DECISION SHEET

Calgary Drop-In Centre

SUBMITTED BY:
Sanjeet Naik (2227551)
 DECISION SHEET
OVERVIEW OF COMPANY
• Protagonist of the story- Alan Facey (Director of finance and administration)
• Exploring ways to leverage technology in order to improve operational
effectiveness in DI.
• Communication, fundraising and stewardship were not operating at optimal
levels.
• Board of trustees had eyes on it
• Using antiquated legacy systems built by the director of information
technology.
Problem Statement
Trouble in maintaining database of donors by DI using legacy system
built by the director of information technology which hasd a limoit of
55000 donors only. Adding more donors needed new databases to be
created leading to multiple historical versions.
Options
• Build a new, in-house system to replace the current Microsoft Access
database system.
• Purchase software specifically developed for non-profit fundraising
and relationship management, such as Raiser’s Edge or DonorPerfect.
• adopt a cloud-based fundraising solution, such as Salesforce for
Nonprofits or Raiser’s Edge NXT.
Analysis and conclusion
• DI runs on antiquated legacy database systems created by the director
of information technology.
• They use Microsoft access which has a limit of recording only 55000
donors. Adding and maintaining additional donors requires creating
additional databases and as a result there are discrepancies in the
data.
• Multiple entries of the same donor are recorded. It is a tough job to
clean up all the data manually and time consuming.
• This leads to multiple annual reports being sent to the same donors
leading to negative feedback among them.
Analysis and conclusion

• Since DI is a charitable organization, donations are a very important aspect of their

functioning.
• A lot of competitors- 24000 in Alberta (Donations severely hit by the drop in price
of oil and economic-uncertainity)
• Building a new, in-house system to replace the current Microsoft Access database
system. This would involve hiring a full-time programmer to create a system
around the basic requirements and customize this to the DI’s needs and staff
preferences. All donors and volunteers would be captured in one central database,
which would allow the organization to identify duplicates and merge records.
• This option would cost approximately $150,000, would take eight to 12 months to
implement, and would require servers and security to store the data, at additional
costs.
Analysis and conclusion
• Purchasing software specifically developed for non-profit fundraising
and relationship management, such as Raiser’s Edge or DonorPerfect.
• it would be able to review data, understand donor retention rates and
segmentation, and generate standardized general-purpose reports.
Such software would be installed on personal computer desktops, and
staff would be trained on the application, which would be integrated
with basic, online marketing tools and mobile apps.
Analysis and conclusion
• adopt a cloud-based fundraising solution, such as Salesforce for
Nonprofits or Raiser’s Edge NXT. This solution would allow the DI to
store information on a secure, shared platform.
• For 100,000 records, the standard version of Raiser’s Edge NXT would
cost $21,800 per year with a three-year contract, and the professional
version with additional modules would cost $32,000 annually with a
three-year contract.
• Implementation would take seven to nine months, and the platform’s
open design would allow further customization and integration with
other systems and applications.
Analysis and conclusion
• Implementing the cloud-based fundraising solution would be the best
fit for DI as it is best fit for the kind of budget constraints that a
charity organization has to go through.
• The data will be centralized and backed up in a protected
environment allowing individuals working at the DI sites to access and
edit donor and volunteer information online.