Fundraisers don't have to rely so heavily on tech departments

When Jan Stump started work as the Association of Christian Schools International's first director of development two years ago, she struggled to use the nonprofit's association-centric software in her development efforts.

"In fund development, donor communications must be customized and personalized," Stump said. "The software I inherited was extremely unwieldy. Having been in development for 18 years, I knew I needed something intuitive and responsive. I personally wanted to be able to manipulate my data to get the information and reports needed to move my work forward, rather than relying on our overloaded tech department to do that for me."

ACSI, based in Colorado Springs, serves more than 5,400 member schools in 106 countries. Its 18 regional offices assist schools and teachers with certification, accreditation and professional development services. Demand for ACSI's services has increased as the Christian school movement has exploded into Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, South Africa and Latin America.

ACSI's growth and worldwide vision put pressure on the organization's new development department to quickly get up to speed. After Stump spent some time studying eTapestry's Web-based fundraising software at an Association of Fundraising Professionals convention, she began to get serious about making a change.

"I couldn't strike out and make a major investment, but I knew I needed the capability of good development software," Stump said.

First, she had to sell eTapestry internally to her MIS department—her toughest challenge.

"I have a tech department that grilled me and grilled everybody," she said. "For me to leave the association software was a big deal. I had to work through that. I had to build a case and get answers."

After satisfying questions about data security, she received the go-ahead. Today, eTapestry is an important tool allowing her to track and communicate with the association’s 11,000 donors from 100 countries.

eTapestry helps Stump with donor personalization, such as producing personalized and timely thank-you letters for more than 13 different funding projects. Stump uses customized reports that eTapestry culls from her databases to produce information to assist her in long-range planning.

"Using Next Step reports, we all know what follow-up we've done—whose been contacted again and our next steps with all of our guests and donors," Blackard said. "That's all part of Raising More Money. Next Step is the only system we keep. We don't have to keep other records any place else."

For Judy Davidson, director of development for Tucson-based Pusch Ridge Academy, eTapestry pulls her donor information into a format she can easily use.

"It’s everything I want to know about giving history and relationships on two pages," she said. "I've been very pleased with it and I feel we have just scratched the surface on how we can use it."

Davidson feels comfortable knowing she doesn't have to rely on Pusch Ridge'’s tech support office—which services the 385-pupil school—to help her with software upgrades and other technical issues. eTapestry makes all these changes remotely without assistance from its customers.

"eTapestry is constantly updating and improving and they do it at night," Davidson said. "We looked at a ton of software packages. I felt comfortable with eTapestry's cost and knowing that I didn’t have to be a computer guru to make this happen."