Wednesday 20 December 2017

Try the Charity Management Software Before You Buy: 3 Convincing Reasons


Charity management software does a lot of work for you – it’ll be responsible not only for charity management but also for keeping a record of the visitors, the list of events, etc. Considering these points it is very important to choose management system that meets all demands of the church or nonprofit without any major complications. 






However, the mistake that a majority of churches and non-profits do is not trying the efficiency and working of the software before making the final purchase. If you were about to do a similar mistake here we are stopping you; make sure you take a note of these points mentioned as to why you should be trying the software before buying it.
1. To understand whether or not it’ll work for your church: Every church has its own set of functionalities and limitations that may or may not work for your church. This is one primary reason you’re suggested to try the charity management software before purchasing. Just getting some idea of the functionalities or reading them will not be of any good, make sure to use a dummy version of it to get a complete idea.

2. To be assertive whether or not it’ll be easy to use: Any software that you buy should be convenient to use while maintaining its reputation of being secure and safe for use. Make sure to get the details by using it for your work and be very sure you will be able to use it for your work. Remember the idea of buying software is to reduce the burden and not increase it.

3. To be sure you’ll be able to use it for at least a couple of years: Another important thing worth considering is the timeline for which the software will be valid for use. It should be functioning absolutely for a couple of years and even after several updates. Get to know how this is the suitable software for your work and how will it perform over the years.
Take a note of these three very important points that are worth considering when buying software for churches and charities. 




Wednesday 29 November 2017

Using Church Software for Raising Money during the Church Services

For the clerics who understand the dynamics of church there is nothing better than a church management system for performing their duties. Has the number of attendances grown in your church? What about the donation? If you are not receiving enough funds it can become difficult to work for the needy people. A regular flow of funds from the members is the key to expansion the community. Most of the people tend to look at the milestone the non-profit prior to donating. 

Raising the funds has become vital for running the errands of the church smoothly and also to step-up the betterment of society 

Here is why utilizing the church management software during the communal services has boosted the donations –

1. Mobile Integrated CHMs App  

Almost everyone uses phones these days; sending an invitation of the services or a mobile phone alters before an event starts on will certainly boost the number of people. Further, the individuals who already have planned to donate to the church can put a reminder in their phone once the event comes into their notice. 

Promoting the church in the eye of churchgoers goes hand in hand when the applications like My Online Giving.

2. Organizing a Fund Raiser 

A major fraction of people particularly from the younger generation gets jaded after hearing to the religious lectures. An innovative fundraising event after the religious ceremonies can boost their frame of mind resulting in positive response. 

There are a few things you should take into account for having a fundraiser that generates funding – 
  • Attendees –   The number of people attending the services should consist of all the members of your community. 
  • Amusing Activities – The participants in the fund raiser should feel like being a part of some fun event. Organize a gala-style assembly where people enjoy singing, dancing and other entertaining activities.  

Having such a unique experience during the services will cheer the people to willingly donate some funds. 

Church management software can help you in systematically running the event. You can allow the various tasks to the church women and men who hold the capability to handle the circumstances.

3. Electronic Tithing

The members might forget to bring their Cheque-books or the items they want to donate but carrying a mobile phone is something they will never skill. Instead of taking hard cash or checks for the tithes ask them to enter their donations electronically via the church software. Today a few of software in the market are available which can be used for fund management and accounting.  Can’t bear the cost of charity software? Use open-source software for donation management.

4. Increasing the Reach 

The reason why the social media is getting popular amongst people of all age-groups is that they feel connected to each other. You too can create a clan of the people having similar interest by requesting the details via the church software.  
For e.g. People who lived in close to each other or belong to the same creek can be grouped together during the services. 

With such a set-up the attendees take interest in the services as the church becomes a place to find a new friend and feel comfort (especially are those who have recently lost a loved one). This encourages current members to persuade their acquaintances to accompany them.  

These are some of ways how technology has increased the number of donors. It fundamentally is based on building the congregation.

Wednesday 22 November 2017

What’s New about Making Donations? The Tap ‘N Go Device. Details Inside

Donations for churches have for long been done in the traditional way of either handing over the cash or transferring the amount into the church’s donations account. However, things done in the traditional manner no longer remain the same; therefore, new and quick ways are being adopted every day to remain in pace with the technology while also maintaining the flow of donations. 

