New DonorPerfect Online makes it easier...

Over the last several weeks, we finished releasing another incremental upgrade to our online product, DonorPerfect Online.

These changes will make it much easier for our DPO clients to raise more money, and includes additional features simply not available in other products.

Here's a small sample of key features:

• Increased User Login Security
• Enhanced Integration with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, and Excel
• More Financial Reports
• Wealth Engine Integration
• Improved Split Gift Management

Particularly important is our new login security settings. You now have the ability to restrict access not only for a user's login and password, but also for their unique IP address. This way, you can always make sure that users are only accessing your database from a list of pre-approved IP addresses. For example, you can set up a security plan that allows access only from the office or the user's home. The settings can also be applied for a group or to an individual user.

Likewise, our improved integration with Microsoft Office is a big hit. For example, emails can now be tracked in both Outlook and DonorPerfect at the touch of a button. Appointments can be tracked in both systems as well. Our integration with Excel makes it easy to download any financial report to Excel so that the data can be further manipulated easily. (This is important because the formatting is stripped away, making financial analysis easier in Excel). Finally, we've always had direct integration with Word, and we've included several more templates.

As in the past, this upgraded is provided free of charge for all of our clients as part of their maintenance agreement- there's no additional fee to pay and no other 'modules' to purchase (as opposed to some of our competitors who charge 20% or more for simple Outlook integration = OUCH!)

Here's a more detailed explanation- take a look!

Second Year Online Results....

Here's a powerful story of a client and how on-line fundraising grows from year to year.

As I blogged about it last year, the Woody's Circle of Care Foundation conducts an annual charity golf outing. Like last year, they used WebLink to collect registration fees and additional donations.

The difference was that this year, over 95% of the attendees registered on-line for the event vs. about 50% last year. In fact, only a few people paid on-site, which eliminated any resemblance of a registration line.

The benefits were many:

• Increased donations. Donors donated more when using a credit card.
• Eliminated donor frustration and enhanced donor convenience. Since money did not have to be collected on-site, donors were not waiting and having fun instead.
• Saved significant staff time. On-line registration saved significant hours of staff time as compared to just 2 years ago.
• Captured more prospects. Since all golfers registered online, their demographic and email information were captured for future solicitations.

We're signing up dozens of WebLink clients a month- are you ready to become the next success story? Click here to find out how.

It's all about Support...

In the last year, we've become fanatical about support, and we mean it. We have a metrics board in our office that measures many support factors, from the percentage of support calls answered live, the number of incidents in a week, and our overall support satisfaction level. (Currently well over 9 out of 10 and steadily increasing!)

One thing we can't post on the metric board (it's actually a gigantic white board in the main hallway) is our customer comments. I'm reprinting just 2 weeks worth of comments here, with no editing*, and I think they speak for themselves:

* Where mentioned, specific staff member names have been ommitted.

Due to the tight time frame I was under staff member helped me resolve my
confusion expeditiously and my report was done in record time! THANK YOU!.

[The staff member] couldn't get into our system to see my screen and he was very patient about talking me through a problem that he couldn't see.

[The staff member] is unflaggingly patient! She was helping me construct a report that had been requested by my CEO. It was very complex and we encountered problems, but she hung in there and followed up until we completed the project. Thank you!!!

[The staff member] has handled many problems for me at different times and has always been professional and friendly. She has gone to great extents to help solve the issues that I have had. Thanks again.

I wasn't available when he called. He not only left me a voice mail message
with instructions, he also sent an e-mail. I really appreciated his help.
Thanks.

excellent response and assistance to my request

I didn't care for the way she constantly turned and talked to other people as
they were leaving for the day. At points I didn't know whether she was talking
to me or someone else. I didn't think that was very professional.

This is such an improvement from previous encounters with support. It was
ecstatic with the time it took to get back to me!!!!

Staff member was great. She spent time on background explanation which expands my ability to use DonorPerfect.


There were phone problems on Donor Perfect's end which caused us to be
disconnected a couple of times. Also, we wish the call-backs could be more
prompt.

[The staff member] was the best customer service representative that I have worked with so far. She is extremely knowledgeable, easy to work with, patient and helpful. She truly wants people to be able to understand what they are doing and what she is doing to help them so that they can replicate what they did at a
later date.

[The staff member] was patient when I had to keep switching computers.

