July 2008 Newsletter
Nonprofit Neighborhood
Product Enhancement
Seeing Contact Histories in a New Way
More organizations are using the Databank as their one and only nonprofit software for managing advocacy, fundraising, bulk email, and event registration through tools such as advocacy software modules and fundraising software modules. But that means there is a LOT of information in member contact histories, especially for members who participate in more than one way. This enhancement lets you choose which contacts you want to view, and how they are sorted.
- Sort a member's Contact History by any of the columns. Columns can display in ascending or descending order.
- Set a filter on your view of the Contact History, so that it shows only the items you specify, and hides the rest. For example, if you wanted to see only fundraising contact notes, you can filter for that contact type and not show anything else.
- Filters are remembered next time you log in.
New Online Tutorial: Sending a PowerMail
We have released our second online tutorial, which gives you a crash course on creating and publishing a PowerMail bulk email message, using thedatabank's e-Marketing Software Module.
Watch the tutorial
For more in depth coverage of this topic, consult the User Guide under your help menu, or sign up for our next live training on July 23 .
New Clients
Minnesota Food Association - Minnesota Food Association builds a more sustainable food system by growing and distributing food, bringing new farmers into farming through training immigrant farmers, and networking, partnering and sharing. One way they accomplish this is through the Big River Farms CSA program. According to Joci Tilsen, "Our purpose in using thedatabank is to gain efficiency and efficacy in assisting consumers to purchase CSA membership shares, make donations to MFA, sign up for volunteering and join the membership program of MFA. We have a small staff and can get overwhelmed by administrative tasks. The Databank seems to be an efficient solution."
Community Farm Alliance - Community Farm Alliance is a grassroots membership organization with over 2,000 members in 75 Kentucky counties. From creating new Farmers' Markets in underserved urban communities, to developing Farm-to-Cafeteria programs that link local farmers with institutional buyers, to promoting family farm-friendly policies in the halls of the State Capitol, CFA provides a grassroots voice for Kentucky's citizens-farmer and non-farmer, urban and rural alike-on farm, food, and economic issues.
Missouri Votes Conservation - MVC is a non-partisan, statewide organization that advocates for pro-environment legislation and political candidates in Missouri. They are the 18th State Conservation Voter League to sign on with thedatabank. According to acting E.D. Liz Forrestal, "We're a small, young organization that's looking to expand our influence and reach throughout Missouri. We've come to realize that a key step in growing MVC is organizing and tracking our constituents, donors, candidates and other stakeholders." MVC will use their new Databank primarily for fundraising and bulk email.
Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - This organization, which has been in existance since 1949, is made up of hunters, anglers, trappers and others that are actively engaged in the outdoors. The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation has a dual mission to engage in conservation education and to advocate for sound conservation policy. They will use the Databank mainly for our fundraising software module and advocacy software module.
Reflecting on a Decade
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
by thedatabank Co-Founder Chris Hanson
I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago to get together with some dear friends I've known since 8th grade. So you won't have to guess, I'm 51, so I've known these folks for some 37 years. A few of the people I've seen regularly over the years, others I haven't seen for some time. We had a great evening of talking about times old and new. One of the things that struck me was, even though we had all gone on to having families, exciting careers, and lots of twists and turns, for the most part my friends were still very much the people I went to school with over 30 years ago.
In the 25 years that I have been involved in nonprofit fundraising, I have seen incredible change in the tools fundraisers use to do their work. My first real fundraising work was chairing an annual awards dinner. I was given a stack of index cards by the previous chair with the names of people whom I needed to contact about selling tickets to the event. The technology worked. I made phone calls and noted the responses on the back of the index card. All the information I needed was right at my finger tips.. Of course there were only about 60 cards.
Soon after that I began working for a local nonprofit that had sophisticated fundraising software that could only be accessed by one person in the office who had been trained on how to use it. If, for instance, I wanted a list of donors who responded to the latest appeal, I made a request to the trained gate-keeper and several days later I had the list in hand. If I was lucky, the list was actually what I wanted. If not, I would have to make another request trying to be clearer in what I was asking for.
10 years ago when we started thedatabank, one of the goals was to make fundraising data accessible to the people who needed it. We felt that having a web-based software would provide this advantage, but many organizations we talked to back then were skeptical. Today, organizations come to us because they specifically want a web-based system. It took less than 10 years for this change to happen and yet the foundation of what our clients use the Databank for is not any different than how I used those index cards 25 years ago.
Just like my old school mates, the basis of any long-term association is building a mutually beneficial relationship. Whether you are working with donors, volunteers, activists or other constituents, building and maintaining relationships is the key. Technology, no matter how cool it may seem, is only a tool to help us do that.
Peace - Chris
Meet the Staff
Adam Oien, Intern
At thedatabank since: June
What he likes best about his job: Being able to use knowledge gained in the classroom in a real world situation. The workplace atmosphere is great too.
What he does in his spare time: Playing baseball for a summer league team and Macalester College. Also, baking the occasional cookie or banana bread.
Famous person he would like to have lunch with: Neo from his favorite movie, The Matrix. Hopefully that lunch would take place in the "real world."
Tip du Jour
From Our Blog: How do I set up Campaigns and Keycodes?
This is a question I'm often asked by new clients. It's tough to answer, because like many things in life, there is no absolute right or wrong way to do it - it really depends on the situation. First, consider the structure of...(read more on our blog )
Karen's Blog
Famous
A little over a week ago, thedatabank was featured in our local newspaper, the Star Tribune. You can read the article here.
I was surprised at how many people contacted us about it. The following day, it seemed like the phone was ringing off the hook! Among the emails and calls were:
- Congratulations from clients and friends on the positive attention.
- Inquiries from potential clients.
- Multiple offers to frame/mount the article for display in our office, optimize our web site, polish our silverware, or (insert random service here).
- Inquiries from consultants or complementary services. I confess that I am a big sucker for free lunch, and have consented to being treated to several by these folks, provided I think they have something of potential value to our clients.
With some great product enhancements being released this summer, a record number of organizations choosing The Databank, and now this press coverage, we've got the momentum to make our tenth year the best year yet.
Now, will you help me by forwarding this message? I will not promise that anything magical will happen to you if you forward it. But, if this gets forwarded to even ten people, I will celebrate thedatabank's fame by wearing movie star sunglasses at my desk for a day.
Think of a friend or relative who works for a nonprofit, sits on a board, or - how about this - is a reporter for the national media and is looking for an interesting small business story. Make us famous!
Karen
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