The newest form of technology that permits contactless donations is the Tap ‘N’ Go device by Data Developments. The idea is to promote Tap ‘N’ Go Giving – a smarter way that churches, charities and non profits can adopt to accept donations.

the-Tap-and-Go-giving


Tap ‘N’ Go Giving – The Complete Idea of It 

The thing that most affects the flow of donations and funds to the charities and nonprofits is the delay that might experience because the only two mediums through which they receive payment is via cash or deposit and in some cases even through cheque. The idea behind the tap and go giving is to speed up the process of donations and allow for more contactless donations too. 

Here’s How It Happens

The process happens with a tap and go device which is an affordable, contactless device that permits the charities and churches to quickly accept contactless donations. The compact and cost-effective device is portable and aimed at enabling people especially those who do not visit regularly and want to pay immediately without getting involved in the registration process of the church or charity. 

The device has a set donation amount of say £2; this amount can however be changed at any point depending on how much the donor would like to pay. No phone line, power or anybody to stand with it is required and the churches, charities and nonprofits can place it in church for services, outside for fundraising events, at concerts, quiz nights or in other locations such as supermarkets or memory cafés etc. depending on where they believe they can get maximum donation. 

Benefits for the church and charity: 
  • Removes the blockade of ‘no spare change’ making it simple to donate with contactless cards
  • Increases the ‘potential donation’ at a fundraising event 
  • Maximises the GASDS and gift aid potential from each contactless donation
  • No extra work for the Gift Aid secretary
  • Fully electronic so no chances of any form of theft

You can check the website of Data Developments for more information about the Tap and Go giving. Log on to http://www.datadevelopments.co.uk/contactless_donations/ for more details.

Tuesday 31 October 2017

Finance Co-ordinator: The Data Developments Product You Surely Need

Managing finances is tough especially when you’ve got to take care of really lengthy ones – it is not just time consuming but also difficult because chances of making the mistakes is huge. However, with a finance management system the things about management of finances will barely reduce to nothing at all. 

Data Developments range of charity management products has the Finance Co-ordinator, one of the best products that you can use for complete and efficient finance management. Here are the details of the product. 

About Finance Co-ordinator


Finance Co-ordinator is a double entry fund accounting package that has been designed to manage the accounts for churches and charities as required by the Charity Commission. It has a selection of pre-designed account structures for various different denominations and organisations throughout the UK, based on both Receipts and Payments and Pre-payments and Accruals systems. Finance Co-ordinator easily handles funds, budgets, cost centres, standing orders, debtors and creditors, journal entry transactions and bank reconciliation. 

Here are the Features You Need to Know about the Product
  • Robust audit system maintained
  • Import transactions from Donations Co-ordinator easily
  • Edit and void transactions at the click of a button
  • The automatic reversal facility makes entering adjustments and refunds simple
  • Produce detailed budget reports displaying actual against budget with variance
  • Record budgets for this year and next year for each of your income and expenditure accounts and your funds

About Data Developments 


Data Developments has been writing and developing software for Churches and Charities for over 30 years now. The software are specially created by experts to help people with little or no accounting, Gift Aid or administrative expertise to become competent with minimal effort.

At Data Developments all software packages include 90 days free support, a start-up guide (PDF), a manual (PDF) and an online help facility. The cost of the Finance Co-ordinator software is £179.00; it is a long term investment that charities would never hesitate to make since the product would make their finance management easy and quick.

Why Charity Management Software Plays an Important Role for Churches?

If someone faces the most problems of fund management it is the churches because manually handling all the donations is really tough. Whatever be the amount of donation made what is important is to efficiently manage it which can be done only by using the right charity management software

About Charity Management Software 


Charity Management Software is the system that is used to efficiently manage the records and funds of the church and nonprofits in such a way that the details of the transactions are always handy. 