I had a time factor involved, and [the staff member] at tech support called back quickly. He helped me solve the problem and also assisted in my understanding of the ins & outs of generating a DP Size Split Report.

The call helped confirm what I thought would be the case with the upgrade from
8.x to 9.0 DP. The install appears to have gone fine both on server install and
on client-side upgrades. No error messages, very clean. Our Development Office
staff Head likes the new interface. Thanks!

I hope you have addresses your telephone difficulties that you have been
recently experiencing. that delay was the biggest obstacle to DP donor response
because I needed to talk with someone to highlight discrepancies in a DP
form/report. I am waiting for additional information that support needed to ask
"The Techno Guys".

My computer hard drive crashed and although I had a recent backup of data, I
didn't know how to reinstall the program. I received an e-mail with instructions
within minutes. I do not have my computer back yet, but when it is repaired and
online I think I can follow the directions and get the program up and running
again. Thanks. This was an extremely tense moment for me.

Support was great-just the right balance of humor and people skills to handle my
questions without leaving me feeling like I should have already known the
answers...something I have run into when seeking software related help from
other companies! Thank you for helping me learn how to maximize use of Donor
Perfect.

Handled the incident promptly and resolved the problem quickly.

I needed the support for when I get my computer back..but as of today I haven't
any computer to try what she recommended yet. We'll see when I do.

[The staff member] is an asset to your DP support tech team. She is very friendly - helpful -patient - and has excellent knowledge of the software.

[The staff member] was very helpful! I had 3 issues. He was unable to help with one but shed some light so I didn't spend time trying something that wasn't going to work. I'm frustrated with the Reports Wizard. It's not very user friendly - hard to tell how the spacing between columns will look and the only way to bold a field
is to hit the Designer tab. BUT once you hit the designer tab you can not go
back to modify the report anymore.

I am so appreciative of the manner in which I was treated. There are times when
you all know what your looking at and for and it takes me a bit to look at the
screen and find it and sometimes your personnel are a bit impatient. This was
not the case with X. I was made to feel we were working together toward
resolution of my problem. X, THANK YOU!!!

Everyone that I have had contact with has been helpful and courteous. I have
used the support often, because I am learning Donor Perfect without the benefit
of someone on staff having experience. The level of patience of all support
personnel has been wonderful.

Everyone is very friendly but professional. They never make you feel like you
should already know how to do what you are needing help with. Thanks.

[The staff member] is good and knows DPO. However, when I've talked to some of the newer support people, they really only understand the basics....

You need to be cognizant of the fact that we/others are paying for the upgraded
support just so that we get timely responses to issues. Our experience has been
spotty when seeking support.

I haven't had to contact support very often but when I do they are always very
helpful and get the problem resolved.

Overall your support staff is great - some have more patience than others.
Patience is a virtue when dealing with individuals who are new to the software.
Also, when a support staff calls you and receives your voice mail, they should
be leaving their name and purpose for calling so you are aware who is working on
your tech inquiry and what they are calling about if you have put in more than
one inquiry.

While not all the comments are 100% glowing, we really do appreciate the feedback and strive to make DonorPerfect support the best it can be!

Boys & Girls Clubs, Capital Campaign Tips...

I'm blogging live from the Pacific Region Boys and Girls Club conference in downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. It's been a great conference, and I expect that we'll add on quite a few new clubs to add to our 100+ list of current Clubs across the country.

I also had a chance to learn some new things (always a good thing), and talked with Jay Grigsby, President of Netzle Associates. Jay and his 25 member team provide campaign consultation for all types of non-profit organizations, and he had a few key insights into finding potential donors, especially for private schools:

• The first task was to find those parents that paid for the tuition in full. Since almost all schools provide some kind of payment plan, those parents that pay in one lump sum are much more likely to be potential major donors.
• It's also important to find those people that are paying tuition for students whom are not their children. This list usually includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family members. Again, it's important to note if the payment was made in a lump sum or over time.
• Finally, it was critical to have the database scanned for Prospect Research purposes- and make sure to include ALL alumni. This will uncover hidden prospects, as well as provide a more definitive wealth rating for your existing pool of major donors. As I mentioned in the past, we have a fantastic relationship with Wealth Engine, and the prospect research data is automatically integrated within DonorPerfect, saving valuable time.

Successful campaigns don't happen by themselves, and it's much wiser to take the planning advice from people who have already hit all the landmines (and they have the battle scars to prove it!)