2008 Accounting and Donor Software Survey. by: Heather Card, Vice President, Member Services, CCCC Wayne Kroeker, Manager, Technical Support, CCCC

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1 2008 Accounting and Donor Software Survey One of the biggest challenges that a charity faces is making sure that the right or the most appropriate software is used to meet its specific needs. At the CCCC we are regularly asked to provide guidance to churches and other charities as to which is the best software for accounting and/or donations. The answer to this question usually begins with a response such as, it depends. Because organizations vary in size and complexity, they will have different requirements for accounting and donation software. To meet the various needs of charities, each software has its own unique features and limitations. These limitations may not always be clear until you purchase and install it on your computer system. Some software providers are USA based and this may present challenges when completing Canadian payroll or receipting for donations, since the requirements of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are not the same as the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) in the USA. You will need to look closely at the features and limitations of any software before you purchase. CCCC conducted a survey in June 2008 asking our members a series of questions, including, what type of software they were using, what features they liked about the software (e.g. affordable, easy to implement, user friendly, integrates well, exports, and technical by: Heather Card, Vice President, Member Services, CCCC Wayne Kroeker, Manager, Technical Support, CCCC support), if they would recommend it to others, and a variety of other questions. The response was overwhelming. We had almost 500 members participate in the survey. The data from the survey has been analyzed and a summary of our findings has been prepared in the charts below. The first three charts summarize a few of the basic questions we asked. The next chart gives a breakdown of the most popular software used by our member churches and charities. The final chart gives answers to some specific questions about various software vendors. Which of the following best describes your ministry? Answer Options Response Percent Camp 3.5% Church 58.8% College/university 2.3% Christian school 2.1% Denominational office 4.5% Overseas missions 5.3% Parachurch/independent ministry 10.9% Relief & development 2.3% Other 10.3% In our survey our members said the features that they valued most were: Affordable, Easy to Implement, User Friendly and Reports Easy to Create. When looking for software to meet your needs, make sure that you check out several different vendors by researching their websites and watching for on-line demos that are available in some cases. Realizing that no two ministries will have the exact same needs, it may be helpful to speak to other churches or charities that are of a similar size and ask them what they like or dislike about the software they are currently using We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Wayne Steffler. Wayne contacted many software vendors and asked them a number of questions related to their systems, cost elements and general features of their products. This was a component of Wayne s Masters of Business Administration requirements at Wilfrid Laurier University. OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5 Canadian Council of Christian Charities ~

2 CCCC MEMBER SURVEY RESULTS OF MOST POPULAR SOFTWARE Small Medium Large $0 - $299,999 $300,000 - $999,999 $1,000,000 & greater DOTION SOFTWARE - CHURCHES Donarius Donarius ACS Technologies Power Church Power Church NCOL Ministries QuickBooks for Non-profits QuickBooks for Non-profits Power Church Software4nonprofits (Donation) The Silent Partner The Silent Partner DOTION SOFTWARE - OTHER CHARITIES Donarius Power Church Power Church QuickBooks for Non-profits QuickBooks for Non-profits QuickBooks for Non-profits Software4nonprofits (Donation) The Silent Partner The Raiser's Edge The Silent Partner ACCOUNTING & DONOR SOFTWARE - CHURCHES Power Church ACS Technologies ACS Technologies QuickBooks for Non-profits Power Church Power Church QuickBooks for Non-profits QuickBooks for Non-profits ACCOUNTING & DONOR SOFTWARE - OTHER CHARITIES QuickBooks for Non-profits Power Church Great Plains QuickBooks for Non-profits QuickBooks for Non-profits The Financial Edge ~ Canadian Council of Christian Charities OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5