Here are some convincing reasons why churches must choose charity management software:

  1. Efficient Fund Management: Fund management is supposedly the most important role of the management software. With the use of the fund management software the churches will no longer need to employ someone to specifically manage their records. The fund management software will ensure that the records are maintained perfectly and that the details of all transactions are always available in record. 
  2. Event Tracking: Churches and nonprofits tend to organize vents from time to time; therefore event tracking can sometimes be a problem that they are facing. However, with the management software the events can be properly tracked and send outs of the event can be shared in a proper and timely manner, thus leading to an efficient event management. 
  3. Managing the Attendance of the Visitors: Manually maintaining the attendance and records of all the visitors to the church and non profits can be extremely difficult, but with the management software the attendance of the visitors is maintained in the most effective manner. Other than just maintaining the attendance the software will also help you keep a track of your old visitors and if they haven’t visited your church for a long time the software might as well be used to send in some invites. 

The three points mentioned above are some of the most convincing reasons why churches must choose a management system.

Wednesday 27 September 2017

4 Simple Ways the Church Management Software Assists the Pastors

Being the spiritual leader of the church group or congregation is not a simple task; you have to meet new people every day, visit different places for worship services and interpretation of the biblical scriptures. It might be midnight when a pastor has to visit a hospital to see a member or a person who has dedicated himself to the church.

Here is how the church management software helps the pastors to perform multiple duties without overlooking the members. 

1. Keeping the Track of Important Events 

The pastors no longer have to note or write the dates on which a birthday, wedding, baptism, or other ceremony is performed in the church. The ChMs automatically sends an alert of every important event which is going to take place in the church according to the data it stores. 

2. Understanding the Relationship 

Through the ChMs, the pastors can know the members of the community whose family or relatives are not attending the church ceremonies. You can notify the members to encourage their associates for visiting the church and also know the reasons why they were not attending the church in the past. This will assist in engaging the entire family in the work of the church and result in a better pastoral care.

3. Discover the Trends

In some churches the dedicated members work more and are often overloaded with tasks. You may not pressurize anyone to make an effort but can know the preferences of your members. Following the member trends can help you know what the ideal commitment is for a particular member. You can make bias decisions by reaching out the right individual in the congregation for each and every task.

4. Know the Interests of the Members 

When you get a new member on your list it is the time to know their skills, area of expertise and hobbies. The online church management software acts as a data feed to know the interests of the members. The members can serve the church according to their capabilities and skill when they have interests and curiosity to perform a task. 

The above are four ways using which the pastors can unite with their members in a better way to manage the groups in a systemic way. If you have a church or charity management software you can easily share the spiritual beliefs of Christianity without being bothered about what the members are doing.

Tuesday 26 September 2017

How has the Charity Management Software Replaced the Membership Coordinators?

Usually the nonprofits will hire a person for the designation of a membership coordinator who smoothly runs the administrative processes. They deal with every aspect related to the members which includes assigning tasks, providing them services, promoting the nonprofit to catch the attention of potential visitors, etc. For a newly established charity or church it can be difficult to have a bigger staff as the fund raised is limited. Most of the time undersized charities cannot employ coordinators as they work on salary basis.  

Today, nearly all the charities are using charity management system to boost the growth of the charity in every phase. If we can use software to manage all the chores for the charity then why not use one for the membership roles? This question not only created the need of software called membership coordinator but has also provided the small charities an opportunity to manage the members even without a coordinator.


These days the online charity management software are providing packages for the administration of members through which anyone can undertake the membership roles. The software is easily replacing the needs of coordinators as by using them anyone can record the details of members, track the attendees in an event, align tasks and schedule visits. Once you make a group through these packages you can send personalized tasks, emails and messages in a few seconds. Along with data entry functions the software may include a directory or listing of all your members with the photos for identification, calendars for reporting events, street directory, etc. 

The major characteristics membership coordinator package have are as follows
  1. It connects the immediate and distant family members to each other according to the records. 
  2. It would produce a booklet style directory with photos (in case you add them) after data of the members is entered.
  3. Can map the homes of members and provide direction from the member’s house to the charity or any other destination you specify.
  4. Records the attendance and can provide graphs of the skills, tasks and visits for analyzing the participation of the members.
  5. You can create rules according to the rotas preferred by the members. 
  6. Provide information about the certifications and diplomas the members hold which can help you to choose the future leaders. 
  7. They have filters to let you access information quickly to monitor a particular group or member. You can also set the criteria according to the way your organization works to create reports. 
The nonprofit administrators can quickly connect with every individual in the organization with a membership package through text and email messaging. Utilizing software you can easily coordinate with the members of your nonprofit even if you have no experience or certification of being a coordinator. If you do not have an executive for coordinating in your nonprofit don’t lag behind and use a membership coordinator.

