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9-1-13 SpecialFocus DonorManagementSoftware Layout 1 9/9/13 4:25 PM Page 1SPECIAL FOCUS: DONOR MANAGEMENT SOFTWAREMORE DONORS MANAGED IN THE CLOUDTransition from resident data systems hurdling forwardGathering at the annual AidsWalk Atlanta and 5K RunBY DON MCNAMARA AND PATRICK SULLIVANEdward Doolittle, developmentofficer of Aid Atlanta, has seenthe benefits of hosted donormanagement from two perspectives: as a paid employee and as avolunteer.As the organization’s development officer, Doolittle has enjoyed the enhanced ease of access that hosted donormanagement has given his organization.It’s about more than him being ableto do his job better. “Just being able tofree up a server and free up our IT department, and the price of hosting camedown, as well as staff time, I would haveto say as a guesstimate that we’re savingseveral thousands of dollars a year,”Doolittle said. “Unrestricted money cango right where you need it most.”It’s the nonprofit bottom line. “Themore efficient you can be, the moremoney can go to people the organization’s mission is all about,” Doolittle said.He also volunteers at For the Kid inAll of Us, an all-volunteer organizationto help Georgia children in need.“There’s no centralized office, so using(Blackbaud) Raiser’s Edge helps keepcosts down,” Doolittle added.Chris Kennedy, development officer1School children in Lusaka, Zambia, crowd around IMB missionary Troy Lewis, whose primary focusinvolves ministering to those impacted by the AIDS crisis.of International Mission Board (IMB),wants relationships, lots of them. Thepast year or so of using a mobile application technology has made him confidentthat he will be getting what he wantsdown the road.Down the road is a good metaphorfor Kennedy, who works for an organiza-S EPTEMBER 15, 2013tion headquartered in Richmond, Va.,but lives near Fort Worth, Texas. “For adevelopment officer, it’s a numbersgame. But it’s not about numbers, butrelationships. So for me, the ability toget in front of more people increases as Ican get more information about morepeople. I will have the ability to haveTHE NONPROFIT TIMESmore relationships,” he said.Kennedy said it’s important to beable to quantify the relationships. “Whenit comes to accessing wealth data, donormanagement software enhances my ability to qualify a constituent on the spotbefore I walk in the door,” said Kennedy.That might mean more work forKennedy, but he’s ready for it. “I feel thatthe impetus for a development officer’ssuccess is that person’s ability to be infront of constituents, not a computer. Asmobile access to constituent data increases so go excuses for neglectingface-to-face contact.”Security concerns have made somenonprofits reticent to switch from onpremise software to hosted software.Ron Rainville, vice president of servicedelivery options for Blackbaud, compares the care and scrutiny needed withthe care accorded to America’s spaceprogram. “We just established our 7-by24-hours operations center here inAustin,” said Rainville, relating it toNASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, which tracks space flights every second, alert for any eventuality.Cloud-based donor management systems (software-as-a-service, SaaS) are be-www.thenonprofittimes.comContinued on page 3

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9-1-13 SpecialFocus DonorManagementSoftware Layout 1 9/9/13 4:25 PM Page 3SPECIAL FOCUS: DONOR MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE‘‘Unrestricted money can go right where you need it most.Continued from page 1coming old hat. With this migrationcomes a bolstering of security. The goodnews for anyone shopping for a new system is few vendors have raised pricessince last year. Savvier consumers are beginning to realize that the data securityconcerns that proliferated in the cloud’searly days are largely being alleviated because of increased visibility of and comfort with the cloud.“There’s not as many security concerns with the cloud as one would think,”said Elizabeth Pope, senior researcher attechnology nonprofit IdealWare in Portland, Maine. Vendors will “have redundancy systems set up where you haveconstituent data backed up in differentplaces. A lot of nonprofits have security issues of their own with an on-premisedatabase.” Pope added that when a nonprofit partners with a cloud vendor, it’sthe vendor that handles the security.“As (security matters) become morecomplex, organizations realize this isn’ttheir specialty,” said Bob Girardi, vice president of product development for SofTrek,makers of ClearView CRM, in Amherst,N.Y. “They recognize that data is better offin the cloud.” Most nonprofits don’t approach the level of security and redundancy provided by application vendors.”Brendan Noone, chief operating officer of Z2 Systems in Chicago, said he’sgrateful that customers are becomingmore knowledgeable about and com-fortable with the cloud. “We don’t haveto spend as much time defending thecloud,” he said. “People see it as a way oflife.” NEON, Z2’s product, has beencloud-based since 2004.One reason the cloud might be continuing its momentum from last year isthat there is less sticker shock. SaaSproducts generally carry a monthly feeand are measured in dozens or hundreds of dollars, not thousands. And,prices might be falling further. “Whatwe’ve seen is that because of increasingcompetition, there’s going to be downward pressure