RP Blog

We added a new video to our ResultsPlus channel on YouTube this week that I thought might be of interest to some folks.  It's a quick video on the reasons why you might choose to add custom areas to ResultsPlus, including the actual creation of a custom table, setting up security for it, and creating a drop-down list for one of the fields.  The whole video is less than 5 minutes, and if you've ever wondered about why to create or how to create custom tables, this video is right up your alley.

Would you like to see other videos?  What topics (about ResultsPlus or fundraising in general) would you like to see covered in short-form?  Let us know in the comments!  Thanks!

We, at Metafile, wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and friends. Know that we are humbled to have customers like you, who spend all year working towards making the world a place for which we can all be even more thankful.

I’ve recently spent time working with our Support team to help them work with customers to troubleshoot “missing” donations.  As more and more data entry is automated, when something suddenly doesn’t work, it can be more difficult to figure out what went wrong and where the data is. Here are a few tips to help you troubleshoot the various ways a donation can go “missing.” 

The first step is to define what you mean by “missing.” Once you’ve defined the context for the missing donation, you can begin taking steps to find the donation.

• Was the donation posted to the donor’s record, but now you cannot find it?
• Did you receive a notice that an online donation was made, but the donation hasn’t automatically appeared in your database?
• Do you believe you should have a donation based on viewing your Moneris reports?
• Do you have another process that automatically imports donations on a schedule? Are those the donations that seem to be missing?
• Write a query to view all donations that came in on or around the time your missing donation was expected. Double-check to see if it is in the list, and you just missed it when reviewing via another method.

If the donation was posted to the donor’s record, but now you can’t find it:

• Can you find the donor’s record? If not, it may have been merged into another record. Look for that record; you will find the donation there.
• Double check whether or not anyone deleted it. CTRL+Shift+A will bring up the change audits screen in ResultsPlus 11. Run the audit report for changes in gift. If you find that it was deleted, you may want to consider changing a number of security settings and processes at your organization to prevent this from occurring in the future.
  • Disallow editing gifts after they’ve been posted for every user.
  • Update your policies and procedures manual to include steps for entering credit memos in correction scenarios for gifts.

If you received notice that an online donation was made, but it hasn’t already appeared in your database:

• Double -check with whoever has been designated as the recipient of any notices sent by the ResultsPlus Gift Polling Service. It’s likely this person received an email notifying him or her that there is a problem. Review the problem and take appropriate action. For example, if the error indicates that the Campaign code in the donation isn’t active, double-check your online giving site to see which campaigns are allowed and re-activate any inactive campaign codes in ResultsPlus that are also available via the website. Once the gift has arrived, you may need to eliminate this code option from your website, if it is truly supposed to be inactive.
• Check the ResultsPlus Gift Polling Service error.log file located on the server. Is there an error there? If so, take the appropriate steps to correct the error.
• Is the ResultsPlus Gift Polling service running? If not, restart it on the server.

If you are finding donations in your Moneris reports that are leaving you confused:

• Don’t forget that not all donations in the Moneris report were made via your website. You could have also entered them directly into your ResultsPlus system and processed them from there. Look for those donations the same way you would any other donation that is already in ResultsPlus. Here’s a tip:
  • One-time donations made online have receipts on the Moneris site that begin with your ResultsPlus Online site initials (account name).
  • Recurring donations made online have receipts on the Moneris servers that begin with the last name of the donor.
  • Donations made from within the ResultsPlus application have receipts on the Moneris website that begin with your Moneris StoreID.

These differences are designed to enable identifying which vehicle was used to process the card (or ACH transaction). They can be helpful when troubleshooting.

The missing donations come in from some other automated process:

• Confirm the other process ran.
• Check the ResultsPlus import.log file to see if the import encountered any errors during an import process.

This week’s blog post is short and sweet…And it comes with a picture. To celebrate October, we thought we’d share a picture of the ResultsPlus Support and Development team. You have probably spoken to some of us on the phone or via email more than once!

If you’re a fundraising professional, I suspect you might have the same pile of magazines and newspapers building up on your shelf that I do. You know them - the magazines and newspapers, whitepapers and shared articles that people have passed on to you because you’re next in line on the literary trail. If you’re like me, you have great plans to go through those while you’re eating lunch at your desk one day. Then months go by and the pile has not moved  or changed, except for an increase in height.

Well I finally did get to that pile this week and it reminded me of why I don’t just pass them on without reading them. There in the middle of the March 2013 issue of Fundraising Success was an article written by one of the most phenomenal people I’ve met in my life so far. His name is Bryce Gaudian, and I met him at an AFP conference where he was representing his company in their booth at the expo. He was warm and pleasant at first handshake, but over time I came to realize that was only one of his lesser assets.

Never have I met a person who lives and breathes ‘good’ in such a natural way. He runs marathons to help his favorite charities, usually for underprivileged children. But he doesn’t do it alone - he brings you with him.

I don’t think Bryce ever actually thinks about doing good things, he just does them. I think it’s in his DNA and I know it’s in his heart. I’d like you to experience this truly unique and exceptional example of philanthropy, so I’m offering this link to the Fundraising Success article  written by him. I hope you enjoy it and are inspired by it as much as I was.

We are pleased to announce that a new e-learning course has been added to the ResultsPlus.tv site. ‘CRM for Major Gift Development’ is a new six-session course that focuses on how ResultsPlus can help you manage the myriad of details involved with major donor cultivation.

The course is broken down into six sessions as follows:

• Introduction to Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)
• Setting Up ResultsPlus for CRM
• Stage 1: Identification
• Stage 2: Strategy
• Stage 3: Cultivation
• Stages 4 & 5: Solicitation & Stewardship

If you have a current ResultsPlus.tv subscription, you can access all of the sessions in the course simply by logging on to the site. For those of you who do not have an active subscription, we invite you to view the introductory session of the course free on our YouTube channel.  If you like what you see and think you could benefit from the remaining sessions of the course, grab your company credit card and sign up now at ResultsPlus.tv.

As always, let us know your thoughts and ideas for this new course and any other courses you’d find beneficial. 

In my non-professional life, I’m currently chairing a fundraising committee. The fundraising we are doing is funding a literacy initiative for local area first graders. Part of the fundraising effort involves, you guessed it, a special event. Because you, as nonprofit professionals, experience what it is to manage a project like this as part of your daily lives, I wanted to say “Wow!” I’m only doing this as a very limited gig, and I cannot imagine the necessary organizational skills, enthusiasm, and energy it must take to do this full-time. In the spirit of sharing, here are a few things I’ve learned during my time chairing the committee. These things are universal, and I’ve no doubt those of you with experience have already learned them many times over!

1. Getting organizational buy-in for the project is very important. We’ve been lucky; our organization is very excited about both the literacy initiative and the event. The committee heading the initiative did a wonderful job of presenting it. Once buy-in was there for the literacy initiative, the fundraising committee was formed, and we then presented the event idea. The buy-in is so exceptional that it leads to lesson 2.
2. When keeping people in the loop, be very careful about what you are ready to go public with and what is still in draft. I made a huge mistake when sharing an update to the board of the organization. My intent was just an internal update, but members of the board started running with it! I now know I should have been much clearer when I provided the update that the information was not yet ready for public distribution. Our committee hadn’t yet confirmed agreements for space, finalized positioning, and a number of other things. But this exposure did get us to hurry-it-up! (smiley face) All that aside, a board with that much excitement and desire to back our efforts is wonderful! We’ve got members already asking when they can start selling tickets!
3. Play well with others. Our event is taking place the same day as another event, and they are happening at adjacent locations. We’ve been working with the organizers of the other event to promote cross-traffic with the goal of improving attendance and response to both events. Why compete when we can work together instead?
4. Appreciate your committee members. I’ve worked with the people who make up the fundraising committee in the past, because we are all members of the same organization, but I’m amazed all over again at what a small group of dedicated, capable people can accomplish. Putting together a small group of go-getters produces incredible results. I hope each and every one of you has members and volunteers like this at your organization.

My hope for all nonprofit professionals, especially those who spend so much time managing projects that culminate in events, is that you have the great experiences I’m now having. My hat’s off to those of you who do this all day, every day!

Metafile has recently launched a YouTube channel for ResultsPlus. We have put a video on Solicitor Metrics on the channel for your viewing. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be uploading additional videos on industry topics. If there is a topic you’d like to see us cover, let us know!

Here’s the link to the new ResultsPlus Nonprofit CRM Fundraising channel, and if you wish, you can subscribe to it, as well.

Today I held a somewhat long conversation with…myself. It went something like this:

Query is one of the most powerful tools I have in my ResultsPlus toolbox. It’s my favorite thing to do in ResultsPlus. I can use it to analyze most any imaginable scenario, as long as I’ve got the data. With this kind of magical tool in everyone’s hands, how could it not be the hands-down favorite?

Ah, Self, let me count the ways for you…

1. I don’t know where to find the information I want to analyze.
2. I cannot ensure that the data is entered that I will later want to analyze.
3. Ands and Ors are confusing.
4. Parentheses: The bane of my existence.

Hmm…Self, you make some valid points. Let’s work through them.

1. Did you know that the database fields are identified in the tooltips for the fields? If you know where the information “lives” on the screens, you can hover your mouse pointer over the label and the database field name will appear. If you prefer to see the fields in list form, you can print the fields from the ResultsPlus Help system.
2. This one is tricky. At the start of any campaign, we probably identify how we want to analyze it later. Perhaps we can make certain fields required in ResultsPlus so we cannot accidentally forget to populate them. We can also set up default values in our Quick Entry forms for gift, pledge, membership, and adding new constituents. If the needs are more complex, we can talk with support about additional options. (OK, so maybe I didn’t have this whole conversation with myself, but the suggestions are still valid options! :-))
3. Ands and Ors can definitely be confusing. This is because, in English, sometimes “and” actually means “or” (“I want everyone from Minnesota and Iowa included”), but in query languages that NEVER happens. Being aware of when this is likely to occur goes a long way toward clearing up the confusion.
4. Ah, parentheses…think of them as the two arms of a hug. A hug you only need if you are working with both Ands and Ors in the same query. (After all, Ands and Ors are confusing, so a hug seems like it might be needed therapy!) Years ago, we had a trainer who had one of the best examples of how parentheses are used in “real life.” She used the example of ordering breakfast.
   
   A person would get steak and eggs, country potatoes or hash browns, and toast or fruit. In this case, the commas work pretty well as parentheses. Let’s re-write the menu:  Steak and eggs and (country potatoes or hashbrowns) and (toast or fruit)

If you still aren’t convinced the query is one of the best things ever, we also cover many aspects of query in the Help. Here is a snapshot of some query topics:

By the way, are some of you “beyond the basics,” but wanting more advanced query training? If so, let me know in the comments section of the blog. If we get enough interest, we’ll put together a webinar on advanced query topics!

Yahoo! is disabling accounts that have been inactive for at least 12 months, as of Monday, July 15th. Other people can apply for these accounts any time between that date and mid-August. After that, the accounts may be re-assigned by Yahoo! to new account holders. What does this mean for nonprofits? It means that you could have addresses that, if you do not confirm them within the next month, may have been transferred to people who have not opted into receiving communications from you. If you would like to read more about this change, you can do so on Yahoo!’s blog.

