Raiser's Edge is one of the most popular software programs for fund-raising departments. It is full featured, powerful, and it's relatively easy-to-use given the power of the program.
Learning Raiser's Edge however is a large task. Most nonprofits have volunteers doing data entry—people that are minimally trained. To have the data entered be useful, entered in a consistent way, easy to report on, requires training... Training that most people who work in nonprofits do not have the time, and sometimes the skill, to give.
I have developed procedures, designed management reports, converted data, and trained people in using Raisers' Edge fund raising management software. I have worked in several non-profits, including the San Francisco Food Bank, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Catholic Charities/Catholic Youth Organization. In the past, I was a database programmer for a company that developed United Way fund raising management software, and designed a fund-raising accounting database.
Writing procedures customized for your organization, and the way that you run your fund raising, is a very complex task, and takes a long time. I have already written procedures that are detailed, easy to follow, and make sense for the common business tasks you need to accomplish.
Customizing my procedures for your organization would be much easier than writing procedures yourself. Most non-profit organizations simply do not have the people available to write clear, thorough procedures.
With the procedures I write for you, staff and volunteers will know what they are expected to do, how you enter your data, how to handle your specific fund raising appeals, what to do in special cases, and when to ask for staff decisions on exceptions to the rules. They'll have quick descriptions of what to accomplish, exact keystrokes, and pictures of the end results, each step of the way.
Computers are great at identifying records that are exactly the same, but what about when there are records with different punctuation? (Start by agreeing on Alphabetizing and Data Entry Rules for your organization.)
I have already written flexible programs to clean up data (for example having "San Francisco" entered as SF, S.F., San Fran, San Fransisco (mis-spelled); or having " St." entered as Street, St, and Str. I've imported data into Raiser's Edge from Excel, Access, Lotus Notes, dBASE, and other programs. I've merged data from different sources, even when addresses were entered following different conventions.
I have excellent success in identifying probable duplicate records. The reduction in costs from eliminating multiple mailings to the same household can be substantial.
I also advise on what data is not worth cleaning up, and what records should be kept impeccably maintained.
Many of the default reports that come with Raiser's Edge need to be modified to truly be useful for your organization. I have years of experience writing reports, for a variety of companies, that give management what they need to know to effectively run their organizations. Reports that show information clearly, so you don't have to then interpret beyond what is given.
What is the most effective way to market? Which appeals have worked best?
Where are the key zip codes to market to, so we increase fund raising results?
How are we doing compared to the similar campaign last year (even though it started a week earlier)?
For examples of the kinds of reports I have written, or for sample pages of procedures I have written, contact me at 415-722-1483 or Contact me and I will get back to you promptly.
Social Bookmarking