10 Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make in Selecting a Donor Database

The latest installment in FundRaising Success' Educational Webinar Series, "Understanding and Maximizing Your Donor Database for Fundraising Success," featured 10 common mistakes nonprofits make in selecting donor databases and how to avoid them, detailed by co-presenter Robert Weiner, president of Robert L. Weiner Consulting.

They are:

1. Letting techies make the decision.
2. Wishful budgeting.
3. Prioritizing price above everything.
4. Randomly looking at demos.
5. Falling in love with cool features.
6. Falling in love with the salesperson.
7. Buying more than you need.
8. Confusing highly functional software with highly trained staff.
9. Hoping the database will install itself.
10. Leaving the database to fend for itself.

Weiner also added a bonus 11th mistake — to find out what it is, register to hear the recorded webinar, available for 90 days — and noted clear and actionable suggestions for assessing your needs and avoiding each mistake, including some sample scripts and work forms. Attendees walked away with a clearer understanding of who should make database decisions, what a new database will cost, how to assess needs, comparing databases, conducting due diligence, and how to implement and have ongoing support of a database.

Co-presenter JP Lind, vice president of the nonprofit group within Epsilon Data and Abacus, rounded out the webinar with a detailed analysis of how organizations can maximize their databases through transactional data and modeling.

Click here to register to hear the webinar and download Weiner and Lind's informative presentation slides. Cost is $65.