3 Donor Software Software Vendor Name Donarius etapestry System Donor Donor Website Address? How long in business? 14 years 9 years Types of Customers How many clients/donors? Cost Elements Initial Purchase Costs 80% are churches and 20% are other charities. 1,050 clients, number of Donors 40 to 115,000. Depends on the version and number of modules purchased: can vary from $48 to $136. All nonprofit orgs Faith-based and churches make up close to 20%. 5,000 clients. Number of Donors 100 to several 100,000. Free for orgs with fewer than 500 records, 501-1,000 records - $36/ month, records - $112/ month, 5,001-15,000 records - $164/ month, etc. Annual Maintenance Fees No annual fee. All updates and maintenance are included. Minimum contract length is 3 months. Technical Support General Questions Key Features of software? One year included with purchase, 2nd year of support if customer upgrades to latest version. Tracks donors, donations, pledges, gifts in kind and pre-authorized deposits. Print yearly tax receipts or one with each donation. Print church directory without photos. Send personalized letters/ s. Re-assign envelope numbers. Reports delivered? Donor list, Directory, Quarterly Statements and Receipt Summary. Customize Reports: how difficult, cost to get special report written? Export Capability One free customized report or tax receipt. $15.00 setup charge for each additional one. Will export to a text file which can then be read by Excel, Word or Access. Donor Software Features Customize information for donors ( , mail) Donation Receipting Track Cash and In Kind Giving support included with service, telephone support, IM support, and online training services are optional. etapestry is a web-base, or on-demand application, accessed via an Internet connection. The database is hosted, where etapestry stores the data, backs it up, handles all upgrades and maintenance. etapestry also can be integrated to an ecommerce form. Over 30 standard reports available. Custom report writer included with base service. All reports, queries and data can be exported to Excel and Word. OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5 Canadian Council of Christian Charities ~

4 Donor Software NCOL Ministries Software4nonprofits (Donation) The Silent Partner Donor Donor Donor years 9 years 18 years Churches, Christian camps, Churches and other charities. denominational offices, missions, registered non-profits. 50 clients. Fewer than ten staff. 4,200 clients, Number of Donors 50 to several thousand. Some churches; mostly para-church organizations. 135 clients. Donors 100 to 135,000 (Average 10,000 donors). $575 intital startup Fee. Monthy fee based on package choices from $159 to $199 per month. Add ons like day camp management $50. Length of contract is month-tomonth, with a 30-day cancellation clause. Technical support is provided free of charge for trained users. Customers contact the support team via . Free for under 50 donors, under $5,000 annual income, & no paid staff. Up to $110 for normal non-network version. Network versions are $110 per simultaneous user. In the 2nd and subsequent years, half price of the initial purchase cost for a renewal, covering support and upgrades. Included in your initial full license fee and in annual renewal fees. $1,495, $2,495, $3,495 depending on version. $400; 1 year. Fee is optional after the first year. Phone support is included in annual maintenance fee. Record giving by individuals, add or edit envelope records, user accounts, user groups and privileges, generate statements and tax receipts. Add events to the church calendar. Track individuals and/or families, as well as significant church life events. Contacts, Postal Code, Attendance, Giving percentage and Giving by Designation. One-off reports can be created for the cost of the developer time required. Core features are tracking donors and donations and issuing receipts, with over 30 built-in reports plus custom reports, and mail-merge facilities. Also database backup and restore, PDF printing, limited functionality, thorough Help. Over 30 built-in reports, plus a custom reports facility. Custom reports facility and you can alter many reports by using the Sort and Filter features. Most reports can be exported to Excel. Export reports to Excel or other formats. There is no built-in mechanism for automatic follow up with donors. Possible through user-specified fields. Nothing built-in so far., but more developments to come in receipting for in-kind giving. Comprehensive, flexible, very userfriendly, cost-effective, tailored to the typical needs of para-church organizations, good support. Numerous reports. Customization prices typically run a couple of hundred dollars. Almost all reports can be exported to Excel. ~ Canadian Council of Christian Charities OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5

