What do you need to track about each of these constituents? How will you interact with them? What information will you need to grow the relationship? For example, organizations that recruit business sponsors for events need a database that can track these cultivation steps.What types of constituents do you have? Who are you going to track in the database? Donors, volunteers, board members, community partners, vendors, media, business supporters? Others?.The more clearly you can define how you plan to use constituent data, the more likely you are to choose a good database for you, and use it effectively after you acquire it. Don't assume that the cheapest ways are the best.īefore you choose a database, think through how you plan to use it. And don't forget that there will likely be costs for customization, training, updates, and maintenance down the road - and these costs may well be higher for tools with lower initial fees. If you have a $500,000 annual budget, this would mean devoting $1,250 to $2,500 per year to managing your constituent data. A rule of thumb is to spend 0.25 to 0.5 percent of your annual budget on a solid constituent management system. It's important to think through how important this system will be to your organization, and budget accordingly. We then combined their thoughts to come up with a set of solid tools that might work for you.Ĭonstituent data is the lifeblood of most organizations. We asked a number of nonprofit technology professionals about the software that has worked well for them in similar circumstances. They have very little money for this, and are hoping to find something inexpensive and easy to use.ĭoes this sound familiar? Many small organizations are looking for an inexpensive way to manage constituent data. They want to consolidate this information into a central place so they can find people, understand what contact they've had with them, run mailing and email lists, and keep on top of who is doing what. They currently store data on about 600 volunteers, donors, partners, and other constituents in a series of spreadsheets. For more articles and reviews, go to A three-person organization is looking for a better way to track people. This article is courtesy of Idealware, which provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software.
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