DonorExpress NewsLine

Hello From DonorExpress™ Software
This newsletter is a publication from the staff of DonorExpress Software with the intention of sharing with our users and interested organizations nonprofit information along with TIPS on how to better use our software. We hope is that you will look forward to receiving this newsletter and please feel free to respond back with suggestions for future issues. Comments

Creating An Efficient Office System?
This is the first in a series to help you take a look at the procedures that you have in place to run your office. As a developer of database systems, we have to be able to see the work flow of the entire operation in order to create an application to automate daily tasks. Many companies never think about systems until we ask them "how does your company do this". Our job is to help people see their organizations as a whole and to develop a system that will allow their organization to function well. Our hope with this series is for you to look seriously at the way your office functions.

What Is A System?
Whether you realize it or not your organization is being run by a system that consists of a set of procedures. The system may be a product of careful and conscience creation or it may be the result of haphazard evolution or it may be a combination of both. The question that needs to answered is "Do you control the system or does the system control you?". Webster's definition of System is "A group of interactive elements forming a complex whole." Notice that the key word here is "interactive" and not "independent". A system is a set of procedures that work together to accomplish a task with consistence results no matter who performs the tasks.

Visualizing The Machine
A system is like a machine with gears. Each gear is performing a function but each gear is turning another gear that does a different function. If there is a problem with any one gear in the machine, the machine will falter. The more dominate the gear function, the more drastic the system failure. For example let's look at the functions involved with the fundraising system of an organization.
*The Mail Room has a system to handle incoming mail and outgoing response letters.
*The Data Entry has a system for entering the donors and donations to meet reporting needs.
*The Accounting Department has a system to reconcile donations into the overall budget,
*The Event Planning and Development Departments need a system to target donors for their fundraising events
*The Directors need a reporting system to give them the information they need to direct the organization and answer to the board.

Each system operates independently of each other but interacts with each other and the absents of any one and the donor system fails.

Take Control With Procedures!
In order for your office to run efficiently there must be a system in place to handle all the daily office activities. This system is a set of procedures is established after careful analysis of all the steps involved with each task and with the knowledge of the long-term plans of the organization. The System needs to be monitored and adjusted by the department head and the office manager as problems arise. Look for bottlenecks in each department and the entire system. These bottlenecks are areas where the system is not working and needs to be changed. Is there a monthly board report that takes one person 8 hours to prepare. That's too long. Are there times when donation response letters do not go out in a reasonable time or not at all due to an inefficient system? Nothing will turn off a donor quicker than not being recognized for their generosity. Search for the inefficiencies in the way your office operates and correct each one until your office runs as a smooth machine.

What Is Next?
In the next newsletter we will look at the steps you need to take to create an office system that work well for you.

DonorExpress™ TIP Of The Month
DonorExpress Software is a database management tool that is designed with it's own built-in set of procedures that help to make managing your donor database easier. But as with any tool, there are many different ways to use a tool. The more you know about the software the better it will work for you. By now you realize that the way the data is entered effect the way it comes out on labels and in reports. The best thing a new user can do after they begin to enter data is to start learning the reports that are built into DonorExpress.

The Donation Entry Screen is designed to allow the user to report on a donation in many different ways depending on how the data is entered. The reports will allow you to look at a donation by almost any field on the Donation Entry Screen. Try to avoid redundant information in this screen. If a donation is entered with the Donation Type as a Capital Campaign, the campaign as a Capital Campaign and the Fund as a Capital Campaign then we have limited our reporting. Look at the difference it makes when we enter the Donation Type as a Corporate Donation, the campaign as a Capital Campaign and the fund as the Administrative Office Fund. Now we can see detailed report by the Donation Type or By the Campaign or by the Fund.

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Thank you for your time and interest in DonorExpress™ Software.
Bob Holder
DonorExpress™ Software
PO Box 1126
Boone, NC 28607
828.264.2577
info@donorexpress.com
www.donorexpress.com