on the money by Kayla Magnuson Donor Management Systems
When it comes to development and fundraising, there are a lot of numbers, data and spreadsheets. So many spreadsheets! Tis attention to detail is crucial for your records and reporting, receipt sending, annual audits and more. Ultimately, though, development is about building relation- ships, telling the story of what God is doing in your ministry and helping people understand how they can invest in the ministry.
So how do you reconcile those two things?
Using a dedicated donor management system (DMS) helps organize the data and details to enhance relationships. Before using a DMS, we were tracking donor giving in our camp registration software. We could look at histori- cal information, but it was not helping us move our development program forward. A DMS will help you be good stewards of
Using a dedicated donor management system (DMS) helps organize the data and details to enhance relationships.
your time and resources. Custom receipts look professional, can include your logo and pictures and can be sent electronically or by mail. The DMS we use automatically selects the receipt based on the gift fund (instead of manually selecting the template or entering gifts in separate batches). This time-saving feature helps share stories and testimonies that are specific to a donor’s areas of passion. Track- ing the outcomes of different communication pieces is simple, allowing you to evaluate the cost/benefit of each email, newsletter or appeal. A DMS also benefits donors. Each fund or
fundraiser has a dedicated giving page and donors do not have to log in to give online; they can easily see all their giving in an online portal. Most importantly, a DMS can enhance rela-
tionships with your donors. Te platform automatically generates reminders on your to- do list for making thank-you calls when a giſt is given or when a donor hits a giving milestone. When a first-time donor enters the system, a welcome email series is automatically generated. Viewing donors in a certain geographic area makes in-person visits more productive. Lapsed and pre-lapsed donors can be contacted in real time instead of waiting for a report a few months later.
62
www.ccca.org September/October 2024
Photo courtesy of Lutherhaven Ministries by Nicole Vernengo
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
