University of Minnesota: New Donor Management Software

Introduction and Audiences:

The University of Minnesota has increased its donors from 500 to almost 4,000, all of which are considered members of the Golden Gopher Fund. The university currently uses the donor database to track gift history, but data also lives elsewhere in other departments because teams maintain their contact data independently. Our donation management system will allow our organization the opportunity to combat a lack of communication, data silos, and the lack of a central archive. Valuable time and energy is wasted chasing information and merging lists, rather than performing work that furthers our mission. By adopting a donor based management system linked with our ticket office software (Audienceview), we will be able to provide a system that serves the entire organization — not just one department. No longer will we not be able to check on the donor’s ticket account status or their donations to other colleges of the university. Another key factor of the system will be that all information will be played in real time so that when a donation is made, it will not take two or three weeks time to retrieve information. Lastly, this system will be able to be used by everyone in the university who has permission and access to the current software system.

Purpose and Goals for the System:

The University has the following goals for our system:

1. Organized data maintenance: All information about a donor (name, address, phone, etc.) and pertinent donation history are easy to access. In addition, you can keep track of the information mailed to the donor, events the donor has attended, the reasons why donations were made to your organization, and other details of the donor’s profile.

2. Improve fundraising efforts with less time and aggravation. Acknowledgements will be organized via the improved system and can be delivered via e-mail with the click of a button. This information will also can be easily tracked. The system can also track the effectiveness of different variations of a mailing, or implementing a new funding program. You will also be able to analyze all of the aforementioned changes.

3. Increase your productivity by tracking fundraising activity in reports (queries, acknowledgement reports etc.). You can also increase your productivity by optimizing the methods of tracking volunteer efforts and major gift officers visits to major donors.

4. Integration of DMS and Audienceview. This will allow users of the DMS software to view ticket information without having to use two different computer towers and two different screens. One will also be able to see if ticket history/information has been updated.

Our system will further strengthen our cultivate donor relationships and achieve better fundraising results and efficiency. The system will be internet based, as it will allow for the real time feature to be implemented. The ticket information will be carried over from the Audienceview system.

Features:

-Contact management

-Donation management

-Pledge management

-Activities (notes, email, phone calls, meetings etc...)

-Campaign management

-Event management

-Opportunity management

-Invoices

-gift transmittals

-Email correspondence (custom email templates and email tracking)

-Letter correspondence (integrates with Microsoft word for easy mail merge letters)

-Reporting and Analysis

-Advanced Quering and Filtering

-Customizations available throughout the software

-Ability to hide functionality you don't use

Benefits Claimed:

Donor Management Software is the solution to balancing the work of accurate record keeping. Fundraising software is an essential tool for the success and growth of any size nonprofit organization. Fundraising software allows users to keep essential administrative records in one central database and eliminates the inefficiency of dealing with multiple spreadsheets and documents on individual computers.

Analysis of Performance:

Building a database often forces departments to work together and see each other in a new light. Building a customized solution requires IT competency, even if an outside consultant does the actual programming. It also requires looking at the larger population that interacts with the organization -- vendors, board members, clients, volunteers, donors, staff members -- and discovering the relationships between them. Lastly, the process of building a solution unearths practices that, left alone, are actually destructive to an organization -- mailing list hoarding, double data entry, and a less-than-optimal level of IT knowledge among staff. It is for these reasons that it is important to carry on with implementing a new and improved system for the university.

Recommendation:

After reviewing the product, we recommend that the University of Minnesota updates its DMS system so that it can take advantage of new improvements that will make its system more efficient. Greater accuracy with its system as well as the opportunity to customize the system to fit each department makes it quite beneficial. Finally, the opportunity to see things in real time will also benefit the organization as a whole.