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Featured in this issue: GiftWorks® 2008 Delivers Features Requested by Users
Also In This Issue:
GiftWorks 2008 Delivers Features Requested by Users
 Recently, we asked Joel Schuman, a long-time GiftWorks user, to highlight his favorite features of GiftWorks 2008. The best enhancement by far, says Joel, is Households. "With the 2008 Households feature, you can now create a full donor entity with ultimate flexibility. You can track John Smith and his wife Mary as an entity - Smith Household - but also each separately with an affiliate donor tag." This flexibility helps greatly when John and Mary make donations jointly, but serve on different committees or have different volunteer interests."
"SmartLists are substantially more powerful, with more criteria options and customizable time selections," Joel continues. "And Mailings, somehow always subject to office interruptions, is now bomb-proof." GiftWorks 2008 also includes more robust reporting, expanded customization options, and enhanced task management. Due for release next month, GiftWorks® 2008 Premium, will provide all the features in GiftWorks® 2008 Standard, plus role-based security protection, 100+ custom fields, support for USPS Standard discounted mailings, and seasonal address management.
What Makes Joel Schuman an Expert?
Back in the days before GiftWorks (BG), Joel, a volunteer with Esopus Creek Conservancy in the Hudson Valley of New York State, was asked to find custom donor software for their use. Finding nothing affordable in the market, he created a program for their use.
A few years later, Woodstock Land Conservancy asked for a "clone" of the first trust's program. Again Joel surveyed the field and this time found GiftWorks. Woodstock and eventually Esopus switched to GiftWorks. Word of mouth soon resulted in Joel installing and supporting GiftWorks at every land trust in his area. Nonprofits of other kinds soon followed, including most recently a mobile music education program.
Through the years, Joel had created some of his own add-ons to GW and shared his ideas with GW developers. So when we needed "beta-testers"* for GW 2008 (Standard), the next generation, he was a natural participant.
Now that his nonprofit clients are using GiftWorks 2008, Joel finds it, "the perfect balance of power and ease-of-use, and the best bang for the buck by far."
If you'd like more information about GiftWorks® 2008 Standard or Premium, visit our website or call us at 888-323-8766 x2.
*Before a new software program hits the market, the developer releases a "beta" version for evaluation by knowledgeable potential users. These beta-testers use and evaluate the product - and alert the developer to any recommendations for improvements.
We would like the opportunity to reward you for your referrals of GiftWorks fundraising software, but we want to make sure that you will find the rewards rewarding! We are conducting a survey to find out more about what you would like to see in a more formalized referral reward program. As we design the GiftWorks new client referral program we will keep your wishes top of mind, and promise to keep you up to date on its status.
Do you have 2 minutes for 6 questions? It’s that easy! Please complete the survey by 05/31/08, to make sure your voice is heard.
Consultant's Corner:
A Stronger Database = A Stronger Donor Base
by Amber Marks, do good Consulting
 Amber Marks |
Whatever system you use for donor records management (hopefully GiftWorks!), your best investment is putting in the right time and effort to maintain it.
Here are 7 tips to strengthen your database to help build a strong donor base
- Limit the number of record keeping sources.
If your mailing list is in Outlook, your donations in GiftWorks, and your walk-a-thon volunteers are on a spreadsheet, you are guaranteed to have inaccurate, duplicate, conflicting, and outdated information. Invest time (and money, if necessary) to consolidate your records. Your staff and volunteers will appreciate it; and you'll produce much better - and more accurate - results!
- Standardize data entry procedures.
Even if your database is huge, if you standardize data entry, you'll save "search" time, reduce confusion, and decrease the risk of offending a donor or volunteer. How? Create a one-page document with the "rules" that make sense for your organization. Think about abbreviations, punctuation, required fields (titles, alternate contact information, etc.), handling missing information, and how to record the most recent update of a file. As time allows, correct previous entries.
- Minimize data "enterers," provide training, and set expectations.
Don't hand off data entry to anyone willing. Be sure whoever does it is adequately trained, understands your data entry standards, and realizes that accuracy is critical.
- Schedule periodic reviews of data.
At least twice a year (spring and fall cleaning), run different reports from your database to look for problems. Duplicate entries and records missing ZIP codes or street addresses are two common issues that can cost money and time. Find them and fix them.
- Back up files.
Create a copy of your database on a different server. Save your database to a portable media device and store it outside your office in case of theft, fire, or other hazard. Do it frequently, so that if the worst occurs, you will not need to re-enter more than a week of information.
- Enter all volunteers, donors, clients, employees, sponsors, service providers, media contacts, elected officials, etc., into your database.
When you hear someone has moved, married, changed employers, or even died, update their records. If you can't do this at once, use a basket on your desk for collecting change requests and process them each Friday.
- Annually, put "Address Correction Requested" on your newsletter address page.
Your mis-addressed newsletters will be returned, and you can update your records. Then, be sure to resend newsletters to recipients at their correct addresses.
do good Consulting, a Consultant Partner of GiftWorks, helps small- to medium-sized organizations develop their potential with realistic step-by-step plans for implementation and lasting impact. Located in Urbana IL, you'll find them on-line at: www.dogoodconsulting.org.
Welcome Connecticut, Hawai'i, and Idaho!
Pat Weaver, GW Partners Coordinator, reports: "We appreciate working with these state organizations in their diligence to help their members access quality software."
When we asked GW users: How are your fundraising efforts performing this year?, here's what you said:
When compared to last year, our donations:
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Remained the same | 33.5% |
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Increased 10-25% | 37.4% |
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Increased More than 25% |
18.1% |
| Decreased 10% or more | 10.9% |
When compared to last year, our rate of attracting new volunteers:
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Remained the same | 49.7% |
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Increased | 40.2% |
| Decreased | 10.1% |
585 users responded to the two-question survey.
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 Meet Mary Pat Donnellon, new head of the Nonprofit Division.
Mission Research founder and CEO Charlie Crystle moved himself full-time to new product research and development. (Crystle moved R&D to a new Lancaster location - in a rehabbed warehouse, but still keeps his finger on the pulse at GiftWorks.)
He leaves the Nonprofit Division in the capable hands of Mary Pat Donnellon. Donnellon has been with GiftWorks since 2006, in the positions of GW Product Manager, Manager of Support, and Director of Business Development.
Mary Pat has a passion for the nonprofit sector. She began her career as a systems engineer and manager at EDS for more than a decade, where she worked with clients in the health care sector to design solutions for their business problems and opportunities. She also served as Board President of The New School of Lancaster (where she established the development office) and as Vice President of the YWCA of Lancaster. She continues to volunteer in fundraising as well, running campaigns this year for her 2 favorite nonprofits: JP McCaskey Friends of Music and the New School of Lancaster.
As Crystle says, "From Mary Pat's first day, she has advocated for providing GiftWorks customers with a top-notch and easy-to-use software product. We're sure she'll be steering GW in directions the customers will value."
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