5 Accounting and Donor Software Software Vendor Name ACS Technologies (Membership Plus) PowerChurch Plus (PC+) System Donor & Accounting Donor & Accounting Website Address How long in business? 30 years 24 years Types of Customers Mostly churches, but some other non-profit organizations find it fits their needs. How many clients / customers? Over 22,000 churches and related organizations. Mostly churches, but some non-profit organizations find it fits their needs. 29,000 clients. Cost Elements Initial Purchase Costs Annual Maintenance Fees and length of contract Membership Plus - 1 user $450US; 2-4 users $550, 5-9 users $650, 10+ users - $750. $395 US. Technical Support $124 US for 6-months or $30 US per call. General Questions What are the Key Features of your software? ACS Technologies is qualified to help your church manage its business and ministry functions. Our products will make tasks easier for business administrators and will equip your church staff with resources to focus on your ministry and pursue your vision. PowerChurch Plus records comprehensive membership information, including photographs, for up to 100,000 families. Tracks contributions and pledges, and prepares statements for mailing or ing. Complete fund accounting system with general ledger, AR, AP, payroll & event scheduling. What reports are delivered? There are over 180 standard reports. Customize Reports: how difficult, cost to get special report written? Custom Report Writer is built in to create your own queries and reports. More specialized reports can be designed, starting at $125 US. Export Capability Data and reports can be exported in formats including Excel, mail merge file, ASCII, etc. Donor Software Features Customize information donors receives ( , mail) Donation Receipting Track Cash and In Kind Giving? Cash contributions can be tracked. Accounting Software Features Ability to Perform Fund Accounting Import/Export data abilities List of Delivered Reports Financial reports, Budgets, Journal, Check Register. OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5 Canadian Council of Christian Charities ~

6 GreatPlains by Altus Canada Quickbooks for Non-Profits The Financial Edge / The Raiser s Edge Donor & Accounting Donor & Accounting Donor & Accounting product/notforprofit.mspx industry_solutions/nonprofit.isp Altus - 5 years 25 years 27 years All types of non profits. Many charities, including denomination head offices. More than 50 clients with annual Operating Budgets of > $5,000,000. Accounting and Donor Software All types of non profits. Education, health and humans service, Faithbased, Missions, Churches, Performing Arts. 23,000 clients, in Canada. Revenue <$400,000 budget to Multi-Million Dollars. The application is usually around $3,500 per concurrent user, depending upon the modules selected. Maintenance fees are typically 20% of Initial Purchase, and are mandatory for the first year. Technical Support is sold on an hourly basis, typically starting at $175 per hour. 5 Users - $3,000, 10 Users - $5,000, 15 Users - $7,000, 20 Users - $9,000 USD. After the 1st year, Full Service Plan 5 Users - $750 USD, 10 Users - $1,200, 15 Users - $1,600, 20 Users - $2,000. Full Service Plan members receive: Latest Product Upgrades, Dedicated Technical Support, Online Backup, Interactive Training Tools, Custom Reporting, Data Protection. Concurrent Users, Optional Modules, Conversion and Implementation if required. Base Systems begin around $8,000 CDN. Based on a percentage of your software cost. Renewable annually. There are 3 levels of technical support including 24/7/365 if required, over 200 people in support department. No additional cost as support is included in maintenance. Financial management, Business intelligence and reporting (analytics); Collaborative workspace; Configuration and Development; Customer Relationship Management: Human Resource management; Project management; Donor Management, Grant Management, Granting Management, Manufacturing; Inventory Management; Supply chain management. Scalable: Up to 20 simultaneous users add 100,000+ of inventory items, customers & vendors. Customize 120+ built-in reports & forms with real-time access to remote users. Included ODBC driver-compliant applications such as Microsoft Excel or Access. Allow or restrict user access to over 115 individual reports, bank accounts, lists & activities in Enterprise Solutions. Designed specifically for non-profit organizations by non-profit professionals. Completely scalable to both the smaller and larger non-profit. Allows tracking for Volunteer, Donor, Sponsor, Staff, Board Member, Event Participant, Member, Alumni/ ae, Client Services, etc. Complete integration with Accounting Package and with online activities available. Additional services for Prospect Research, Direct Mail, Marketing, Data Clean-up, Point-of Sale are also available. 800 reports delivered out of the box. Numerous reports. There are over 120 standard reports. Free. An easy to use report writer allows the User to tweak any of the standard 800 reports, or to build their own. Integration with any MS Office product, simply copy and paste in Excel, Word, etc. Customize any of its 120+ built-in reports and forms., multiple export formats. The software comes with a free Crystal Reports license to create custom reports if necessary. We can also create the custom report for you if necessary for a small fee., multiple export formats. 800 standard reports + user-friendly report-writer. Customize any of its 120+ built-in reports Financial Reports. ~ Canadian Council of Christian Charities OCTOBER 2008 ISSUE 5