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Boost Church’s Donations with Online Giving – The Best Donor Management Software

The majority of the churches experience a decline in the number of the donors during the vacations and at the time of bone chilling cold. When the climate is harsh during the snowstorm and rain the churches have to cancel events and services for safety of visitors. This decreases the number of guests coming to the churches for donation which is beyond the human control.

Online giving is a type of church management software which is becoming the most widely used application to overcome skipped donations. It is multipurpose software and platform independent as it can run on Mac, Apple, Microsoft and other operating systems. Donors can contribute by imploding details of their credit / debit card, Direct Debit, PayPal, etc. through online giving. 

Whether it is the seasonal dip or lack of contribution from your donors online giving is an ideal solution to boost the offerings to the church. 


Here are the ways through which online giving can be advantageous for the churches -
  • Encourages Donation with Simplicity – Online giving makes it easy for your church community members to schedule donations at regular intervals. It also amplifies the overall rate of offerings as members just have to set up an account once to donate desirable amount of money at just a click of a button. As a consequence the church receives donations from people both during the working days and on the weekends.
  • To Adopt Preference of Donors- People especially from the younger generation are using electronic cash for transaction instead of physical form of money. Donors prefer using e-checks and e-money because their donations are directly sent into the church’s bank account ensuring there is no accidental loss of money. 
  • Wider Reach -Today there are churches which work not only for their own suburb but run online campaigns, sermons and other activities to outreach the problems of people other than their locals. If the church has a prominent presence online it can announce a crusade and collect funds to help people in various locations. This is because people from all over the globe can approach church for making donations. 
  • Express Thankfulness Instantly - To cultivate an everlasting bond with the donor expressing gratitude is incredibly significant. Manually you will note the names of givers into your church ledger and post thank you cards consuming a lot of time and recourses. With online giving you can keep a track of all donors at your fingertips. Both you and the donors can know how much they have donated, the church where the donation was made (in case of parish) and its purpose.

The church and charity management software consist of the most effective tools to master the art of managing your visitor to the website and turning them into donors. Using online giving for your church is the best way to value your donors and motivate community members for donation.

Monday 28 August 2017

7 Ways Church Management Software Support Your Leadership Roles

From the beginning, church management software has been a tool to measure the contributions made by the members of the church community.  The use of ChMs is an innovative approach to explore the insights of the ministry processes and for demystifying the role of church leaders.

Here are a few ways of utilizing ChMs in decision-making and supporting leadership roles –

  1. Track the Volunteers – Scrutinize what are the volunteers working on and is there anyone who is not serving or not allotted any task. 
  2. Growing Generosity – Know the donor trends and habits of the contributors to measure their commitment to your church. Moreover, you can also draw budget, organize your online giving and share goals for the ministry using the ChMs.
  3. Promoting the Growth of Small Groups – Check out the members of small groups - Are they working together?  Do all of them attend the event? Is someone drifting away from his/ her group? Get answers to such questions through the church software to expand the visibility of the groups in different events.
  4. Connecting with members – Assist yourself in turning your guests into fully engaged members through the alerts, invitations and follow ups.
  5. Be More Accountable – On certain occasions, you would not be in the church to welcome guests primarily because you have to attend some meetings or conduct paperwork for the government authorities. Using the ChMs you can inspect whether the volunteers are operating on the right strategies and tasks irrespective of the functions they perform and also give the staff instructions virtually. 
  6. Cost Effective Communication – ChMs is the most powerful means to communicate with your donors as well as the church staff.   It cuts the cost of postage and publishing, at the same time increases your audience. 
  7. Passing on the Chores - Within the church community the leaders can decide a person who can share the leadership responsibilities and assign tasks to the church members according to their ability. The ChMs database can be used to know which member has been more dedicated towards the church and should be chosen to volunteer the leaders.  

