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Greg Bissonette had recently been promoted from Grant Writer to Fund Development Coordinator when the annual maintenance renewal contract for their major donor database program arrived: $1800. Greg knew that his predecessors had not been successful with the existing donor program, and that many times they had to struggle with it to get what they wanted. He decided that it was time to search for a new, friendlier donor database.
 In his online search, he found an April 12, 2005, TechSoup article titled, “Inexpensive Donor Databases,” which compared numerous programs feature by feature. Greg downloaded several trials and also tried some free shareware. “Everything seemed to require some computer background,” Greg says. “Then I saw GiftWorks. It was so straightforward, so logical—the decision was a no-brainer!”
Just as a change in development personnel can bring a fresh approach to fundraising, having a new software program “gives us a chance to move up to a new level of development efforts.”
The purchase price for GiftWorks—$598 for a license plus complete phone support—was less than one-third of the maintenance renewal for the old system. Greg adds, “So it’s clear the annual savings going forward will continue to be substantial.”
With GiftWorks, it is so easy to enter data, build SmartLists, and create reports. Mammoth Lakes Hospital Foundation has just completed a memorial solicitation, which produced 30 – 40 new donors. Greg’s first step was to enter this new data into GiftWorks. “It was a cinch,” says Greg. “By contrast, we are closing a campaign and are having an awful time pulling the donor recognition information from the old system.”
Greg concludes, “GiftWorks has the built-in flexibility to help us manage our donor information, communicate with our donors and constituencies, and to extract reports that will show us our strengths and problem areas. For once, I didn’t dread the move to a new system.”
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