying on your browser's Advanced Search feature? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, it's time try your hand at tagging. A tag is a collaboratively-generated, open-ended labeling system that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links. Tagging lets you categorize information online your way. For nonprofits, tags can be a great way to promote and encourage dialogue about shared interests. For example, the ACLU and civil libertarians might want to promote use of the tag "safeandfree" to aggregate posts about reforming the Patriot Act. Likewise, some in the nonprofit technology sector currently use the tag "nptech" to collect technology resources that can be useful to colleagues. A single tag can be used across platforms to aggregate links, photos, blog posts, and Web pages. To get started, visit the popular social bookmarks manager del.icio.us or another social bookmarking Web site and pick a tag that for your organization or cause. Once you have selected a tag and start using it, let your supporters know about it. As they find relevant links, sites, and images, they can add your tag to it, allowing you to expand your movement -- and narrow your search results. When it comes to tagging, spreading the word is only half the battle. First, you have to give your tag a name. A tag should be unique but memorable; something that identifies your cause without being so vague that it could cover a broad spectrum of issues. Click here for the full story: http://ga0.org/ct/q7A_y961eYNO/ Sending HTML Email With Just Microsoft Office 2003 Email plays a central role in the communications strategies of many nonprofits. Any number of service providers have popped up to help organizations send slick, professional email -- for a fee. Many nonprofits choose these options by default, not aware that they already have the tools to send fairly sophisticated email without them. Using Microsoft Word, it is possible to create visually appealing, customized email messages. You can then use Outlook to send these messages to a list of recipients stored in Excel or Access. This procedure is called an email merge. This article will walk you through the steps in Microsoft Office 2003 for Windows. Similar procedures accomplish the same result in other versions of Office for both PC and Macintosh. While Word allows you to create complex layouts, it's important to remember that they don't always translate perfectly into HTML -- the language of pretty emails. Email messages created using this procedure will never have - and should never aim for - the level of design control seen in some of the more advanced templates that email service providers offer. However, for many organizations, email merge provides a welcome and affordable upgrade to otherwise drab messaging. Before you dive in, you must prepare your data source and properly configure Word. Click here for the full story: http://ga0.org/ct/qpA_y961eYNW/ Quick Start Ideas Quick Idea #1 Is It Time to Upgrade To An LCD? Computer monitors seem to have an unlimited life. That's an illusion, especially when dealing with a CRT-based (cathode ray tube) display. Because the image on a CRT is created by a beam of electrons manipulated numerous times across a phosphor-filled faceplate by complex electronics, there are lots of variables -- all of which need to fall exactly into place to keep the image crisp and sharp. The problem is that electronic component values start to shift the moment that the device is first plugged in and this shift continues throughout the life of the display. While it happens gradually, the electron beam drifts out of alignment with the red, green, and blue phosphors on the face of the CRT. This causes the display to gradually lose focus and become blurry. You probably don't notice it, because it happens gradually, but it does happen with almost every CRT, and this loss of sharpness often results in eyestrain or even headaches. 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