As a nonprofit, how can you confirm these email addresses? Put together a query of your database for all your active constituents who have not opted out of receiving communication from you and who have yahoo.com email addresses. How can you do this? Here’s a brief example

Find all records that have:

• A Status of Active (or no status at all)
• A MailCode (or email code) something other than “No”
• An email address that ends with “@yahoo.com”

You can then use the results of this query to send a quick email (either through ResultsPlus, if the list is fairly small -100 or so) or through your email list management provider (like Constant Contact or MailChimp), asking your constituents to confirm their email address. Some will respond to you, and that’s wonderful! And specifically in this case, the accounts that have been deactivated by Yahoo! will return an auto-reply stating that the account is no longer active. Use those bounces to update your database. My recommendation is to remove the email address from the record.

May all your email addresses still be active!

I’ve recently run into a number of really good articles and posts online about different topics. I thought I’d share a few of them with you this week.

Are you looking for information on online giving pages?

Here’s a nice best practices post I found: http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/fundraising-best-practices-sharing-the-results-of-donating-online-to-31-nonprofits/  And if you’re interested in having us help you create one, let us know!

Are you looking for help on implementing and evaluating your social media strategy?

Here’s one on the "math and science of social and mobile media": http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-math-and-science-of-social-and-mobile-media-a-spreadsheet-to-track-your-fundraising-success/

How about trends in direct mail?

Here you go: http://www.crmtrends.com/directmail.html

Are there other topics of interest you’d like to learn more about? If so, let us know in the comments section of this blog, and we’ll see what we can dig up to share!

This light-hearted blog post on “10 Things I Hate About Fundraising,” by Kathryn Brooke, found its way past my eyes, and it first made me laugh, then made me feel happy. No small accomplishment for a single post. I thought I’d pass it along. As an aside, software developers have some of these same experiences…I’m beginning to think that no matter our job descriptions, number 4 applies. :)

Happy reading!

If you’ve worked with mail merge letters, you are probably no stranger to seeing the occasional error. These errors are typically due to security and the way Microsoft Word attempts to protect you and itself from abuse. Below are a few common errors and what can be done to eliminate them. I’ve snipped this content from the ResultsPlus User Assistance, so never fear, you’ve got the answers at your fingertips all the time!

SQL Command Message
If you are doing a mail merge with Microsoft Word and receive a message that reads, "Opening this will run the following SQL command", click Yes.

This is a Microsoft security message. To prevent the message from appearing, you need to set a registry value. You can do this by following the steps in Microsoft KB article 825765.

"No fields to merge" Message
For mail merge to work in a network environment, two things must be done, both of which relate to the user's Windows profile.

1. The server with the file share for ResultsPlus must be added to the workstation’s local intranet sites (accessed via Control Panel|Internet Options|Security|Local Intranet). This sets up a trust relationship that enables mail merge to work from the word processing application on the user's workstation to the actual word processing document on the network.
2. The SQLSecurityCheck registry value must be set for each user’s profile on the workstation from which the user works. This can be done in one of two ways.
   a.  Follow the steps in the Microsoft KB article 825765, or
   b.  Run the ResultsPlus tool chest utility to set the registry value. To get the password needed to run the tool chest utility, contact Customer Support. This program is password protected because it can make registry changes, which require administrator-level security.

"mergeFields() empty" message
The first time you perform a mail merge in one of the later versions of Word with a document created in an earlier version, Word may display a message about “mergeFields() being empty. There are several reasons this can happen; one common reason is that Microsoft changed the way it works with header files in Word 2007 and newer.

In earlier versions of Word, the program used a relative path to header files, defaulting to header files with the same file name in the same directory as the mail merge document. In Word 2007 and newer, the program uses the path explicitly identified in a mail merge document. If the header file does not contain any data (i.e., it contains only the header record), Word will not allow you to update the document by saving the header. What does this mean? It means that if you move your documents to a new machine or directory, you may get the error again. (Good thing it’s easy to resolve!)

1. Open the mail merge document in Word (independently of ResultsPlus).
2. Open the Mailings tab on the ribbon.
3. Click the Edit Recipient List button.
4. On the Mail Merge Recipients screen, check the checkbox in the header row (next to “Data Source”).
5. Click OK.
6. Click the Save button in Word.

The document should now work fine in future mail merges.

Churches have been doing it for generations. The Combined Federal Campaign and United Way have both built their foundations on it. And if you’re not doing it, perhaps you should be. I’m talking about a recurring gift program - inviting your donors to make repeated gifts at regular intervals.

Whether you envision a once-a-month automatic credit card donation, or a bi-weekly employee payroll program, or some other variation of a recurring gift program, trust that it will have some very definite advantages:

• It can help donors to make larger gifts, with smaller payments spread out over time.
• It keeps donors engaged with every payment, and your organization’s name is in front of them every time they reconcile their account or see their paystub.
• It helps donors stay engaged. Retention rates are nearly double that of non-recurring donors.
• It helps keep administrative costs down by ‘batching’ gift processing and acknowledgment activity.
• Unlike pledges (which might be considered time-limited recurring gifts) the ongoing gifts of a recurring gift program don’t necessarily need an end date. This can allow you to focus less on renewal and more on the stewardship side of your relationships with recurring donors.

As with anything good, there are also a few cautions:

• You’ll need to actively market and solicit recurring donations, inviting donors to participate in this type of ongoing giving relationship.
• You’ll want to assure donors that you will handle their financial information carefully and securely, no matter how you receive it.
• Just because their gifts are ‘automated’ doesn’t mean the relationship is. You must continue to communicate with recurring donors - in new and more engaging ways.
• You’ll need to make sure to stay current with donors’ contact and financial information. Email addresses change and credit cards expire, so make sure to stay in touch regularly.

If you don’t think you have the staffing capacity to handle such a program, start with a small group of close friends and get a feel for the process. It may just prove to be easier than you think. Alternatively, you can hire a gift-processing vendor or caging company to handle the back-end process.

If you use ResultsPlus, here’s how we can help you manage your recurring gift program:

• Use Recurring Gift batches to group your regularly-processed donations. Each time you post a recurring batch an exact duplicate is created in anticipation of the next payment. So you only need to enter the gift information in once, then it is stored and repeated for you as you wish.
• You can use multiple recurring batches to accommodate the different intervals of payments your donors have chosen. You might have a bi-weekly recurring batch containing payroll-deduction gifts, a monthly recurring batch for your monthly donors, and a quarterly recurring batch for your campaign pledge payments.
• ResultsPlus 11 contains a new report that will help Moneris customers with their recurring gifts. It’s called ‘Expiring Credit Card Profiles’ and it allows you to identify recurring donors who’s credit cards are about to expire. That provides another opportunity to contact your donor and invite them to continue their ongoing support.
• For IATS customers, credit card expiration can be handled using the ResultsPlus calendar. When you first enter a recurring gift, simply add a new contact to alert you a few months prior to the credit card expiration date.

For an interesting discussion on recurring giving programs at small and medium-sized charities, check out this discussion on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s website.

For those of you with current and active recurring gift programs in place, we welcome your insights.

Your organization probably has a website, and you probably have a way to give online. But are you currently driving your donors to give online? Some donors will always prefer to give via the mail, but a growing number of donors find giving online to be quick and convenient. Here are a few tips to encourage your donors to give online. Some of them are likely obvious, but hopefully you’ll also find a few gems in this list.

1. Ask your donors specifically to give online (but not all the time).
2. Include a link directly to your online giving page as part of your email signature.
3. Include a link directly to your online giving page in every e-newsletter you send. This isn’t the same thing as an “ask.” This is keeping your donation page visible and accessible.
4. For every email with an ask, you should be sending 3 “non-asking” informative, program-related emails, according to the Nth Factor.
5. Include a link to your homepage (where you have a prominently displayed “Donate Now” button) in your snail-mailings. Direct mail is growing as a source for online donations, according to this research.
6. Make your “Donate Now” button the second most prominent thing on your home page (second only to your organization’s logo). I’m amazed at how often I still struggle to find the means to donate online when visiting certain organization’s websites.
7. Don’t be clever when naming your “Donate Now” button or link. Anything other than “Donate”, “Donate Now”, or “Give Today” is likely too obscure, especially for those of us who are having trouble finding the button/link to begin with.
8. Be active on social media. Online giving has increased in tandem with the rise of social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Do you have additional advice to offer? What has worked for you to promote online giving? Please leave your feedback in the comments section below!

One of our customers recently asked if there was a way to geo-code his ResultsPlus data to create a map to show where the families they serve are located as well as a map to show where their donors are located. There are numerous reasons why an organization may want to do this. Perhaps the goal is to create a way for your donors to visualize how many/much service is provided in a specific region/city/neighborhood. Or, perhaps it’s important to identify and see where most of your donors are coming from geographically, for example. There are various tools on the market to help you do this. There’s also a way to do it for free with Google Fusion. The rest of this post will discuss how to create maps and visualizations with Google Fusion.

If you intend to create a map of your data, the first thing you need to do is figure out what data you want. Create a query in ResultsPlus that qualifies the set of addresses you wish to use. For example, if you want to visualize how your donors are geographically concentrated (where they live), build a query to find all your active donors. Be sure to include Address1, City, State, and Zip code in the field fields you wish displayed in the result. Save the result as a spreadsheet (I used Microsoft Excel).

At this point, you will need to massage your data a wee bit. No worries, though, the steps to do it are below. For Google Fusion to geo-code and map your data, it requires that your address information be combined into a single column. Because ResultsPlus (and most databases) store address information in multiple fields, we will need to add a column to the Excel spreadsheet we just created. Open the spreadsheet you just created and add a column to the end of it. (I named mine “Combined.”) Populate that column by concatenating the Address 1, City, State, and Zip code columns. Here’s an example formula to do that:

=CONCATENATE(C2," ",D2," ",E2,", ",F2)

In the case of my spreadsheet, “C2” is Address1, “D2” is City, “E2” is State, and “F2” is the Zip code. Notice I put a little bit of formatting in there, as well (spaces and a comma), to create separation between the values. The result is that my new “Combined” column has a complete address in it. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV or TAB delimited text file. (Google Fusion cannot take the Excel file format directly.) Before you upload the file, you may want to remove all of the non-combined fields (and especially any columns that contain name information) to ensure you are not accidentally exposing more data to the web than you wish.

At this point your data is ready to be imported into Google Fusion.  For the exact steps to do this, I refer you to a great set of steps I found online.  The steps are incredibly simple to follow.  That being said, there are a few things I'd like to point out to make sure you are aware.

Google Fusion is designed for sharing. Because of this, you need to take special care to ensure you do not accidentally share your data unless that is your intention. In step 6 of the referenced article, there is an “Import New Table” dialog that displays. Be sure to uncheck the option in the following picture. If you do not uncheck this, your data will be available to others for download.

Later in the walk-through, you will also have the opportunity to manage the sharing of your map. Be sure to configure this for your needs. If you wish to share it online, you can leave it “unpublished” and link to it directly. You can also share it with only specific people who have a need to access it. Another option may be to use a screen capturing tool to take a picture of the map rather than sharing it, if you are concerned about what data you have made available. Just be sure to read Google Fusion’s Terms of Use and abide by them.

A final thought: If you have a lot of data, it can take quite a while to geo-code the file, so be sure you have only the data you really want mapped.

If you have done this and have an experience to share, please do so in the comments section!

It’s officially spring, and what better time to do a bit of spring cleaning on your database! A couple weeks ago there was a great article in Nonprofit Quarterly on doing just this. I highly recommend the read. And, if you’re looking for something ResultsPlus-specific, here are a few ‘cleanup’ tips.

