INDIANAPOLIS - eTapestry.com, developer of Web-based donor database and communications management software, has partnered with Philanthropic Service for Institutions (PSI), the philanthropic consulting department of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

PSI, based at the World Church Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, represents 300 Seventh-day Adventist institutions, including academies, colleges and universities, and hospitals. These organizations will receive a 10 percent discount on eTapestry basic service and user fees, in addition to training discounts.

eTapestry founders, who headed up Master Software Corp. before it was absorbed by Blackbaud, had a lot to do with PSI partnering with eTapestry, said PSI spokesman Randy Fox.

"One of the reasons we were interested in eTapestry was because we used to have a relationship with Master Software Corp. in the form of an exclusive agreement for its Fund Master software," Fox said. "eTapestry has really done its homework and it has come out with something that is a top-notch product."

eTapestry CEO and co-founder Jay Love, former Master Software CEO, said he was glad to be working with Philanthropic Service for Institutions once again.

"We feel like we're being welcomed home by old friends," Love said. "It's great to be able to serve such wonderful members as this group has."

eTapestry is the only Web-based software that PSI has endorsed. eTapestry is responsible for hosting the software and implementing its upgrades. Nonprofits can access the software and their secure databases wherever and whenever they have a Web browser and Internet connection.

PSI also was impressed with the national associations eTapestry has established with key organizations, such as The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, Fox said.

"These relationships with nationally recognized and respected fundraising groups are a huge feather in eTapestry's cap and speaks highly about its product and services," Fox said.

So far, about 160 of the group's membership of hospitals, colleges and academies actively raise funds.

"eTapestry was designed for organizations like PSI, whose members have widely dispersed clients who need an easy-to-use economical donor management system," said Chip Muston, eTapestry sales coordinator. "All but the very largest organizations have found that managing a network and client server systems diverts important resources from their core mission."

That was true for Jim Closser, executive director of the Tennessee Christian Medical Center Foundation, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Closser's small fundraising office had been working for years in DOS with Fund Master software. When Closser went shopping for a new software package, he said he was put off by the prices of other systems.

One system he looked at would have cost him $20,000 for just the necessary software and hardware upgrades. By signing up for eTapestry, Closser said he avoided the capital outlay. He now pays about $2,000 a year for eTapestry, which is comparable to just the maintenance fees for the other system.

While the cost savings were a plus, Closser said the real driving force behind his decision to go with eTapestry was because he knew he could trust the leadership of the company, whom he had worked with before.

In addition to being able to access his database from anywhere in the world, Closser said he is relieved that he is not responsible for upgrades, which eTapestry typically conducts on the weekend.

"When you log in the next Monday morning, you have the full advantage of the upgrades and you haven't done anything," he said.

In addition to no maintenance hassles, eTapestry's easy-to-use system has quickly gained the trust of fundraisers who don't consider themselves proficient in the use of computers.

"I'm not a real hot-shot computer person, so I was a little apprehensive," said Carol Laker, a donor database novice who works in the development office of the San Francisco Junior Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist school. "But, I'm doing just fine. Whenever I run into a problem, the eTapestry customer service representatives quickly help me figure it out."

Founded in 1999, Indianapolis-based eTapestry.com is the first Web-based donor database and communications management system that rents its software to customers who access it over the Internet. Nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes using eTapestry.com do not pay the large upfront purchasing costs or the ongoing maintenance and support contracts typically paid in the purchase of more traditional software. For more information, go to www.eTapestry.com.