Decision Sheet

CALGARY DROP IN CENTRE : DONOR INFORMATION SYSTEM

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Which option would best setup the DI for its future success

PROTAGONIST
Alan Facey – Director of Finance & Administration

ALTERNATIVES
⮚ Build a new in house system to replace Microsoft Access
⮚ Purchase new software specifically developed for non profit fundraising and
relationship management such as Raise Edge or Donor Perfect
⮚ Adopt cloud based fundraising solution

Solution Time Cost Requirement

1 Build a new in 8-12 150,000 ⮚ Full time programmer
house system to months ⮚ One central database
replace Microsoft ⮚ Servers and security to store data
Access at additional costs.

2 Purchase new 1 year 20,025 ⮚ Annual maintenance approx 3000

software including support
specifically ⮚ Servers and security to store the
developed for
data would involve additional cost
non profit
fundraising and
relationship
management
such as Raise
Edge or Donor
Perfect

3 Adopt cloud 7-9 ⮚ Standard ⮚ Store information on a secure

based fundraising months version shared platform
solution 21,800 ⮚ Online hosted system, centralized
⮚ Professional with backup protected
Version environment
32,000

SOLUTION
The third option, adopt cloud based fundraising solution, such as salesforce for non profits or
Raiser’s Edge NXT. This will allow the DI to store information on a secure, shared platform.
The standard version of Raiser’s Edge NXT would cost 21,800 per year within a three year
contract and the professional version with additional modules would cost 32000 annually
with a three year contract. Through online hosted system, the data would be centralized and
backup in a protected environment. Individuals working at DI sites to access and edit donor
and volunteer information online. Range of permission levels implemented based on the
degree of access reasonable for specific groups. These platforms would be supported by off
site customer service and security experts supplied by the vendor. Implementation will take
7-9 months and the platform’s open design would allow further customization and
integration with other systems and application.