New Guide Looks at Low-Cost Fund-Raising Software

April 27, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute

A new guide to low-cost software systems that help charities manage their donor records was released at the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

The report — which was published by the Nonprofit Technology Network and Idealware, a nonprofit group in Portland, Me., that provides information on software designed for charities — reviews 33 fund-raising packages that cost less than $4,250 the first year a charity uses them and compares the features that they offer.

The guide also provides in-depth reviews of 12 of those systems.

Laura S. Quinn, executive director of Idealware, spoke with The Chronicle about the report’s findings and offered advice about the steps charities should take when they are looking for new fund-raising software.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.