• Place old, no longer used, mail merge letters in a subdirectory on your network to make it easier to pick active letters during the gift acknowledgment process, pledge reminder process, and other mail merge activities.
• Review the queries in your database. If they haven’t been run in a set amount of time, archive them (by exporting the definitions to a file and storing them in an archive location on your network) or delete them.
• De-duplicate your database.
• Find donors who haven’t responded in a set amount of time and mark them inactive.
• Deactivate old codes (Funds, Campaigns, Appeals, Source, etc.).
• Identify a couple things that take quite a bit of time and review if there is a way to make those things more efficient. (Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. So post a message in the comments section if you are wondering about a faster way to do something.)

In recent days and weeks, it seems that every major nonprofit journal, blog, professional association, and newsletter has been talking the “mobile” talk. While most donors still give offline (yes, it’s true), those who give online do so from a number of different devices including PCs, tablets, and smartphones. As more and more of the population are adopting smartphones, the ability to display an online giving page in a mobile-friendly format is becoming more important.

Our standard ResultsPlus web forms service, where we host online giving pages for customers, has been enhanced. The standard giving page is now “mobile aware.” If a donor visits a donation link via a mobile device, the page automatically optimizes for that type of screen display. This works for iPhones, iPods, Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and Android devices. iPads and Windows RT tablets are treated as regular computers (vs. a mobile device). Android tablets, at this time, are treated as mobile devices with the mobile view. The same features for successfully entering a donation are available regardless of the view. The differences are the skin, navigation, and control layout. Additional enhancements to further adjust layouts will be made in the future as it becomes clearer what optimizations customers and donors desire with this format.

Do you send (or want to send) birthday greetings to your donors and prospects? If you know the day or even just the month of your donors’ birthdays, you can send a nice birthday note easily and inexpensively using ResultsPlus. If you wish, you can send a card in the mail. If you prefer email, you can do that instead.

I’ll start by showing a query to qualify people with birthdays during a given month. After that, I’ll write about a few additional tweaks you may want to make, and I’ll mention a few things you may want to think about as you work out how you can implement a sustainable “birthday greeting” process for your donors.

So, if what you really want to do is find all the people in your database who have a birthday in March, for example, your query criterion would look like this:

Month([Folder].[BirthDate]) = 3

For those of you who write a lot of queries, you’ll probably notice this isn’t something you’ve seen before. When writing queries in the designer, the default is to qualify the entire date, not just a part of it. However, with a bit of manual work when initially writing the query, you can adjust the query to focus on one component of the date instead of the entire thing.

The steps would be to:

1. Select the Folder Table
2. Select the BirthDate field
3. Select the Equals (=) operator
4. Enter the value of 3
5. Manually enclose the [Folder].[BirthDate] field in Month() like so: Month([Folder].[BirthDate])
6. Remove the hash symbols (#) from around the number 3.

The above query would qualify every record in your database for which the month of March is a part of the BirthDate field. This includes your records marked as deceased and inactive. You will probably want to exclude those people from your query. To exclude them, you would do what you normally do to exclude those people. If it happens automatically in your default query, you’re all set. If you exclude them with stored criteria, be sure to select those options on Step 5 of the Query Design Wizard (shown below).

And there you have it: a query you can run to qualify people based on their birth month. You can use this query to send birthday greetings via snail mail or email. You can pick up the phone and call them. You can go to lunch with them. It’s up to you!

Many databases have upwards of 40,000 records in them. This could result in a large number of birthday greetings per month. This is perfectly OK, and you can send greetings to whomever you wish. However, if the number of people coming back each month is unmanageable, you may want to further narrow the result-set. Perhaps you want to limit the results to only donors and volunteers. Maybe you want to send your major donors and major donor prospects a card in the mail vs. an email (or maybe you want to call them), so you qualify them separately. These are a few things to think about when designing your query or queries for this purpose.

Do any of you send birthday greetings to your donors? Do you have additional criteria you use to qualify or disqualify people to whom you send greetings? If so, please let us know in the comments section so that we may all benefit from your best practices! …Oh, and if you now have the Beatles’ birthday song in your head, here’s a YouTube video to help you sing it out loud.

I thought I’d take a few moments to write about ways you can use the data you have in your database to identify patterns that may be useful. The rest of this blog post identifies some basic trends to look for and a few example things you can do after you’ve identified them.

Some patterns:

• How often donors give?
  a.  Total number of gifts ever given
  b.  Number of gifts per year
  
  
• What’s the average amount donors give?
  a.  Lifetime Average
  b.  Average per year
  
  
• Whose last gift was less than their largest gift (who is downgrading their giving)?
  
  
• Who is increasing the frequency of their giving?
  a.  Who gave more this year than last year
  b.  Who gave more often this year than last year
  c.  Who gave more often this year than 3 years ago

After identifying people in the above categories, what can you do with them?

• Perhaps promote a contest to see how many donors can give above a certain number of gifts? Or above a certain amount?
• Do you have giving levels? Are some of these donors on the verge of moving from one level to the next? Promote that!
• Do you, as an organization, want to increase the average amount of donations? Perhaps you can design an appeal for this.
• Do you want to catch the folks who are downgrading and find out why? Perhaps you can identify the reason and correct for it before it becomes an issue.
• Do you want to thank the people who are upgrading for their increased support?

Do you have other patterns you would like to identify or other things you can think of to do with the information? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments section!

For many organizations, the change of the calendar year results in a frenzy of year-end processes, including sending tax statements to donors. Now that February is here, and everyone has a few moments to recover from January, I’d like to ask you to do something.

Please participate in the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Annual Survey. Participation is easy; you can do it from within ResultsPlus, and it only takes a minute (even less for many organizations).

What’s In It for Us?

We are able to use the data submitted to generate statistics regarding how fundraising went last year. We can provide them to you, along with a few ideas on what you can do with the data and statistics to improve your performance. We can also do research into the market to see if we can help identify what contributed to the outcome of the data.

What’s In It for You?

You can compare your individual organization’s performance to that of the ResultsPlus customer base as a whole. You can also compare your individual performance to that of all Fundraising Effectiveness Project participants in the nonprofit sector.

• You can identify areas for improvement in your fundraising activities.
• You can identify where you are doing well.
• You can do your part as a “nonprofit community citizen” by contributing to the benchmarking and progress of the sector as a whole.

How Do You Submit the Data?

In ResultsPlus 11, you access the submission form from the System Add-Ins tab of the ribbon.

In ResultsPlus 10, you access the submission form from the Administration tab of the ribbon.

The button looks like this:

You then complete the form that looks like this and click the Submit button:

That’s it! Your aggregate data is sent. It is then combined with other organizations’ data to generate industry statistics everyone can use to evaluate the state of the sector as well as strengthen their individual giving programs.

Now that the newest version of Microsoft SQL Server© has been out for a while, we get calls from customers asking about compatibility between ResultsPlus and SQL Server 2012. I thought I’d share what we know from testing here.

ResultsPlus 11 supports SQL Server 2012. Our testing here has indicated no issues with it, but that doesn’t mean there are no issues with SQL Server 2012 itself. We know of one major change in SQL Server 2012 that can be disconcerting. There are situations where SQL Server can be restarted in such a way that it skips 1000 values in fields’ people typically think of as “auto-increment” fields. No records or data are lost, but when the server starts again, it simply jumps up 1000 numbers and then continues with the numbering scheme.

The numbering scenario was originally reported as a defect on Microsoft Connect by users in the wild. Microsoft has now stated that this behavior is by design, so we do not expect a return to the “old way.” It was done, per the statement here, as part of the changes made to increase performance of SQL Server.

What does this mean for ResultsPlus? It means that ResultsPlus will continue to work the same way it has in the past. However, it is now possible, though uncommon, to find legitimate gaps of 1000 values in fields that store auto-increment values. Example fields are FolderID, GiftID, AddressID, etc. This change in behavior on the part of SQL Server serves to highlight how important it is to have all of the auditing and logging features enabled in ResultsPlus as well as SQL Server, just in case you ever question a gap in a numbering sequence.

Here’s a quick rundown of the most common features you may want to have enabled:

• Upgrade to ResultsPlus 11. We have expanded the data logging to this version based on input from previous versions.
• Uncheck the user option to allow editing gifts after posting. If this option is checked, users can delete donations, creating gaps in the GiftID sequence. This will not prevent the deletion of unposted donations, however.
• Only allow one user (or login) to delete constituent records. To do this, place that login in its own workgroup. Then, grant Read Only or Hidden access to all workgroups except the one that should be used for Maintenance functions. This will ensure that all deletions (and constituent merges) go through a single source and are properly vetted at your organization prior to occurring.
• Set your database to be fully logged in SQL Server. This will enable you to identify all deletions by “replaying” the actions up until certain points. This is not something that can be handpicked, though, so don’t feel this is a way to choose to undo certain actions and not others.

• Consider enabling “Change Tracking” in SQL Server. There are a number of options for configuring this. Choose the options best for your organization and usage.

The new year has begun, and with any luck you’re still busy entering in all those last-minute gifts from your donors. You know the ones I mean - they arrive about January 20th and are dated for 12/31/12? You’ve probably already had the discussion on how to handle these generous donations, and hopefully you’ve come to terms with that decision, whatever it may be. When you do finally get all the 2012 gifts entered, here are a few suggestions for some year-end activities that ResultsPlus can help you with:

Idea #1: Send a final thank you to everyone who donated in 2012. Make it personal by including their total gift amount for the year.

How? Create a query to find all 2012 donors (GiftTransaction.DateRecvd between 1/1/12 and 12/31/12) and then create a new mail merge letter which includes the field called Folder.YrToDateGiftAmt. Use the query and the mail merge document to create personalized letters.

Note: it is important that you do this before you update your calendar year to 2013. When that happens, the Folder.YrToDate fields are cleared and will no longer contain 2012 data.

Idea #2: Send a donation report to each 2012 donor to assist them with their tax preparations.

How? Generate and send the Yearly Tax Receipt report for each donor who made a gift in 2012. This report generates a separate page for each donor, listing each gift made during the year and showing both the amount of the gift and the tax-deductible portion of the gift. If necessary, export the report to a word processor program and add your organization’s logo and contact information in the header portion of the document.

Idea #3: If your fiscal year is ending as well as your calendar year, reach out one last time to your Lybunts. Lybunts are the donors who gave ‘Last Year But Unfortunately Not This’ year and who are about to lapse. In other words, they gave in 2011 but not in 2012.

How? Generate the Lybunt report from the Year End category of the ResultsPlus reports menu. You’ll also find the Sybunt report, meant to show you donors who gave ‘Some Year But Unfortunately Not This’ year. These donors gave prior to 2011, and haven’t given since.

Note: it is important that you do this before you close your fiscal year. When that happens, the fields in the Fiscal Summary table are cleared and will no longer contain FY12 data.

How else? Create a query to find Lybunts (Folder.LastGiftDate Between 1/1/11 and 12/31/11) or Sybunts (Folder.LastGiftDate Less-than 1/1/11). Use their last-gift information in a personalized mail appeal to let them know you notice and that you hope they’ll remain a loyal supporter.

When you do finally wrap up your record-keeping for 2012, we hope you’ll find it was a great year and that the coming year is even better.

Best wishes for a successful and productive 2013.

Regardless of where your organization is in terms of your fiscal year, you can’t ignore the fact that the calendar year is quickly coming to a close. And even if your fiscal year doesn’t end for another 6 months, you might consider that your donors’ fiscal year - the one determined by the IRS - ends on December 31st.

