Organizing better to raise money?

July 9, 2009 7:48 AM

I work as a fund raiser and need a better system of organization for following up on calls to and from alumni. We are using Banner, which is very clunky and heretofor I am unable to leave the system. I feel very reliant on the computer but as my portfolio grows smaller I want to find a more desk-oriented system that will allow me to peruse my portfolio and follow up on things faster. Any suggestions?

I am already compiling to-do lists each evening for things to do the next day, but things are being lost in the cracks. I don't find GTD very effective as I tend to get my orders in the middle of the day and then need to finish them before leaving. Any advice or equipment I should be looking into. By all means, I don't want another computer/internet application to deal with.

posted by parmanparman to work & money (5 comments total)

I worked at a job where I had lots of different commands coming from different people all day long. What I did was got some looseleaf and started a new page each day. When something comes in, write it on the next line. When you get it done, check it off. Next day, rewrite everything you didn't get done yesterday. The looseleaf was on a clipboard that I used as a mousepad so it was always at hand, but I could also carry it with me if necessary. Would that not work for you?
posted by amethysts at 8:16 AM on July 9

Some of the fundraisers I used to work with would keep Franklin Covey Planners with them at all times. When they'd get their orders, they'd jot it into their planner.
posted by onhazier at 8:17 AM on July 9

I just use a marble notebook and mark down every note or todo in the pages and keep it organized by writing the date on top of each page. This way I can transfer whatever didn't get done that day into my real todo list but not let any of the little things fall through the cracks. Too many times I'll be in the middle of a task when I have to take a phone call and forget to pick up the task afterward, now if I jot them all down it's easy to review and remind myself. It works fairly well as long as you keep to the discipline of taking notes of everything you're doing and have done. This has an added bonus of giving you a realistic idea of what you actually can get done in a day so you don't overload yourself with daily tasks.
posted by any major dude at 9:51 AM on July 9

The new software we just got - I'm not going to recommend it yet because it has some other issues that are far from thrilling - tracks all the action items you need to take with any given donor. It's a small local company & web based & cheap; memail me if you would like details. I don't know Banner but a quick googling seems to imply that it's not primarily development software? Maybe that's what you need instead?

Anyway, most fundraising & development databases will do the same thing - Tech Soup is a really good resource for comparison shopping & discounts on that kind of software.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:23 AM on July 9

The Nonprofit Communications Blog has some good tech articles.
posted by valannc at 12:22 AM on July 13