www.idealware.org

A Consumers Guide to Donor Management Systems

You Might Not Need to Change…

Switching Constituent Management Systems

What Are Your Priorities?

Keep In Mind: Where Are You Going?

How Do the Systems Compare?

Help me make my short list…

You are a small but growing organization and price is critical…

Track all of your constituents in one system…

You need to integrate the system tightly with email and your

website…

You need something highly configurable…

Planning for Your Selection

Identify a Team of Stakeholders

Prioritize a Features Wish List.

Do Your Research

… and schedule vendor demonstrations.

Rank the systems against your wish list

Implementation, Configuration and Migration

Implement: Setup

Install the System

Configure (and Customize)

Data Migration

The Process

What Data do you Really Need?

Clean Up Inactive Records

Clean up Duplicate Data

Get Help With Migration!

Do You Need a Consultant?

Defining Usage and Integration

Know Who is Working With the Data

Set Clear Data Entry Guidelines

How Do You Enter Data Uniformly?

Define Who Should Do What

Consider Software Integration

Accounting Considerations

Supporting the Technology Transition

Don’t Stop Here!

Define Usage and Support

Train People

Measure and Check-in