If you’re a bit confused about calendar-year versus fiscal-year processing, you’re not alone. The staff on the Help Desk will be getting a growing number of calls on this issue in the coming weeks and months, so it seems like a good time for a review.

Fiscal year
This is the 12-month period of time determined by your organization’s board that is used to calculate budgets and financial statements. Sometimes it follows the calendar year, other times it is set to coincide with other schedules (like an academic year). You’ll know it’s the end of the fiscal year when your accountant begins asking for reconciliation reports and your auditor comes knocking on your door.

ResultsPlus keeps track of your current and past fiscal year giving in a special table called FiscalSummary. The currency of the data in this table rolls with the closing of your fiscal year:  the procedure clears out the data in some cumulative fields and prepares to begin accumulating data for the new year.  That’s why it’s important to run certain reports and make a backup of your database before closing the fiscal year.

One additional note on fiscal year-end processing in ResultsPlus:  if you are using the Giving Levels feature and you assign levels based on fiscal year giving, this data will also be cleared in preparation for assignments for the new fiscal year.

Calendar year
Obviously this is the 12-month time period which ends on December 31^st but more significantly for your donors, this is the reporting time period required by the IRS for tax returns. Like your accountant, so too may your donors ask for reports summarizing data at the end of their fiscal year. If you’ve not ever done so, peruse the list of reports in the ‘Yearend’ category of the Reports menu to help make that job easier.

ResultsPlus conveniently stores current calendar-year giving in fields in the Folder table with names beginning with ‘YTD’. The currency of this data rolls with the updating of your calendar year:  the procedure wipes out the data in the YTD fields and prepares to begin accumulating data for the new calendar year. That’s why it’s important to capture this data and make a backup of your database before updating the calendar year.

For more information on both kinds of year-end processing, check out the ‘Understanding Fiscal Year-End Processing’ topic in the user assistance area of ResultsPlus.

Wishing you all good things in the new year!

On the day I am writing this, it reached 63 degrees here in our corporate headquarters in Rochester MN. Why is this news, you ask? Because it’s the first week in December and snow is far more typical at this time of year. That must be why they call it ‘Tropical Minnesota.’

Generally at this time of year, hearty retirees are already making plans to head to Florida, Arizona, or Texas. Come January, that’s where they’ll go to wait out the cold Minnesota winters - on a beach, golf course, or poolside. They’ll chuckle quietly as they imagine the rest of us, bundling up in parkas and boots to make the daily trek to work in two feet of snow.

Actually, if warm and sunny weather in January is appealing to you, perhaps we can help. We’ve scheduled a three-day session of the ResultsPlus Essential Elements class to be held in San Antonio, Texas on January 22-24, 2013. It’s a great time to get a comprehensive overview of ResultsPlus, get comfortable with the major features, meet other ResultsPlus users, and enjoy the beautiful weather in the lovely state of Texas.

To learn more, see an agenda and register for the class, visit the ResultsPlus website. The deadline for registrations for this session is December 31, 2012 so don’t delay. Classes can fill up quickly and space is limited.

If you’ve attended a recent session of the ResultsPlus Essential Elements class and have any advice to offer other potential registrants, please share.

I feel sorry for the little holiday. Before it lays the frenzy of ghoulish costumes and buckets of candy, and then quickly following it is the all-consuming holiday season that eclipses all others in the commercial world. In fact, if it weren’t for the Thanksgiving holiday, marketers would have us jump from Halloween right into Christmas (and actually I noticed a few who did just that). And now with Black Friday starting earlier every year, it’s only a matter of time before someone decides to park food trucks near the long shopper lines, sell roasted drumsticks and pumpkin pie bites, and call it Turkey Thursday. Voila - no more worries about the crowded table at Grandma’s!

I say ‘thankful people unite!’ Prevent the disappearance of this important holiday by pledging to do one or more of the following:

1. Duct-tape yourself to the family dining table.
2. Go on a hunger strike for anything but traditional Thanksgiving fare.
3. Hide the Black Friday advertisements until all dishes are done.

This is all a little tongue-in-cheek, but it does offer a reminder to refocus the spotlight. Let’s shine it on the part of Thanksgiving which reminds us to count our blessings. Don’t let the marketing world deflect us from this holiday of appreciation. It’s only one little day, and it’s so easy to keep the tradition going. Here, I’ll start:

I’m thankful for all of the wonderful charitable organizations, both current and future, who are part of the ResultsPlus family and who allow us to be part of theirs. We are truly honored to support their missions and their good works.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I love the democratic process. (Don’t misunderstand me. I dislike the negativity and the seemingly 24/7 attack ads as much as the next person.) What I love is that we have the privilege and duty to listen to the candidates, learn their positions, and to think about our positions. We have to sometimes step outside ourselves and our own personal interests and attempt to think through the issues from the perspective of what isn’t just best for us personally, but for our fellow Americans as a whole.

Then, we vote. Our votes are tallied, a winner is identified, and we move forward. (And, thankfully, the ads end!)

So…aside from a huge sigh of relief that the craziness is at an end (one way or the other), what can we take away from this that has anything to do with nonprofit development and ResultsPlus? Well, let me replace a few words in the above statements:

…we have the privilege and duty to listen to the [donor], learn [his or her] positions, and to think about our positions. We have to sometimes step outside ourselves and our own [organizational] interests and attempt to think through the issues from the perspective of what isn’t just best for us personally, but for our [constituents] as a whole.

Sounds a lot like how nonprofits work to meet the mission every day, doesn’t it? Perhaps a bit like donor cultivation? If you think so, and are now intrigued as to how you can use ResultsPlus to help you with this, please take a few moments (perhaps with a cup of coffee) today and check out the tutorials and user assistance in ResultsPlus explicitly designed to help you get up and running with donor cultivation and CRM aspects of ResultsPlus.

Here’s how you can access some of those resources…

Tutorials (great to watch when taking a coffee break):

• Open ResultsPlus.
• Select the HowTo tab of the ribbon.
• In the Tutorials group, watch the following tutorials:
  How do I…
  Implement a cultivation strategy?
  Enter appointments?
  Assign an appointment to a solicitor?

You can also peruse the User Assistance:

• Open ResultsPlus.
• Select the HowTo tab of the ribbon.
• In the More Information group, click the ‘All topics’ button.
• Expand the ‘Developing Major Donor Relationships’ topic in the Content pane.
• Read!

Most donors these days expect organizations to provide a way to donate online. However, not every online giving page is designed to best meet donor expectations. Here are a few tips to help you review your online giving page and make adjustments to ensure your donors have an efficient, secure, and friendly online giving experience. And if you have a tip I’ve not mentioned, please submit it in the comments section so that we may all benefit from it!

K.I.S.S. Try to adhere to Kelly Johnson’s K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). Keep your form as simple and straightforward as possible. Don’t offer a lot of options (at least not in a manner that is visually “in the way” of completing the transaction), and don’t ask for a lot of information. Name, address and email are generally required, but truly consider whether or not you need the donor’s work information or other information you typically gather in “offline” formats. You will likely have opportunities later to gather this information. Don’t risk losing the donor and their gift because they abandon the donation form due to length.

Security, Security, Security! Be sure your online giving form is secure, and that donors can see that it is secure. The URL in the Address bar of the web browser should start with https://. You may also wish to include text at the top of the form along the lines of “Please use our secure donation form to support our mission…” Also consider embedding the security image into the form (or having it done, if you use an outside vendor). Imagery is often easier for donors to see and understand than reading text.

Make the Page Your Own. Be sure your online giving page is branded for your organization. Donors will second guess themselves if they click a link to donate, and they are presented with an online giving form that looks nothing like your organization’s branding.

We try to help customers follow these guidelines when we work with you to set up online giving forms on our servers, but these tips are valid whether we host your form, another vendor hosts your form, or you have your very own web server hosting your giving form!

If you would like to learn more about ensuring your online giving form is the best it can be, I recommend taking a peek at MasterCard’s Top 10 Best Practices and Guidelines (pdf) .

If you’re like most non-profits, you’re probably currently at some stage in the process of sending out a year-end appeal. Perhaps it’s an email appeal, or a phonathon, or a traditional mail appeal, all intended to take advantage of the most giving time of the year: December. My guess is that you’ll be sending it to anyone who hasn’t been specifically disqualified for some reason (requested no mail, deceased, etc.). In fact, it’s probably a really good time to use a ‘hail Mary’ approach for your appeal to anyone you know.

But when you’re done with that approach, I’d like to suggest you move to the other end of the spectrum and look very specifically at some important segments of your database. What you glean from these segments can prove to be essential to your future plans.

First-time donors
Take a close look at the list of donors who made their first gift to your organization in the past year and look for patterns and common characteristics. Were they related to the constituents you serve? Were they young or old? Were they brand new to your organization or have you been communicating with them for many years?

ResultsPlus query:  Folder.FirstGiftDate between 01/01/2012 and 12/31/2012

Last-time donors
These are the donors that you are just about to lose - your Lybunts. They gave last year, but have not (yet) given this year. These are critical constituents for your organization because it takes far fewer resources to maintain them than it does to acquire new donors. Plus, if you can communicate with them directly and find out why they are considering leaving the fold, you can potentially gain invaluable feedback on how your organization and its mission are perceived in the community.

ResultsPlus query:  Folder.LastGiftDate between 01/01/2011 and 12/31/2011

Frequent donors
There is a special significance for people who make more than one gift to your organization in a year. It suggests that your relationship with them goes beyond a once-a-year giving routine. If they give two or three gifts during the year, they are at least open to your repeated requests for support. If they give monthly through a sustaining gift, then they have incorporated your organization into their monthly lives with their other household activities. Either way, take a look at these key constituents and find out what they share, then go look for others with similar characteristics.

ResultsPlus query:  Folder.YrToDateGiftCnt greater than 1

So after you’re done casting a wide net to gain new donors, don’t forget to get out the magnifying glass to take a closer look at the ones with whom you already have relationships. Evaluate any criteria or demographic you can think of and look for indicators that will help lead you to other potential donors. These segments of your donor database can teach you a great deal if you invest the time to ask and learn.

 Yaaarrr Maties! September 19^th is an auspicious holiday…the 10^th Annual Talk like a Pirate Day. If you’ve been wondering just how to celebrate this holiday at your organization, I suggest talking to your colleagues in a pirate voice.

To give you a few ideas on how you can approach your unsuspecting colleagues, please watch this brief video on using the “spreadsheet”-style gift entry form in ResultsPlus 11, delivered in, you guessed it, a pirate voice. Not only can you entertain with your pirate voice, you can educate, as well. Happy Talk like a Pirate Day!

Click here to watch the video.

Have you ever had a bunch of tabs open in ResultsPlus and wanted to close them all at once? Use SHIFT+Escape. This will close all of the ResultsPlus tabs you have open in one step.

Or, have you wanted to navigate all those open tabs without using your mouse? Try ALT+Right arrow or ALT+Left arrow to navigation back and forth among the open tabs on the main ResultsPlus screen.

SHIFT + F9 from any constituent record allows you to do a quick mail merge to just that constituent! 

And here’s an exciting tip: if you want to make quick entry even quicker, you can upgrade to ResultsPlus 11. With ResultsPlus 11, you can add donations, pledges and memberships just as if you were working in a spreadsheet.

Interested in additional tips? Press F1 to open the Help in ResultsPlus, then search on the word “shortcuts!”

