Every year, Software Advice speaks with thousands of organizations looking for the right nonprofit management software—giving us unparalleled insight into the needs of today’s software buyers. We recently analyzed a random sample of these interactions with small-business buyers (from nonprofit organizations with annual revenues of $100 million or less), to uncover their most common pain points and reasons for purchasing new fundraising and donor management software. Key Findings: 1. A majority of prospective buyers were tracking donations and donor information manually 2. Most buyers were seeking software in order to automate such tasks as generating and sending letters to donors 3. Thirty-one percent of buyers requested software that automatically generates acknowledgements

1. Software Advice BuyerView:
Fundraising and Donor Software
Insight into today’s small business software buyer

2. Every year, Software Advice speaks to thousands of nonprofit organizations
looking for the right nonprofit management software. We recently analyzed a
random sample of these interactions with small-business buyers (nonprofit
organizations with annual revenues of $100 million or less), to uncover common
pain points and reasons for purchasing new software.
Key findings include:
• Thirty-eight percent of buyers were tracking donations and donor information
manually.
• Most buyers were seeking software in order to automate the most common
fundraising management tasks.
• Thirty-one percent of buyers requested software that automatically generates
acknowledgement letters and receipts.
Abstract

3. Many Buyers Track Donor Data Manually
Thirty-eight percent of buyers use manual methods, such as spreadsheets, to
manage donor data and a combined 52 percent rely on some type of software.
2%
4%
7%
19%
31%
38%
Manual methods
Fundraising software
Non-fundraising software
No software
Nothing; new nonprofit
Custom software

4. Automate processes/tasks
Current outdated/unreliable
Special campaign
Current lacks functionality
Current not user-friendly
Centralize data
Increase funds
Current too expensive
Robust reporting
Current lacks support
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Need for Automation Is Top Reason for Evaluation
Percent of sample
The main reason for evaluating fundraising and donor management applications is
to automate time-consuming tasks that strain a nonprofit’s limited resources.

5. Document automation
Event planning
Email marketing
Online donation collection
Volunteer management
Direct-mail marketing
Membership management
Donor list segmentation
Accounting integration
Grant management
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Document Automation Is Most Requested Feature
Percent of sample
Document automation was requested by 31 percent of buyers, primarily to
streamline the creation and sending of donation acknowledgements and receipts.

6. Buyers Prefer Integrated Suites of Software
Fifty-five percent of buyers said they prefer software suites that support multiple
processes, rather than best-of-breed products that support one or two processes.
45%
55%
Integrated suite
Best-of-breed
Multiple products

7. Buyers Strongly Favor Web-based Deployment Model
Following the trend of most software markets, the vast majority of buyers—97
percent—said they prefer Web-based applications to on-premise solutions.
3%
97%
Web-based
On-premise

8. Most Buyers Evaluating Software for Small Nonprofits
A combined 97 percent of our sample was comprised of software buyers
representing organizations with annual revenues of $5 million or less.
2%
21%
76%
Less than $1 million
$1-5 million
$6-25 million
$26-50 million
$51-100 million

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