Through ChMs you can get a better understanding of the implementation processes in the church which will help you gain more proficiency in conducting the leadership responsibilities and having a major impact on the visitors associated with your church.  In short, a church or charity management software is crucial for a healthy and escalating church community.

There are still some churches which do not use technology and manage their ministries manually.

Saturday 29 July 2017

Why Integrating Your Website with Church Management Software is Considerable?

Are you working in a church? How did you come to know about it? 

Most people today use internet as the sole medium to investigate or hunt for places, as a consequence today even the smaller churches are building their online presence through websites to catch visitor’s eyes. The larger churches are operating through church management software along with a website as they know that software is not a big time saver but also an innovative way to get rid of all the painstaking tasks which are unfeasible to conduct manually. But not all of them have integrated their website to the online church management system.

If you are pondering over why the church website and ChMs should be linked to each other, here are some groundbreaking reasons-
  1. Easy To Update Your Online Calendar – Calendar is a crucial way to notify your members about the events such as cookouts, galas and retreats that would take place during the year. Updating your website every week can be hectic, but if your website is integrated with your online church management software, any event that you enter in your software will sync in the website reducing double entry. 
  2. Data Management – Once your church website and the ChMs are integrated; it will lead to better consistency. The donor would be able to see the endowment they made and use it for their tax statements. If the church management software is not integrated in the low-level, site’s administrators have to themselves change the address, phone numbers and other particulars they collected at the time of membership. By integration, people can log in and make changes to their details whenever they want.
  3. Monitor Events - If there is an event next week, most of the people would not remember it. It is important that you make them register themselves to the event; this will send an alert and notify them on the day it takes place. Through the church and charity management software you can know the groups which are interested in attending the event; therefore, send an invitation to only those selective people instead of flooding everyone who sign’s up.

The bottom line is that for a victorious journey a church needs to have two important elements – better integration of information and expanding the community. The website lets more people know about your church while the ChMs reduces your staff workload to almost half and helps to keep the records centralized; having an access to both will speed up your growth and lead to a better community spirit.

Church Management System – An Aid to Transform Visitors into Members

The biggest challenges the churches are facing today is turning their first time visitor into a member of their church community. Due to the different tasks performed in the church such as maintaining its own budget, charities and service of worship, often the church authorities are not able to focus fully on their hospitality process.

How will the church management system help in turning your initial visitors into new members?

Software being a solution to stick your initial visitors sounds absurd, but undeniably it is the best way to connect to your visitors, gathering their information and for conducting the further follow ups.

Effortless Online Calendar– You can notify your visitors about the services and schedules of the church. The ChMs have an online calendar that helps your visitors to know about the events and schedule. 

The church and charity management software have functionality to integrate the database and schedule of the visitors. Usually not all of the people who you send invitations will be attendees; therefore, there is a risk in display the information of the service schedules. But through many ChMs you can instantly edit the website, sync it with the database and provide the right information.

Follow-ups - What was the first time visitor’s experience at your church? Did he or she make a connection to the church? There are a lot of questions like these which can help the church have a deeper understanding of the visitor. Through follow-ups you can determine how they felt and also convince them to visit again. ChMS can perform follow up by -
  • Phone Call –The database you collected from the guest in the ChMs would aid you to call the visitors and thank them for coming; you can also tell them about the upcoming worship events to be organized in your church. Some church software have the capability to automatically place all your visitors into a queue and send them a follow-up call.
  • Emails /Text Messages – Majority of the church software development today have a functionality to send text messages to the attendees. The highly effective software lets your email account to be linked to the church website and send mails to the people about the events and services the church is performing and how it is playing a role in the betterment of the society. 
  • Information Gathering – You can speed up the assimilation process by knowing the people more closely and making them feel being the part of your church community on their first day.  Example – If you know the name of the visitor and address with name it will make them feel homely. Information will help you know about what makes them feel uncomfortable, do they agree to the ideas practiced in the church etc. 

With time churches have started using new technologies; church management software is one of the basic elements that churches need to keep a track of the members and visitors. These points mentioned above give some information on how the churches can convert their first time visitors into members.

