Web 2.0, Mission Research Style February 28, 2006 By Steve Fafel

Dave and Steve have been testing out some of our Web 2.0 stuff...So yes, we're coming out with some server stuff that's integrated with our desktop platform. It means you'll be able to work seamlessly between the web and your desktop, and yes, we're going to give you some free blogging and websites. I think. It's all experimental at the moment, but the first of our online services rolls out shortly.

Pretty cool.

Crossing the Political Line: IRS Report on Illegal Nonprofit Political Activity February 27, 2006 By Steve Fafel

I'm not political on this blog but I'm occasionally politically active, mostly around healthcare. Mission Research is totally a-political and our employees represent a broad range of views.

But we're not a nonprofit, and nonprofits absolutely have to be very careful about the line between advocacy for a cause and political activism. At the Association of Fundraising Professionals site today, there's an article on the IRS report. Here's an excerpt:

"In three cases, all of which involved tax-exempt organizations that were not churches, the abuses were egregious enough to warrant the IRS proposing the revocation of the nonprofits’ tax-exempt status."

Serious stuff. Click here for the full article.

GiftWorks Update 3 Released to Some Customers February 23, 2006 By Steve Fafel

We've released GiftWorks Update 3 to about 40 customers. It's been through weeks of testing, and contains a lot of fixes and enhancements. One fix is the housholds donation mailing issue (ya know what I'm talking about if you tried it before), and another is making the mail section more obvious.

This is the last scheduled update before GiftWorks 2007. But we have a number of new things coming out this Spring, including Volunteer Management, deeper QuickBooks integration, online donations, and the SQL Server beta. So we're definitely busy serving your fundraising software needs!

What other features woudl you like to see? Let us know : )

Budgeting for Fundraising February 15, 2006 By Steve Fafel

Fundraising is really a combination of marketing and sales, and fundraising software like GiftWorks (hey, there's really nothing like GiftWorks!) is just a tool to ease, track, and analyze the process. We have sales and marketing budgets here at Mission Research, and we invest in a range of marketing activities.

One marketing focus is Direct Mail, which we use on occasion. Most of our customers use direct mail to reach out to their donors, usually in the form of direct appeals or fundraising event invitations. Now I'm not a direct mail fundraising expert, so I'm not going to have any really great tips.

Except one--go read Mal Warwick's tips. Mal's on our board of advisors and is a really great guy. Before he began advising us, I read a number of his direct mail books and applied what I learned to our own for-profit direct mail. Anyway, go check out his site--there's a lot of really useful tips and articles there. And then come back here!

US Grant Site Doesn't Work for Macs February 14, 2006 By Steve Fafel

GiftWorks doesn't run on Mac without VirtualPC installed. We made a conscious decision to develop only for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, because maintaining two codebases isn't easy. But VirtualPC allows you to run Windows software on a Mac. We have a friend who works with us occaionally who has run it and it's pretty slow on his 4-year-old Mac, but newer Macs should have no problem with it.

But our sites do work for Macs, unlike some government grant sites...

Fundraising Software Choices Narrowing February 13, 2006 By Steve Fafel

Customers have fewer choices now with Blackbaud's acquisition of Campagne. Blackbaud is killing the Campagne product line, forcing those customers to either convert to Raiser's Edge or find another solution.

We'll be happy to have you over here folks--we're growing fast and pleased to help. If you want an alternative to the Dark Side, give GiftWorks 2006 fundraising software a chance. It's great software, easy to use and a fraction of the cost.

We have a lot planned for this year, too--Volunteer Management, online donations, address validation, and lots more. Check out the Maps feature inside of GiftWorks--it's an indication of things to come--and very soon!

True Believers February 10, 2006 By Steve Fafel

Your True Believers can float your boat. I support a candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, and am part of the Lancaster emailing list. There's been a lot of back and forth about how best to support the candidate leading up to the county party endorsement convention. Well, someone made mention of the need for money to buy stamps and envelopes for a mailing at a meeting this week (I was on the West Coast and missed it). And right there on the spot, the True Believers dug into their pockets and put together 70 bucks for the mailing.

If you have specific, well-defined needs you can go to your true believers for funds to address those needs. That well is deep--at least the generosity well is, if not the monetary one. Go to your True Believers with your strategic investments and genuine needs, and more times than not, they'll step up like the partners to your cause they are.

GiftWorks 2006 Update Coming Soon February 7, 2006 By Steve Fafel

The product team has been working hard on getting this update out the door. We had planned on getting it out in December, but decided to include some bigger refinements in this version as it is the last major update planned before GiftWorks 2007 comes out. I just finished working with what might be the final version, and it looks really nice. We've improved the mailing process, the accounts and funds setup, and made a lot of less visible refinements and fixes.

I just had a meeting with Intuit--I'm on the West Coast this week. We've decided to do a deeper integration with QuickBooks with a target of mid-April for the enhanced functionality. If you have any specific things you'd like us to consider, please let us know. GiftWorks and QuickBooks go really well together, and it looks like by May, our side of the equation will be even better! Feel free to leave your comments by clicking Comments below.