on pricing,” said DaveSpacone, SofTrek’s president.While a nonprofit must undergo costbenefit analysis and take into account--Edward Doolittle of Aid Atlantacosts over the lifetime of their cloud software, SaaS products by and large requiremuch less of an up-front cash outlay. “Ifyou’re buying a sophisticated (on-premise) system, the outlay could be huge,not to mention the hardware and otherinfrastructure,” Spacone said. He addedthat because cloud software is pay-asyou-go, it allows nonprofits to spreadthe cost over time, which can be very attractive to some organizations thatmight not have the resources to spend 15,000 all at once.Updating the software is also mucheasier with cloud solutions. Eprisa, awholly cloud-based product made bySaturn in Cheverly, Md., gets updatedContinued on page 5Now they can work witha database solution thatmeets their individual needsneeds.Majjoorgig ftftsslDigitaDirireecectRessppoonnssein aEveEvEventsventntssWORLD OF CHANGETHE PERFECT CRMSOLUTION FOR YOURFUNDRAISING TEAMNOVEMBER 6, 2013INDIANAPOLIS, INREGISTER NOWwww.philanthropy.iupui.edu /symposiumCall Mark Connors at 800.370.7500 rtfolio.amergent.com/portfolio3S EPTEMBER 15, 2013THE NONPROFIT om

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9-1-13 SpecialFocus DonorManagementSoftware Layout 1 9/9/13 4:25 PM Page 5SPECIAL FOCUS: DONOR MANAGEMENT SOFTWAREContinued from page 3every two weeks. Clients don’t have toworry about using older versions. Itsaves money because vendors don’thave to support legacy versions. “It’s abig advantage over an (on-premise) solution,” said John Yost, a consultant forSaturn. “If you’re a software companyand you release a new version, you’vegot to support that version and all previous versions your customers are using.”Saturn serves nonprofits that have100,000 transactions or more a month,according to Yost. It found its businessbeing gobbled up by other companiesoffering cloud solutions. “We decidedthat we were going to make a quantumleap forward, betting the company thatSaaS is the way to go,” said Yost. Eprisahas been on the cloud since 2006.“Folks are getting educated,” saidPope. “As people use more cloud-basedsystems in everyday life, as they get moreexposure, there’s a little less of theworry there. Folks need to shift theirmental model to this new way of accessing software. They’re right to be warybut with more exposure, people are getting more comfortable with the idea ofthe cloud.”Although on-premise software willstill be the best option for some organizations, vendors say that the marketplace as a whole is moving to the cloud.“Even though applications work as onpremise or are delivered via cloud, ourfocus is on cloud service,” said Girardi.SofTrek still sells and supports an onpremise version of ClearView, but it nolonger advertises its on-premise productand is nudging new customers to itsSaaS version.That’s not to say that security is nolonger something to worry about. It isan issue, especially with the rise ofbring-your-own-device (BYOD) policiesfor gift officers. With BYOD, development officers are responsible for providing their own smartphones or tablets.Mobile devices have allowed many nonprofit employees to do business whileon the road or in satellite offices usingeasy-to-carry devices. This conveniencecan improve efficiency enormously, butit gives development directors a newworry: what might happen if the employees lose their phones or tabletswhile they are on the road. Software developers share these concerns.“We think having data secure is aboutprotecting constituents,” i.e. donors,said Noone. “We take that very seriously.Anybody in this business has securitymeasures at the utmost recent technology to keep that (data) secure.”Noone believes that BYOD policiesdon’t truly affect security. He said it’s thesame whether a gift officer is using a personal device or the organization’s device.“That sounds more like permissions thansecurity,” he said. “It involves protectionsthat any system should have in place. Youshouldn’t have something without alogin or password. Anyone I know hassome kind of code to get in.”Joseph Scarano, CEO of Araize, inCary, N.C., said data files are housed inservers provided by Rackspace, which isSOC-1 (Service Organization Controls,formerly SAS-70) compliant. “Creditcard and other critical data areprocessed from PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant applications. The security and data backup procedures inplace are far more extensive than whatcan be implemented in most nonprofitorganizations,” he saidEven as vendors take steps to enhance product security, an organizationmust also take steps to protect its constituents’ information. “Protecting datain the cloud starts with protecting itwithin their organization,” said Scarano.“That starts with an organization’s internal controls and the policies it creates. Ifyou don’t have the proper foundationfor data security within your organization, you will never protect data adequately in the cloud.”Scarano’s advice to nonprofit managers regarding information protection:Make sure you have policies that definedata classification categories and datahandling requirements.SofTrek takes an approach to securitydifferent from many others. Securityhappens at the database level, ratherthan the application level, meaning security policies and privileges are storedContinued on page 65S EPTEMBER 15, 2013THE NONPROFIT TIMESwww.thenonprofittimes.com