Thursday 29 June 2017

MyGiving.Online - The Complete Online Donations Management System of Data Developments

Handling donations has always been a task for the churches and charities considering the huge amount of time it consumes, and the chances of mistakes still seem to get no less. With this persisting problem of fund management it is important to have software or a system that can perfectly manage the donations, without the risk of problems.  

MyGiving.Online – Re-imagining the Way to Handle Donations

MyGiving.Online, the Data Developments’ system is a complete online donations management system that has been designed to re-imagine the way churches and nonprofits handle donations, saving time and effort. 

The Benefits of MyGiving.Online 

MyGiving.Online comes with a lot of benefits that you cannot otherwise expect with fund management; here’s a list of the most common benefits: 

  • New giving opportunities
  • Increase giving 
  • Minimized manual input
  • Reduced errors
  • Reduced record maintenance
  • Better reporting standards
  • No hardware restrictions

Understanding how MyGIving.Online works 

Once you’ve registered a MyGiving.Online account for your church, charity or nonprofit organization you can then create new users and give them customised permissions to access the parts of the system that you decide. You can use MyGiving.Online to record all of your donors (whether you can claim Gift Aid on their donations or not) simply by looking up the address via their postcode. You can then record/import all of the donations, whether by envelope, cash, Standing Order, Direct Debit, Credit/Debit card, PayPal, GASDS eligible, etc.

Using MyGiving.Online Mobile App

Using the MyGiving. Online mobile app happens in these two stages: 

  1. The Gift Aid secretary has to create the login details on the donor’s record to enable them to be able to access their details.
  2. The donor will then download our free app and use the login details provided by the Gift Aid secretary.
The Cost and Everything

MyGiving.Online costs £15 per month including VAT.

This includes:

  • Use of the software
  • Use of the mobile app
  • As many users as you wish
  • As many donors as you wish
  • All version upgrades
  • Technical support by telephone, email and support ticket

Need more information? Log on to http://www.datadevelopments.co.uk/mygivingonline

Monday 26 June 2017

How Important is Mobile Optimization for Donor Engagement?

More often than not you’ll see people using their mobile phones almost every time, which simply means the number of mobile users is on a constant increase. Looking at this, it can be clearly said that even for the purpose of donor engagement it is very important to let your donors pay through mobile phones. This further points an important thing – mobile optimization for donor engagement. 

You might as well as how important is mobile optimization for donor engagement, and the answer is ‘Very Important’.

According to a 64% of adults owned a smartphone in 2015, up from just 35% in 2011. Not only that but 88% of those people use their smartphone to check their email. If you’ve put in time crafting a stellar email marketing campaign, and online donation page, great job! Make sure your web content is just as strong for smartphone users. 

What is meant by Mobile Optimization?

Donor optimization in simple words means that the donors should be able to view the nonprofits web content on their mobile phones, tablets, or any other mobile devices just as easily as on their desktops. The point is that they shouldn’t have to zoom in or scroll the page sideways in order to see the text and graphics clearly. The page should be such that the users should be able to easily click links, which also means they need to be larger than on your desktop website. In short, make it as easy as possible for a donor to learn about your work and make a donation from their mobile device.

Advantages of Mobile Optimization for Donor Engagement – 

  • Increased donors: The number of people using mobile phones is increasing some of which might be donors who are comfortable using only mobile phones instead of laptops. In that case you will be able to increase the base of your donors and receive more donations all together. 
  • Retaining old donors: Once you use mobile friendly software for charities you will be able to retain your old donors because just like you your donors are positively impacted by technology. Make the payment process convenient for the  donors or add detailed instructions about how the donors should make payments after mobile optimization. 
  • Keeping track becomes easy: When some of your donors move to making donations through mobile devices it becomes easier for the nonprofit to keep a track of the details more efficiently. The organizations will now be able to differentiate the percentage of donations made through mobile devices as well as laptops, etc. 

Mobile optimization is a major thing to consider for a nonprofit because just as much you think it helps them it will help you it will be responsible for donor engagement in the longer run.

