A donor database is just the first step

When staff have to search through folder upon folder of a shared drive to find the right revision of a particular spreadsheet, or dig throug stack of paper to find the right form (“and are we using the T-A version now or are we still waiting until the new year for that?”) they can’t possibly be expected to operate at any significant level of efficiency.

Your organization needs to have a data first practice. Frankly, an organized system of data collection and retrevial is table stakes for success in today’s nonprofit world.

Many fund development departments have discovered this and likely have invested in some sort of donor database, and that’s awesome and great for the development department, but what about the rest of the organization? For the organization as a whole, the donor database is really just one piece of a much larger plan for success.

All of the benefits of a proper donor database can be seen and even ramped up when the entire organization utilizes a data first mentality. When each department can have the data it requires easily and quickly and even be able to share data when required, the organization can start to operate not in spite of the tools that it has at it’s disposal but instead from a place of efficiency and progress.

Your database should be able to streamline all aspects of your organization. Fund development, human resources, accounting, volunteers, and of course your programming. And while, in the past, many many different systems were required to make each part of the organization work, there are solutions today that can handle the requirements of the entire organization. 

So is your organization working in spite of the tools at it’s disposal or are your tools assisting you in creating an amazing impact in the world?