If someone told me I would no longer have access to the internet, I’m pretty sure I would cease to function. It’s not because of email, though I am quite dependent on that mode of communication. It’s not because of Facebook or Twitter, since I don’t have exciting minute-by-minute details to share about my life. And it’s not even shopping, since I actually prefer to do that the old-fashioned way.

The thing I would not be able to live without is ‘answers.’ I am completely dependent on the ability to get an immediate answer to almost any question I can imagine. Most often the questions are trivial (what was the name of that song?) or genealogic (what year was my 3rd great grandfather born?) or technical (what does this error message mean?). But when I really need a particular and meaningful answer, I seek out like-minded people. In short, I look for forums.

Forums are like support groups for products. The people who post questions in this public arena help to start the dialog, and those who post answers, comments, and shared experiences help keep the dialog running. The result is that anyone who visits the forum can benefit.

You can see where I’m heading here, right? Of course there is a forum for ResultsPlus users. It’s easy to access - right from within the product. You’ll find a happy little button on the How To tab called User Forums. It’s in a ribbon group called Talk to others, which is exactly my point.

When you click the User Forums button, you’ll be prompted to login with your website credentials - or to create a new account if you haven’t already done so. Once there, click the Support Forums link in the Find Answers section. If prompted, enter your credentials again as you proceed to the forums listing, then scroll down to the ‘ResultsPlus Support’ section to find the discussions you need.

Consider sharing your question or advice on the forums today. No matter what takes you there, you’ll be among friends.

Every once in a while we hear from a customer who has encountered something catastrophic at their site. This is a terrible thing to hear, and we feel an incredible amount of sympathy for organizations in this situation. It can be made even worse when we hear that the organization hasn’t been backing up their data. Why? Because an organization in this situation may have just lost one of their most valuable assets.

How important do we, at Metafile, believe backups are? Well backup recommendations are included in the best practices guide for ResultsPlus, they are included in the online help, the application asks if you have a backup before every operation in ResultsPlus that changes a massive amount of data, we blog about backups, write newsletter articles about backups…I’m sure you get the picture.

Here are our recommendations for backups:

• Back up the database that contains your data every day.
• Label the backup disks or tapes clearly. Use a different set of disks or tapes labeled Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs, and Fri. This method ensures that you will have a reliable backup within the week, even if the files became corrupted within the last day or two.
• Metafile recommends that you make an archived copy of your data at least once a month for permanent storage. This method gives you five previous daily backups and a series of monthly backups from which to restore your data.
• Store the backup tapes or disks carefully.
• Assign two people in your office to be in charge of backing up and periodically restoring the data to a different directory to ensure that your backups are still viable. If you are on a network, assign someone to keep in close contact with whoever backs up your system to be sure you have up-todate, usable backups.

Backing up your data may be the single most important thing you can do to hedge against a major catastrophe. When was YOUR last backup?

Finding IT consultants who are qualified to work with SQL Server can seem like a tough thing, especially if you aren’t familiar with SQL Server yourself. A customer asked an interesting question the other day, and I thought I would share the question with the hope that it helps others in their quest to hire qualified IT consultants.

Customer: We are looking to find an IT consultant with a background in SQL Server. How would you go about looking for someone?

Response: While coming up with appropriate questions is difficult, it’s even harder to evaluate the responses without an interviewer on-hand who is familiar enough with SQL Server to evaluate the responses. That being said, here are some tips, offered as-is.

• Look for someone who has a Microsoft certification in SQL Server. An MCTS is the lowest certification. An MCITP is a certified database administrator. There are also certifications beyond that (MCM- Microsoft Certified Master, for example), but they are less common. A certification isn’t a requirement to find someone who is experienced with SQL Server, but it is a way to lighten your own load when trying to find people who are qualified. There are different specializations (business intelligence, developer, etc. you are looking for a database administrator -type).
• A few very basic questions to ask to root out the total poseurs (with the “correct” answers for which to listen)

1. What non-code SQL Server tool would you use to identify whether or not TCPIP is enabled for SQL Server?
   Answer: SQL Server Configuration Manager
2. What does the SQL Browser do?
   Answer: It enables SQL Server to broadcast itself on a network so that remote systems/workstations can see SQL Server and connect to it. You may also get the shorter and workstation-centric answer: it allows workstations to see and connect to the SQL Server.
3. I’d recommend putting this next one on paper for the interviewee to read: You need to set up security for a group of Windows users. These users are all in the same Active Directory group, and there are no people in this group who should be disallowed from accessing the database. These users should be able to read and write to a specific database, but they should not be the owner of the database. Assume the database is already attached and available in SQL Server.
   Below are 4 potential instructions sets. Note that more than one answer may be correct (this question is NOT asking which way is “best”). Please identify which instruction set(s) will accomplish the task of setting up security and access. (Here’s a link to the document containing the instruction sets (.pdf).)
   Answer: All four instruction sets are correct in that they will accomplish the task. However, Instruction Set A provides the way that is fastest. Instructions sets A and C provide a way that is easiest for IT to maintain over time with employee turnover.

The above items are not explicit to troubleshooting SQL Server; Instead, they identify candidates who have or have not had even basic experience working with SQL Server. Notice that not one of these questions is specific to ResultsPlus; there is no need for that when looking for qualified SQL Server IT consultants.

We promise to have a “lighter” post next week! :-)

I’m a runner. There…I’ve said it. I run marathons, I run 5Ks and 10Ks, I do Zombie runs and Warrior runs, even relays…if you can run it, I’ll do it.

What does this have to do with fundraising?

I’ve come to learn that there are a number of similarities between runners and fundraisers. Fundraisers are always focused. You are planning the next appeal while working through the responses from the last appeal much the same way runners are training for the next race while reviewing their past performance. You use the results of the last campaign to make changes for the next campaign. Runners use the results of their past runs to adjust training schedules and plans. Both runners and fundraisers have to carefully plan how they will roll out their training and campaigns to ensure enough training happens without overtraining leading to injuries (for runners) and messages are on target and in time (and not arriving during a time when they won’t get read) for fundraisers to make a campaign as effective as it can be.

Runners and fundraisers both tend to be outgoing when it comes to their passion. Running events, like fundraising, are largely social activities. We both develop fellowship and relationships with other like-minded people. We also like to meet new people and get to know them and their interests. But every now and again while you are out and about, if you are like me at all, you meet a person and have a moment where you are an itty bit afraid of admitting who and what you are. For runners, this is because we know we are going to hear about how we’re destroying our knees or that we’re headed for an unrecoverable injury. Or that we’re simply crazy. For fundraisers, it may be that people regale you with the few high profile cases of mismanagement or how nonprofits should all act more like businesses. (Or that you are simply crazy.*grin*) For both runners and fundraisers, hearing these comments can be disheartening, because we know these situations to be the exceptions, not the rule. And this brings me to the reason for writing this post. The people who make these comments are also the exceptions, even if it doesn’t feel like it right after such an encounter.

Each day, we get the opportunity to meet new friends, and isn’t it wonderful when we meet people who are interested in who we are and what we do…and they are interested in joining us on our mission (whether the mission is as silly as running a 200 mile relay race or as mind-bendingly amazing as finding a cure for cancer). And for you fundraisers who continually strive to think of new ways to meet new people interested in the same things you are (and continue your relationships with the ones you already know!), here are a few great ideas I’ve recently seen and heard from others to help you get your creative juices flowing:

• Have a city tour (How many of us haven’t done a tour of our own city to see it from the same perspective as visitors?)
• Hold a happy hour
• Sponsor a day at the ball game (Does your community have a minor league or semi-pro team?)
• Have an ice cream social

Have you recently done something you’d like to share? Or, if you’re going to be in Rochester, and just want to go for a run, let me know that, too!

I was recently perusing the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s website, and I ran across a transcript from a conversation fundraisers had on persuading donors to give “big.” Specifically, this conversation was on the relationships and time involved, along with other aspects of persuading donors to give. The conversation was a really good one, so I thought I’d share it as this week’s blog post. Please feel free to check it out here: http://philanthropy.com/article/How-to-Persuade-Donors-to-Give/131832/

Here’s a quick list of some of what struck me from the conversation:

1. Avoid the word “need”.
2. It can take 3-5 years to build the type of relationship that leads to a major gift.
3. The word “invest” is an excellent one to use when referring to the donation. It is an investment in your organization.
4. We’ve heard this one before, but it bears repeating: These relationships are built on the donor’s timeline, not some predetermined timeline that you can “cut and paste” from one donor to another.
5. The speakers were open about what they find appealing in a major gifts officer as well as what turns them off. This was good stuff!

Are there specific aspects of the conversation that strike you as really important? Are there things you’ve learned in your fundraising efforts worth sharing with other fundraisers? Let us know in the comments section! Thanks!

Data Data Everywhere!

Metafile is co-hosting a webinar with Fundraising Success on using data to optimize your fundraising results. This free webinar will cover topics such as how to clean your data, how to use it to identify donor interest, how to communicate with specific segments, and so on. The session will be moderated by Margaret Battistelli Gardner, Editor-in-Chief of Fundraising Success.

If you would like to register for this webinar, please do so using the link below. The webinar will be held June 7^th, 2012 from 2 PM - 3 PM Eastern Daylight Time (1 - 2 PM Central, 11 AM - 12 PM Pacific). Register now!

Wow! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. We’ve had numerous customers asking us to provide an online giving form for them. And we’ve been happy to oblige. Working on these web forms in recent weeks made me wonder how many of our customers are aware that we can do this, so I thought I’d share what “this” is.

At Metafile, we can build, host, and provide integration for online giving forms.

In most cases, customers choose our “standard” form. With the standard form, you can choose which funds to allow donors to choose from (if any) and how you want the funds displayed (for example, “Unrestricted”). You can allow donors to make recurring monthly donations. You can choose from a number of fields to display (name and address information, for example). And, you can support gifts in tribute. With the standard form, part of the initial setup involves our “skinning” the form to match the branding on your website, providing your donors with a consistent website experience.

We also have a few cases where customers have highly customized needs. In those cases, we build a completely custom form.

Once the forms are built (from the standard or the custom options), we host the forms so that customers can provide their donors with a safe, secure giving experience. And we provide you, our customer, with a tool that allows you to securely transfer the donor data into your ResultsPlus database.

However, you don’t need to have us build and host your forms! As always, you can have anyone you wish “do” your online giving for you and still bring the information into ResultsPlus via our online gift retrieval as an option when creating batches in ResultsPlus. If you don’t know what this is, take a peek in the Help system to learn more!

If you are interested in learning more about any of the options, let us know with a call or email. Or, if you’ve built your own and have experience you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section!

Having recently returned from a conference, I’ve been thinking about some of the current themes in nonprofit technology. As in the past, integration (vs. silos) was a major topic. In recent years the concept of silos vs. integrated systems has come up time and again and I’ve often felt the discussion missed the mark. While in the extreme, data silos can definitely contribute to issues, the major barrier to effective, consistent communication and knowing your constituents is often a human one.

As a technology provider, I really wish software could work magic and address the “people” aspect of integration, but it cannot. This year the discussion finally began to move away from data silos and on to work and intellectual capital silos. As I sat listening to the presenters, I was almost giddy over the shift in the conversation. There was a brief discussion about the concept of a 360 degree view of your constituent and, interestingly enough, that perhaps it isn’t necessary, despite the marketing rage with software vendors lately. Perhaps the “sweet spot” of cost vs. benefit is really somewhere else…say 245 degrees, for example. This view, while still contingent upon some shared data, has less to do with how you store your data and what tools you use and more to do with cross-departmental communication. For example, your traditional development department may be communicating a different message than your online marketing folks (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) because the two groups aren’t aware of what the other group is doing. Perhaps your traditional development folks and online marketing folks have different goals and are unaware of how these goals can be synergistic. With some of this in mind, I thought I’d identify a few of the changes organizations can make to integrate fundraising strategies so that constituents receive better, more consistent communication and I’ll even mention a few about data!