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Cultivate Your Monthly Donors with These Three Emails

Everything about donors needs your attention; you cannot simply pick and choose just one thing about donors and think that you’ve done your part. From donor cultivation to donor retention there are a plenty of things that you’ll have to manage, and manage them equally. 

However, for those of you who’re either new to the entire business of fundraising or the ones who are still looking for a lot of ways to cultivate their new users, this is the post you need to read. This post has the three email strategies that you can use to cultivate your monthly donors.

datadevelopments.co.uk


Email 1: Start with a “Thank –You”

Saying thank you is a great gesture; sometimes the best relations are the ones that you build by just being polite and thanking the other person for whatever little effort they make. Also, the first 24 hours after a donation is made are the most important ones because that’s when you’re really connected to the donor and when he knows absolutely everything about you. Since you’re on the top of the mind of the donor chances it is the perfect opportunity for you to show them how important the donor is to your mission. This is not the time when they want to hear about the great things you do but the things you can do because of them. And, remember there are lots of ways to thank your donors, but no matter what you do just make sure you’re genuine and authentic. 

Email 2: Show Them What They Can Do

There might not be a lot of things you’re certain about but the one thing you can be certain of when in the fundraising business is that your donors are the ones that genuinely make everything possible. And, it is really important that you not only thank them but also show them the difference that they have made by donating to your organization or the difference that their donations will make in future. Donors do not appreciate plain words of appreciation; they would also like to see the analysis report as well as a result report. In the reports show them the figures of how and where their donations have been used. This is one of the finest ways to cultivate your monthly donors and also a way to maintain your records for future analysis. 

Email 3: Create a Donor Club

Who doesn’t like being part of the “in-crowd?” In this third email, don’t just ask donors to give you $30 a month. Ask them to become part of a special club of all your nonprofit’s best supporters. Create a monthly giving program that has a specific name with specific goals. Give donors exclusive content like badges, newsletters, and even a few freebies (who doesn’t love a soft t-shirt?!) That way, recurring donors will always know that they’re working towards and it will be easy to share their involvement with others and encourage them to get involved too. This third way of cultivating your monthly donors is a promise of donations every month, with just a little change of plan. 

These three email strategies mentioned above are all you need to be certain of the monthly investments that come from your donor. For anyone who wants tried and tested strategic emails that he can send to the donors, these are the three that’ll do the most benefits.

Now, the next important point – how to manage the donors and donations?

Cultivating donors with these three promising email strategies is the first thing you can do for your nonprofit and managing them as well as their donations with effective donation management software is the next thing you should do. Church management software is a very helpful tool in creating, developing, and maintaining a strong and successful establishment, the church. It makes the financial issues much simpler and more organized for the individuals who work with the financial aspects.

Send out emails to your donors using any of these three email strategies and cultivate them for a longer period.

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Church Management Software – The Benefits You Need to Know

More often than not you’ll see that non profits and churches face major difficulties in managing their funds. While for smaller organization this might not be too big a problem, the big ones are usually unable to maintain a complete record of the funds received, spent and saved. This problem may however be solved if churches and charities begin using an efficient church management software to manage the data, details and funding.

Knowing the Church Management Software 

A Church Management Software is a very helpful tool in creating, developing, and maintaining a strong and successful establishment, the church. It makes the financial issues much simpler and more organized for the individuals who work with the financial aspects. This allows leaders to see how they are growing, and how to outreach programs needed for improving membership and attendance. The overall administration can also be tracked with church software including everything from gathering information at meetings to votes and other decisions that are made by the church body. Using software to perform many functions of the administrative work can be very helpful.

The Benefits of Using Church Management Software

Management software for churches and charities has the following benefits: 
  1. Storing the Member Details: No matter what size a church is there will always be a few members that the churches would want to track for donations etc. Though today's lifestyle makes people move from one place to another comparatively faster, a responsible church would always try to remain in touch with them. Church management software lets you store all the contact details in an organized and methodical way. Also, you can edit these details and retrieve them easily without striking the words off and making the paper untidy.
  2. Maintaining the Storing Records: Record management is another important benefit of church management software; it can be used for storing any numbers of records about the parishioners of a church. This is no more the time of old and dusty files for maintaining the records because the new management software have been designed to maintain the necessary records. Plus, using the software means saving a lot of time and effort which was otherwise unnecessarily used. 
  3. Tracking the Finance: A church has to handle money for various purposes. It often receives contributions and funds from the members and other charity organisations. Also, there are contributions from the regular church goers for services. Added to that, there are regular monthly expenses in the church as well as expenses for special occasions and festivals and feasts. These funds have to be properly tracked and recorded without any mistakes. Efficient church management software can help in calculating and storing all these financial information in the best way possible. 

