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The Donor Management Systems Toolkit

About this event

Most nonprofits have donors they rely on. Most nonprofits care a lot about their donors. But do you have the right donor management system to help you keep track of them? No, an Excel spreadsheet is not a donor management system. A donor management system is built to handle relationships between data—for example, your donors and gifts—to allow you to more easily track the people who make your work possible.Navigating the choices you have when choosing a donor management system can be daunting. That’s why Idealware has created the online “Donor Management Systems Toolkit” course: to help you navigate the choices.

Through participation in the course, you will:

  • Learn about the features and considerations when choosing a donor management system.
  • Analyze your organization’s needs and the constituent data that you want to track.
  • Take a deep look at highly-rated donor management systems from Idealware’s Consumers Guide to Donor Management Systems.
  • Review a method of system evaluation and implementation.

Toolkit Schedule

Two Live 90-Minute Sessions & Six One-Hour System Demos

July 15: Thinking Through Your Donor Management Needs

10:00 am – 11:30 am, Pacific

In this class, we will walk through the ins and outs of donor management systems. We’ll discuss the common features of systems, key considerations for choosing one that’s right for your organization, and how to compare different systems. We’ll help you evaluate what you actually need from a system and ask the all-important question, “Do you really need a new system at all?”

  • Do you need a new system?
  • Features and considerations
  • How to evaluate a system
  • Metrics and reports – what data do you need to get out?

July 22-24 and July 29-31: Donor Management System Demos

10:00 am – 11:00 am, Pacific

The deal might look good on paper, but you need to take a test drive to truly evaluate the product. We’ll take a deep look at some of the highly rated donor management systems reviewed for Idealware’s Consumers Guide to Donor Management Systems report, including a mix of low-cost, mid-range, and full-featured systems.

August 5: Best Practices for Implementing and Using Your Database

10:00 am – 11:30 am Pacific

Now that you have an idea of what system you need, how do you make the transition? This session will walk you through the process of implementing your new database. We’ll explore the system migration process, how you get your data from your old database to the new one, and close with an overview of data management best practices.

  • The system migration process
  • Good data management
  • Closing

About the Presenter

Elizabeth Pope, directs Idealware’s software research projects, conducting interviews and product demos, writing articles and reports, and helping to design project methodology. She was lead author on Understanding Software for Program Evaluation. She earned an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where she honed her research, instruction, and tech skills. Before moving to Maine, Elizabeth worked in archives and libraries in New York City for several years. Her background also includes fundraising and content development for nonprofit organizations.

Cost (for all five sessions)

$175 NAO Members
$200 Nonmembers

Additional Information

Registration for this event is through Idealware, our partner for this training.

Please register with the email address where you would like to receive the access and dial-in information for the online seminar.
All registered participants are granted access to the recordings of each session. If a participant cannot attend any of the sessions due to a scheduling conflict, they will still have access to all the content of the Toolkit.

Register now