• Hold a meeting. I’m not a fan of meetings, but sometimes, they are necessary. This meeting should involve both traditional development and online marketing. Come prepared to identify your past few appeals and campaigns, bring notes on who received the messages and the timing of those messages. Compare notes to see where there were messages going to constituents from both groups. Were they in sync campaign-wise? Were they too close together? Were they too far apart?
• Work on your next campaign or series of appeals together. (This means more meetings, sorry.) Plan your messaging.
• Figure out what bits of data each group would like to know. Often times, this information can easily be made available in both traditional fundraising systems and online marketing systems. Or, perhaps you can grant your online marketing folks access to the constituent database.

•  You can update your database to reflect that constituents were sent specific emails. In ResultsPlus you can run an import with the names (emails are frequently good links to records in ResultsPlus) and set an appeal, a message title and date. Another way is to run the mail merge wizard using a query and defaulting the same information; you don’t actually have to send a letter or email, you can choose a record-only option. Doing this enables users (both traditional development and online marketing) to see a more well-rounded view of communications constituents are receiving.
• Gather email addresses from traditional mailings so that the online marketing folks can make use of them.
• Upload lists to online resources like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp for your campaigns.
• Update mailing codes in fundraising software to reflect opt-outs from email without losing the ability to communicate using other methods, like regular mail.If you find it valuable, you can even work through your Twitter follower and bring the data you wish into your fundraising software to use as you slice and dice your data. Here’s a link to a site with great free social media tools.

The above data components are easily done with traditional import/export features. Or, if you have high traffic offline and online communication plans, these updates can be automated.

• If you have a donor who usually gives online, but they give at a rate that indicates they should perhaps be identified as a major gift prospect, let your major gifts officers know. Let he or she drive the communications for that donor. If you have someone who prefers to only receive online communications (and this person’s giving history reflects that), inform your online marketing folks of this donor and let them drive that.

Are there other things you are doing to promote collaboration between departments at your organization that result in more effective campaigns? Is there something you struggle with? Let us know below. We’d be happy to try and help!

For those of you who are wondering what the NTC is, it’s the nonprofit technology conference held by NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) each year. Historically, I’ve enjoyed the conference and always learned a lot when I’ve attended. This year is no different! I wanted to jot a few notes about what I’ve learned so far, and to invite any of you reading this who are also at the NTC to drop me a note.

The opening plenary session was given by Dan Roam on using pictures to define and communicate problems. It was a wonderful session, and I came away with the following nugget:

“Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it.” The speaker also shared that the beginnings of the solution are always in the definition (picture) of the problem.

Of course, Mr. Roam had many other interesting tidbits during the session, but I found that one very empowering. Each of us is in a position to solve the problems we understand and can explain well to others.

I also attended a session given by Keith Heller on successfully implementing a CRM system. Along with other great information, a number of things stuck out for me as he was covering a project that spanned many, many months:

1. Goals and Measurement: You need to know what your goals are and how you intend to measure where you are regarding meeting those goals. This impacts a number of other decisions.
2. Plan to use the system the way it was designed to get the most out of it.
3. Know, train and use data entry standards for your organization.
4. Define who does what in the system. Know who fills what roles.
5. Get Buy-In from people who will be using it. (To me this seems like one of the most important components.)
6. Do a test conversion so users can work with data they know before the final conversion to identify where changes may need to be made both configuration-wise and adjustment to your procedures-wise.

This is not a comprehensive description of all the things discussed during the session, but just a few great things that I think are easy to read and digest in a quick post. And hey! If you’re at the conference let me know!

If you read the headline for this post, you likely already know what very special holiday occurred this week on March 14^th. It was Pi Day, and I’m not talking about apple, pumpkin or the yummy chocolate silk varieties; I’m talking about that very special number: π 

When I think of Pi, I think of hours spent in Algebra II and how the teacher had Pi printed to I-don’t-know-how-many digits taped to all four walls, completely enclosing the room in this glorious number. I thought that I’d use the first few digits of that number today to identify some things you may or may not know about ResultsPlus. 

3               You can include up to 3 default sort levels in any query you write in ResultsPlus. And if you wish, you can change them after the results are returned

                  and sort any way you please. 

.                I’m making a point here (everyone groan at the pun), let’s move on to the next number. 

1               The No. 1 thing you should always do with your database is back it up. 

4               There are at least 4 ways you can create reports in ResultsPlus.
                      1.  You can write a query and format the results as a report for printing.
                      2.  You can export the results of that query to Excel and add pivot tables and charts, and whatever else you can imagine.
                      3.  You can run a standard report designed to accept queries as the data source.
                      4.  You can create your own report in Crystal Reports and add it to the ResultsPlus reports menu. 

1               You can see how your fundraising is going with 1 button - The Performance Overview button on the Performance tab. 

5               5 days a week the phone lines are open for support. Of course you can send an email any time!

9               There are way more than 9 “shortcuts” to various ResultsPlus features. My favorite ones are available by right-clicking on items in ResultsPlus to

                 access the most commonly used features in those areas.

2               There are 2 main methods of accessing the ResultsPlus Help system. Click the All topics button to open the Help system at the beginning, or hit F1 from

                 any screen in ResultsPlus to open the help to the topic specific to the screen you are viewing. (Hey, that’s another shortcut!) 

6               There are 6 ways to access mail merge (both regular letters and email) features. You can access mail merge from these locations:
                      1.  Individual screens (like a donor’s gift)
                      2.  Batch Processing
                      3.  Pledge Processing
                      4.  Membership Processing
                      5.  Home tab
                      6.  Context menus: right-click on any list of retrieved records 

5               There are 5 variations of the ‘Donor List’ report. Check them out to see which one’s right for you.

As we’re getting ready to release ResultsPlus 11 (phase 1), I’ve been thinking about version 12…and 13…and… It comes up fairly often that a customer asks how to submit a suggestion for an enhancement, and it’s easier than you might think. Every enhancement suggestion submitted, either by email, phone, or pony express, gets entered into a central location and reviewed regularly as we are laying out plans for upcoming versions.

So, how do you make a suggestion?

You can share your idea with a support person on the phone. Or, better yet, submit it as an email to support so that your exact words are entered as part of the suggestion. Let us know what business problem this solves, or in what way it makes doing business easier for you. Let us know where you’d like to see it in the product. You never know, your suggestion may be in the next version! While we do not respond directly to each suggestion, know that they are received and that we appreciate every submission!

How do we evaluate which enhancements “make the grade”?

We look for how applicable the suggestion is to nonprofits as a group vs. solving an issue unique to one organization’s way of doing business. We also consider how many people/organizations have submitted similar suggestions, and the scope of impact on the application’s current functions, both positive and negative. Additionally, we research what capabilities the coding tools we use (and those we don’t) have, and whether or not these tools will enable us to implement the requested features. All these things combine to give us an idea of whether or not it’s “time” to implement a suggestion. Sometimes, we can implement them right away. Other times, it isn’t as easy to do.

For example, we reviewed the suggestion to allow splitting of donations between multiple campaigns and appeals over a period of years and versions. Because of the disruptive nature of the feature (impacted queries, reports, past reporting, etc.), it took a few versions before we could implement it. We needed to make sure it was wanted by a wide enough group of customers that the disruption didn’t outweigh the benefit. As you may already have experienced, that enhancement was in version 10.

Another example of an enhancement that has taken years of review and design is the implementation of row-level security-coming to ResultsPlus 11 Platinum edition. This is something that could be done technology-wise but was, before now, cost-prohibitive to implement for mid-sized nonprofits. With new features in 3rd party toolsets and platforms now available, we were able to design and implement these functions without adding cost to the product.

Even if your suggestion doesn’t get immediately implemented, know that all suggestions are reviewed, many times over years in some cases, so never hesitate to submit a suggestion!

I’ve been seeing a lot written about segmentation lately. I even attended a Network for Good NonProfit 911 webinar on that very topic this week-and it was excellent. The concept of segmenting your prospect and donor data is nothing new, but the recent re-focus on the concept has me “all aflutter.” I love segmentation because it’s a beautiful example of how you can make all that data you’ve been so diligently gathering and entering into your fundraising CRM system work for you.

By segmenting your data you can:

1. Send tailored communications to your constituents, ensuring the message they receive is geared toward them.
2. Run reports to compare how various segments respond to your campaigns.
3. Run queries to slice and dice your data based on any number of ways you wish to segment your data (constituency, gender, profession, highest level of education, marital status, campaigns, funds, gifts given in tribute, soft credits, and the list goes on).
4. Create reports for your queries using the quick reporting tools in ResultsPlus. A go-to function of this tool is “sum”, but did you know you can also get averages, and perhaps even more importantly, medians? When working with donation amounts, for example, averages can be skewed high or low by your outlier donors, but the median will be the amount below which half of your donors gave and above which the other half gave. It is often a better indicator of the amount your “middle” donors give.
5. Make data-driven decisions! Items two through four put you in the best position to make decisions and to improve how you work on your relationships with your donors, prospects, and volunteers. They can provide visibility into your past campaigns and appeals, identifying which ones worked well for which segments (and which ones didn’t work as well as you intended). This information is invaluable when working on new campaigns because it can help steer your efforts towards the actions and messages that are proven to work, and it can bring to light the areas you may want to adjust.

With all these great things you can do with segmentation, perhaps a slight distillation of the term is in order. There are, what some consider complex, forms of segmentation like RFM (also known as RFA analysis in some circles). This form of analysis generates what is called a segmentation code. The code is made up of 3 parts:

• Recency: When the last donation was made (usually defined as a range, like 1-3 months, 3-6 months, 6 months - 1 year, etc.)
• Frequency: How many times the constituent has made a gift (also a range like 1-3, 4-6, etc.)
• Monetary (or Amount): This part of the code can be either the total amount of gifts ever given (the more common approach) or the single largest gift ever given.

These 3 items likely sound familiar to you, as most fundraising databases track this information. What’s unique about generating the code is that you:

1. Don’t have to write a bunch of individual queries to put all the combinations for Recency, Frequency, and Amount values together to retrieve records.
2. Don’t lose the historical information when the donor makes a new donation. Because a new donation changes the Recency and Frequency values (and usually the Amount, as well), so the segment changes. This is a good thing, but you may not want to lose the past segments a constituent has “passed through” as you’ve produced your appeals (because this information can be really useful when analyzing performance later).

However, there’s more to segmentation than RFM analysis. And for many organizations other ways of segmenting data are just as useful, and sometimes more useful, than RFM analysis. You may choose to review segments based on constituency, marital status, a special interest category, people you know are on twitter, Facebook, etc. Perhaps you even combine these things with one or more aspects of RFM analysis. The key is to know why you are looking at specific segments, and what you intend to do with your findings. Is it to learn how one behaves compared with another? Is it to analyze whether one segment is getting a more well-rounded view of your organization because of your approach to communications? Is it to help a specific segment to be more involved with your organization in some way? The questions are as endless as the ways you can segment your data. And this is a very beautiful thing.

Are there specific ways you segment your data that have served you well? Do you have a way you’d like to segment your data but are unsure how to go about it? Feel free to post them in the comments section.