Need more details? Log on to the website of Data Developments.

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Data Developments Software for Bookkeeping – Know the Details

The problem that most nonprofit organizations and churches face these days is finding someone who can efficiently manage their records and details. There are, however volunteers who readily take charge of doing things and managing the records for you, but another problem with this is that most volunteers are not accountants and worry about the technical skills required to fulfill this type of role.

Another important thing – with a flood of new regulations affecting the churches and charities and with the always decreasing number of professionally trained volunteers bookkeeping has become a tough job to manage. 

But, Data Developments has an easy solution for you that allows for efficient and effective bookkeeping and management. 

Here’s what’s included in the solution for bookkeeping – 
  • Data entry including standing orders, transactions and transfers.
  • Producing financial reports
  • Completing the Bank Reconciliation
  • A Finance Co-ordinator licence [normal cost £159]
  • All Finance Co-ordinator updates and upgrades [normal cost £50]
  • Technical Support [normal cost £75]

Data Developments would arrange an on-site visit to meet you and confirm starting balances, nominal codes, funds, fixed assets, standing orders, and which standard Finance Co-ordinator reports are required. Apart from this, they will provide training on the program so that figures can be examined and reports produced independently if required.

Understanding the Working

The treasurer will continue to open envelopes, count collections, deposit money into the bank, pay bills etc, they then send details of these transactions to Data Developments, which would then be used to: 

  • Enter all of the transactions and transfers
  • Process standing orders
  • Produce financial reports
  • Complete the bank reconciliation

Apart from this, the bookkeeping service by Data Developments includes a copy of Finance Co-ordinator, together with technical support, which can be installed onto the computer. The user will then be able to restore the information from the back up file sent by Data Developments to you, so you can see the information that has been entered – this will help you examine the figures and produce your own analysis and reports when required.

Data Developments solution for bookkeeping is an advantage for most churches and charities because managing the records becomes easier, better and faster. 

Ned more details? Visit the website: Datadevelopments

A Guide To Knowing Your Donors – All The Things Marked Important

The thing that you nonprofit organization needs the most is a donor because he will be responsible for raising the necessary funds for the organization. However, before you go ahead with your relationship with the donors it is essential to conduct the background check of the donor in order to make it a long term deal. 

Based on the analysis details of the relationships in the organizations and the donors it can be said that majority of lapse happen because of lack of information, which further rules down the need of gaining valuable information beforehand. Working in accordance with a guide means that you will be able to create a long-term relationship with your donor only after gaining all the necessary information about him. 

Follow this mandatory guide to know your donors – these are the things marked important – 
  1. Identify the potential donors – The first most important thing that you are required to begin with is identifying the potential customers, or whet’s better called potential donors. Identification of a potential donor means determining whether or not the person is interested in a certain cause or not. This also means understanding the cause that a person would preferably like to donate for; this enables you to grasp some useful information about the donor which you will need in the longer run. 
  2. Message the donor base effectively – One most important and also the most ignored thing about knowing donors is an understanding of the donor base. Know your customer base and message them effectively answering all their queries whenever needed. Rather than focusing on one donor at a time it is best if you can target them all together, carefully detailing the entire donor base at the same time. 
  3. Communication – meet your donor personally – If it is convenient for the donor and you then it is best to schedule a meeting together. Even if the meeting lasts as little as ten minutes, it will help you decide certain things about your donor, as well as his interests. Remember communication is the key to all great things and there a lot of things that can happen over a healthy conversation - it is therefore recommended that you meet your donors personally. 

Based on the above mentioned guide you can be certain of knowing your donors and will therefore be able to build great relationships with them. 

Want more details about donor management? Visit the website: Datadevelopments