If you read Marcia Grimm’s post last week mentioning she wished she would have recognized the value of reports (where she even shared a few), you may be wondering about what other reports are available. Here are a few common ones I like to highlight.

ResultsPlus reports are divided into a number of categories. I’ll focus on one or two reports from the most popular categories.

Batch
Batch reports are printed by using the batch number associated with each donation. These reports tend to work really well for reconciling deposit slips, for comparing against accounting systems, and for use by auditors.

Folder
Reports in the Folder category are based on various types of constituents in your database. You can run lists by constituency, type (individual, corporation, foundation), etc. You can also run your Top N Donor lists. These lists are great tools to have in campaign planning meetings when you wish to identify lead donors for new campaigns.

General
The Activity reports are great reports to use for Board meetings. The Activity Report by Campaign is especially helpful at various checkpoints throughout your campaign lifecycle. It can be run by date range, so you can view the entire life of the campaign, or compare two different periods.

Gift
The Gift category contains Donor Recognition reports that are great for printing or submitting to printers for inclusion in newsletters or annual reports. Another set of informative reports is the set of Gift Constituency Analysis reports. The Gift Constituency Analysis by Campaign is an excellent report to use if you’d like to see how much a specific segment is contributing to a specific campaign effort. It will display the number of donations, the total given, the average gift amount, and the largest gift. What’s really nice is that it also displays the percentage of people in the segment (Constituency, in this case) who have contributed, helping you identify if your messaging to the segment is as effective as you intend. When run periodically, you can tweak your messaging to help you get to your goal. If you want to get really fancy, you can run the Gift Constituency Analysis by Appeal for the appeals that are a part of your campaign to evaluate each appeal for its effectiveness.

Trend
These reports provide summaries of various types over a period of time, showing you increases and decreases in giving so that you can identify trends you want to nurture, or perhaps trends you’d like to nip in the bud. A nice, easy-to-digest report is the 5 Year Trend Summaries report. It is a graphical report showing total giving, averages, medians, and acquisition over 5-year timeframes. You can select the start date to see various 5-year chunks of data.

Beyond the above categories and reports, the ResultsPlus help system can be very informative in your search for reports that provide meaningful metrics. Open the system by clicking the Question mark in the upper right corner of your ResultsPlus ribbon. From there, open the topic, “Running Reports.” The reports, descriptions, and parameters are identified by each report category. There is a screenshot of each report so that you can see what it looks like before running it. After you’ve narrowed the list to a few that appear interesting, print or schedule them to run for a “test drive.”

Are there reports I didn’t name here that you find extremely useful at your organization? In what ways are you able to use them to evaluate your performance, ability to meet your goals, and make decisions?

As the new year kicks off, I wanted to take a few moments to share with you some of our plans for ResultsPlus in 2012.

ResultsPlus 11: We are busy testing ResultsPlus 11. It will be rolled out in 2 phases. The first phase will be a special edition that includes support for using Moneris as a credit card and ACH/EFT processor. We are excited about this new partnership with Moneris. There are a number of additional enhancements we’re testing for this first phase of version 11. Here are just a few:

1. Quick Entry for Gift, Pledge, and Membership now supports an Excel-style entry format, making the process even quicker.
2. Support for “Single Sign-On” has been added. This enables you to map your Windows user account to your ResultsPlus user account. When this is done, ResultsPlus will ask you to enter your Windows username and password when you log onto the database, enabling you to use the same username and password for ResultsPlus that you use for your other network activity. This also enables organizations to enforce their password policies, even in ResultsPlus, providing a more secure environment.
3. You can now send your ResultsPlus contacts to other calendar programs using the iCalendar format. This enables you to share appointments with people who don’t use ResultsPlus, even if they don’t use Outlook. If you wish to send the appointment to a Board member, for example, but you do not know what calendaring program he or she uses, you can do so. Most major programs accept the iCalendar format.
4. You can email scheduled contacts to the solicitor and other cultivators associated with a given contact record.
5. Customers with the Platinum edition of ResultsPlus will be able to run an immediate backup whenever performing maintenance or import tasks. This will enable you to ensure you have a recent backup whenever you make large-scale changes to your data.

The first phase of version 11 will be made available the end of February. The second phase will include additional features like project management and document archival. We’ll have more to come on that in the coming months.

New Blogger: We’re adding a new regular blogger in 2012. Her first post was last week. Marcia Grimm will be a regular contributor to this blog. She has been a Development Director and Executive Director for multiple nonprofits in the past. She joined Metafile in Technical Support a few years ago. Recently she has taken a new position as Development Education Director here at Metafile. I look forward to reading her posts from the perspective of having worked in both industries!

New Courses: In addition to the ongoing changes in our tips and tricks section, we’ll be adding new courses to our online education site, www.resultsplus.tv. We’ll have more to share on that in the coming months as well. Look for changes during the first half of the year.

Happy New Year! We look forward to continuing to work with you in 2012.

Perusing the NonProfit Times website, I found an easy-to-read article on 5 ways to boost responses based on data in your donor database. This article seems like a perfect way to refresh and update development skills even though time is likely short for many people as the year draws to a close. Each of the 5 recommendations can be done using your ResultsPlus database and the donor data it contains.

1. Analyze past giving behavior: From the Executive Summary, you can see each fund, campaign, and appeal to which a donor has responded. You can also access lots of additional data, based on how you wish to perform your analysis.
2. Segment for sensitive issues: Because ResultsPlus enables you to store information regarding each donor, you can use this information to include or exclude people from your communications.
3. Use behavior data: if you use ResultsPlus to track additional relationship information about your donors and their relationship with you and others, this can be leveraged as part of you strategy.
4. Reference past gifts in the copy: Referencing annual giving, total giving, or a single past donation are all possible when qualifying and merging information from ResultsPlus into your copy.
5. Use additional data in copy: Using additional data in copy is much the same as referencing past giving data when it comes to using ResultsPlus. For example, you could include the name of the family pet in your copy, if it is something you store in your ResultsPlus database. Or, you could include a note about running, if it fits with your communication, and you’ve stored the donor’s interest in running in their database record. Be as creative as you like!

If any of these 5 ideas appeal to you, go for it! Let us know if you have questions about how to find specific pieces of information in your ResultsPlus data.

Do you have additional recommendations for boosting responses? What has worked for you?

Do you find yourself entering the same bits of data over and over when entering donations? If so, there are a couple things you can do to save yourself quite a bit of time.

If you are in the middle of an appeal where most of the donations are in response to the appeal, you can add default values (like the appeal and campaign codes) to your quick entry form for gifts. Even if you use the “standard” form, these values will default for you. And don’t worry; you can override them when entering donations if you wish.

Perhaps you want something a little less persistent. If you organize your donations according to similarity before entering them into your database, you can enter part of the first one and use CTRL+F2 to set temporary defaults. Then, when you enter your subsequent gifts, simply press F2 to apply the defaults. You can even change these defaults mid-entry when you move to a second stack of donations that have a different set of similarities.

Also, take a couple minutes and check out the shortcut keys. You can likely avoid the mouse altogether once you learn the keystroke combinations to get you from looking up a record (ALT+N) all the way through saving and closing the form (ALT+S).

Have you discovered other time-savers you think others may not know about? Please share them in the comments below!

For this week's post, I wanted to highlight how thankful I am for our customers.  Aside from the obvious business reasons, I am grateful for each of you because of the fun and unique relationship we've built over the years.  I look forward to continuing those relationships and building new ones with new people and entirely new organizations.  Working with nonprofits is its own special joy.  It's such a privilege to work with people whose purpose is to help others, whether through community service organizations, spiritual organizations, health services, education, animal welfare - the list goes on.  Know that you and your work are appreciated!  Happy Thanksgiving.

We're putting together our next free webinar for ResultsPlus to be held on Thursday, December 6th from 1 PM Central Time - 2 PM Central Time.  The topic will be Performance Metrics, and specifically focused on the Performance Overview and how to read, interpret, and use it for decisions.  Please let us know if there are additional aspects of the Performance Overview you would like covered in the webinar.  Or, if there are other specific questions you have regarding gathering performance statistics, let us know that too.

We may not be able to cover everything in an hour, but we'll try to incorporate as much of your feedback as we can.  Please submit your requests in the comments section below this post.

Here's what we currently intend to cover:

1. Providing charts to stakeholders
2. Changing the view of the charts
3. Comparing one chart to another
4. Drilling into charts
5. Using chart data for making decisions
6. Using chart data for action

We'll be sending an email with registration information soon.  Sign up for email communications to make sure you're included on the list!

Please let us know what else you'd like to see in a webinar on the Performance Overview!  Thanks!

Halloween is right around the corner, and it has me thinking of things that go bump in the night. I thought I’d share the 3 scariest things I hear from people when it comes to technology and fundraising software. The good news is, these 3 scary things are all easily remedied or avoided, so you don’t need to stay awake at night in fear.

What backup?
Every once in a while, we get a frantic call from someone who has accidentally purged 1000 records, only to discover that they selected the wrong query to use for purging the records. This is a very scary situation. It’s one of those times when, if you’re the person who just watched all those records disappear, you want to scream “Eek!” If you have a backup strategy that includes periodic testing of the backups, then this “Eek!” moment can be downsized to a minor “Aw, nutz!” moment.

Before you delete records from your database, take a moment and ask your IT department to back up your database. Or, if you know your backups run every night, perform your deletion operations first thing in the morning. Then, if something goes wrong, you just need to ask IT to restore a backup. (It helps if you bring candy when you ask.)

In addition to implementing a regularly scheduled backup of your database, have your IT department restore one of the backups at least once a month. That way you’ll know that your backups are working.

If you or your IT folks do not know how to perform backups using SQL Server Express, contact our Support department. We have a document you can give to your IT department that may be of help.

Who has time for training?
Everyone is super busy these days, and training is one of those things that it may seem like there isn’t time to do. When tempted to throw some poor soul into a task for which they haven’t been trained, think of this: It will likely take hours to identify, undo, then re-do a task that was performed incorrectly in your database. And that’s assuming the “badness” didn’t accidentally get “out the door” and into the hands of your donors.

Speaking of assumptions, that’s another scary thing.

No, the software can’t do that. (Typically heard from the same person who asks “Who has time for training?”)
If you are unsure if your software can do something, first check out the online help. It’s faster than calling support. If you don’t find it there, call Technical Support; it’s possible that it is available, but that it has a name that is different from what you expect. (Some day, when I’m really hurting for topic ideas, perhaps I’ll regale you with all the time I spend searching Microsoft’s web site for things I know are there, but I can’t find because I’m searching for them using different terms.) It’s very likely your software or vendor has the feature or service you seek.

Are there things you hear that have you shaking in your boots? Do you have ways to handle these things that make them less frightening?

Do you ever feel like phone calls tend to run along specific themes from time-to-time? I know I do. When I was in Support, I remember thinking that fairly often. It turns out that it happens with our account managers, as well. One gal recently mentioned that she has spoken with a few customers who were asking the Benevon Model for donor cultivation and sustainable fundraising, and she asked if I would blog a little bit about the model and how it applies to fundraising software. Always grateful for topic suggestions, I agreed without a moment’s hesitation, and here we are.

The Benevon Model used to be known as “Raising More Money” for those of you who have been working in the nonprofit sector for a while. I am no expert on this specific model, but the idea of models for mapping fundraising processes is ubiquitous among fundraisers. Generally speaking, the Benevon Model is an approach to fundraising that, while very intentionally focusing on the donor, encompasses a series of cultivation stages beginning with meeting the prospective donor, then getting to know them while they get to know you organizationally, moving to making the ask, then showing appreciation and getting the word out to additional prospective donors, and finally starting the process again, identifying new prospects. Any potential donor, once in the cycle, can and should remain in your cultivation cycle/pipeline through any number of iterations as your organization and its needs change over time.

As with all effective fundraising models, the vast majority of the work that results in successful implementation is “head work.” That’s not to say that your fundraising software isn’t invaluable, but the choice of fundraising software is almost irrelevant in the context of the model (though I’d prefer you use ResultsPlus, of course). So why am I, a software developer, blogging about this? Because I’d like to identify the key components of software that support your efforts with the model and highlight how these components are standard features of most every major fundraising application available.

I will summarize the stages per my understanding below. This is not intended to be a course on the model, because I am not qualified to teach such a thing. It’s simply a broad strokes summary of the stages for cultivating long-term relationships. The innovative details of each stage are legion and unique to each organization. To learn more about the Benevon Model, I recommend visiting http://www.benevon.com. The folks there provide training and consulting to design and successfully implement their model according to each organization’s needs.

The first stage is generally based on the concept of acquisition. There are many aspects to acquisition, but here I’m looking at those with a high level of human interaction. Acquisition, when framed right, can also communicate gratitude, which is also an aspect of how you complete the cycle and restart it effectively. This doesn’t mean everything you do for acquisition has an aspect of gratitude, but you may be able to find ways of weaving it in.

Events: You may be planning an event to kick off a new project, or an event to celebrate successful completion of a project. Invite people who provided funding, volunteer hours, or emotional support when you and your colleagues were stressed out about meeting some deadline; you get the picture. Here’s where it’s fun. Don’t just invite those people, invite them to bring along a family member or friend who may also enjoy the festivities.

Software: Your software can help you identify and retrieve constituents in your system that have shown an interest in supporting similar past projects, attending similar events, and in many cases, even help you expand that list to other people in your database who have known relationships with those constituents. Perhaps your list is “hand-picked.” Your software should support your desire to add those people to a temporary working list or “group” as you identify the people you wish to invite.

Elevator Pitch: We know we need one, but do we have one? If not, it’s time to come up with one. We want to be able to let people know what we do, why we feel they may be interested, and how to get more information. And we need to have a way to do this that can be used anywhere, any time. This is an example of “head work.” Your software cannot help you craft a concise, eloquent, interesting message. It would likely come out looking something like the statements generated by Catbert’s Automatic Mission Statement Generator (yes, that Catbert, of the Dilbert cartoons). But wouldn’t it be great if it could?

Storytelling: Every organization has a story to tell. Tell yours; tell it well and tell it often. Make sure you start with something that entices your reader or partner in conversation to want to know more. What’s compelling about it? Margaret Battistelli Gardner’s recent editorial, Arm(adillo) Yourself, in Fundraising Success highlights a wonderful example of this. Again, here’s where the work can only be done by clever humans.

The second stage involves growing your relationships. This means following up with the people you’ve met, engaging them in additional ways, seeking to know more about the constituent’s uniqueness and interests, and sharing more about the unique and meaningful aspects of your organization. In short,

Get to know your donor: If this person is brand new to your organization, respect that as part of the development process. If you have volunteers, know and respect that relationship and grow it from that base. Long-time donors have different needs and expectations, and so on. The key is that each donor is unique and deserves an approach respectful of that. Think back to how you met your various friends. Each of those relationships developed in their own unique ways and on their own timetables. Perhaps you were introduced to some of them by other friends, you worked together, you volunteered at the same event, etc. Your relationships with your donors may evolve much the same way, meaning not necessarily in the same way at all! Engaging your board and other stakeholders in this series of steps is also incredibly important. These are not things your software can do. However, there are things your software can and should be able to do to help you manage knowledge and use it effectively in the context of engagement and relationship development.

Software: Your software cannot tell you the approach to take with your donors. However, it can help you keep track of your strategy, which contacts have been made, when, by whom, when additional contacts are scheduled. It can help you track changes to your strategy, identify where you feel you are in your relationship with the donor, whether or not it is appropriate to make “an ask” at this time, what events a person has been invited to, which ones they’ve attended, who else was at those events, in what ways the person has already been involved with your organization, whether or not you know of a connection between them and a board member, staff member, volunteer, or another constituent. Now that you’ve reached the end of my seemingly-never-ending sentence, you get the idea: Intellectual capital can be documented and stored for later retrieval, analysis, scheduling, and so on.

At some point during the development of your relationships with your donors, it will be appropriate to ask them for monetary support. And so we enter the third stage.

Ask For Money: Asking is an aspect of the model that is taught so that the “asks” can occur naturally and without pressure. Making “the ask” is, of course, something best done in person by a human! But having various giving programs and ideas for making a donation “do more” by promoting additional donations from others are things your software can support. One specific example used to aid in asking for money identified on the Benevon website involves the creation of a multiple-year giving society.

Software: The Giving Society is a great example of something that your software can support. Most every application supports the creation of giving levels that can span a lifetime, a year, or a custom set of criteria.

If you are asking a donor for a leadership gift, some software applications today support the storage and access of your actual proposal documents, names of persons who met at the time of the proposal, and so on.

Challenge gifts are also accommodated in software, and have been for many years via the concept of “matching gifts.”

After you’ve been the beneficiary of your constituents’ generosity, it is only right to thank them well and often. And perhaps that thank-you can be an invitation to a lovely, free event, and the donors can be encouraged to bring a friend, thus introducing new prospects to you and your organization. This brings us to the final stage of the Benevon Model, designing and integrating ways to introduce new people, who have a desire to know more about your organization, to your organization. At events like these, the word of the day is “capture.” Capture names, addresses, emails, what brought the people to your event…whatever you can. When you get back to the office, document all this in your fundraising system so that you can embark on a new iteration of your effective cycle.

I read a post on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's website the other day titled, "Making Sure No Donor Gets the Same Thank-You Letter Twice" (http://philanthropy.com/blogs/prospecting/making-sure-no-donor-gets-the-same-thank-you-letter-twice/31153). It was an interesting and short read about one organization's approach to ensuring that its acknowledgment letters are continually updated and refreshed so that donors do not get the same letter more than once. I don't think that the idea of updating letters periodically is a new one, but what is interesting to me is that there is a source for finding new letter content. And that's my reason for this post.

There are examples of fresh wording to use in your letters as you highlight your organization's success, your needs, your donors' successes, and so on. In case you missed it on the Chronicle's web site, The Great Acknowledgment Swap is a great resource for this type of content. The letters have been submitted by other professionals working in the NPO/NGO arena. If you would like to check them out, here's the link: http://www.donorrelationsguru.com/home/tgas

Do you have other "go-to" places for sharing and seeking ways to keep your letter content fresh?

Being based in Minnesota, I am well-aware of the "great Minnesota give together" known as Give to the Max Day. (Yes, I lifted that pithy phrase off the http://givemn.razoo.com/p/gtmd-postgame website.) For people who are unaware of what this is, or who wonder how they, as a Minnesota nonprofit, can prepare for participation, please continue reading.

Give to the Max Day is a single day, November 16th 2011 (this year), where there is significant buzz around giving. Nonprofits can sign up with GiveMN to participate in this 24 hour online fundraising event. And you don't even need to have your own online giving site; all donations to your organization are made through GiveMN. To learn more about GiveMN, Give to the Max Day, and the "fine print", visit the http://www.GiveMN.org web site.

Why am I mentioning this special November day so far in advance? I want to let folks know about the day so that there is plenty of time to get registered, set up your systems to handle donations via this appeal, and get the word out to your constituents that you are a participant.

To prepare for Give to the Max Day:

• Decide whether or not to register your organization.
• I'd recommend making changes to you donor management system to support importing donations from the site. How do you do this? Set up a specific campaign and/or appeal, as well as a "GiveMN" source code so that when you add these donations (and new constituents) to your system, you can accurately report on the success of the day (and you may wish to be on the site year-round, so I recommend an additional appeal that is for GiveMN "general" donations in addition to a "Give to the Max Day" appeal).
• Register your organization. (Do this after you've decided your codes. That way, your system will be "ready for action" when you register.
• Communicate! Let your constituents know about Give to the Max Day, and let them know you are a participant.
• Import your donations from the GiveMN web site into your donor management system. Use the codes you've defined for this.
• Thank donors!
• Report your success using the codes you've applied to your Give to the Max Day donations.

Perhaps I've missed some steps you would add to the list for your organization. Feel free to share them below. If you've participated in past years, and have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to do that, as well! And a last thought...Are there days like this in your state? If so, please let me know. I'd love to be able to share the fundraising opportunity with others!

Wow. Last week our marketing folks sent out an email to our customers announcing our new blog. Within a few minutes, we had an unexpectedly high number of subscribers. That leads me to two things:

First: Thank you! I look forward to our discussions on various aspects of fundraising and donor management as we journey forward together.

Second: I must admit that I'm a bit intimidated. It's easy to write something if you think nobody is paying attention, but it's quite a different story when you have a group of people reading with you. Please always feel free to submit topic ideas. I really want to make sure that this blog is interesting and informative. Bring up a topic, and I'll do the legwork (at least some of it)!

I'd like to share some words from Marcia Grimm, our Development Advisor, about the RMHC conference.

How exciting it was to be a part of the 2011 Ronald McDonald House Charities International Conference in Chicago last week! There was an amazing energy in the conference hall, as an estimated 1000 attendees from all over the world stopped by vendor and supplier booths in the ‘Resource Connection Center.' We visited with people representing RMHC charities and Ronald McDonald Houses in Brazil, Korea, Australia, Canada, Tazmania, and numerous states throughout the US - all looking for information on products and services to help them in their heartwarming missions. We hope to soon welcome some of these very special organizations into the ResultsPlus family and are very proud to support our own local Ronald McDonald House as well.

Have you attended a stimulating conference lately? If yes, what made the experience such a positive one? Anything you would like to share?

Greetings! This is my first post for the RP Blog. My hope for this blog is that it can serve as a place to find fundraising information and ideas. While ResultsPlus is a donor management/CRM product, so many aspects of fundraising are sourced from, entered into, and reported from products like ours that this blog seems a good place to make broader fundraising topics available for discussion. Readers, please feel free to become contributors by posting comments, making suggestions, and generally sharing your expertise on the topics!

So, let's get started...

I recently read a great blog post by Holly Hall on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's web site. (http://philanthropy.com/blogs/prospecting/breaking-the-rules-taking-the-long-view-in-fund-raising/30498) She wrote about Bill Littlejohn and his "long view" approach to fundraising. His approach is to focus on multi-year sources of revenue to better enable his organization to prosper during lean economic times. The post is a short, interesting read. I recommend taking a peek if you have a few minutes.

I think part of the reason I appreciate Littlejohn's approach is not only because of its long view, but also because it is attainable by even the smallest non-profit organizations, and it doesn't require specialized knowledge, technology, or expensive resources. It's an approach that, at first blush, doesn't seem to take a lot of valuable planning time away from other fundraising activities and campaigns. Promoting multi-year pledges, recurring gift programs, and payroll deduction programs are three ways to provide a stream of donations that spans multiple budgets. They are all ways with which organizations are already familiar, and these are also ways to give that can be added to most any campaign or appeal.

If you are a member of an organization that approaches fundraising with this "long view", please post any tips for success you have to share with others!