Using the Right Technology for School Finance & Fundraising
By: Kevin J. McAllister

"Moderation in all things" is a phrase to live by, and it applies directly to technology issues related to fundraising and other school keeping tasks. It is not about strict avoidance, but it is about using a mix of approaches with balance and care. The choice is not to use a personal approach vs. technology, or to use the phone vs. e-mail or the Web.

Fundraising and finance have been around for a long time, and the basic requirements and procedures have not changed appreciably. What has changed is the ability to exchange information with constituents, to gather information, and to report results. What is different is the ability of people to share information rapidly and to publish cheaply to a wide audience.

People who thrive on owning or using or finding the latest and greatest are constantly trying some new service and declaring weeks later that X will "revolutionize" the world or communications as we know it. They argue passionately that we must get on board immediately and that those who hesitate will be left behind. Two months later, you ask them how X is going. They are shocked that you care about X and explain that it is old news that no one uses anymore—and in the next breath they tell you about the amazing new Y!

In a time of tightening budgets, perhaps we are blessed that we cannot experiment with every new technology and trend. Mostly we need to stay on the sidelines and watch closely, experiment cautiously, and ask good questions.
 
New vs. Old Technologies
The need for face-to-face events and interaction is as important as ever—perhaps greater. The need to organize events with letters and phone calls is not. E-mail announcements and Web registration can reduce costs dramatically. The quarterly print journal may still have its place with some of your constituencies, but that place is shrinking. We must also have Web site event photos, videos, and discussions.

Skyping (free videoconferencing) with distant alums, trustees, and other constituents can be a very efficient way to plan events and stay in touch. It doesn't replace visiting them or seeing them at events, but it is a very effective additional tool.

Integration
It seems obvious that the duplication and inefficiencies across a campus can be easily solved by "integrating data." What is harder to accept is that this is probably false. Most data integration projects across any organization of even moderate size end in spectacular failure—a massive waste of time and money. The current dream is to integrate everything and put it all on the Web. It is amazing how many organizations attempt this time after time, despite repeated failure.

This does not mean that organizations cannot become significantly more efficient, both within offices and overall. It simply means that one single, central database is not the answer. The Internet itself is a testament to the reverse concept. Rather than build one ultra-powerful, super-secure, single communication line, the Internet is comprised of thousands of separate, redundant, efficient pieces that together provide a unified, reliable service.

Organizations improve efficiency across offices by talking and communicating, by team building, coordination and basic human cooperation. A school of territorial, poorly managed offices, with little collegiality and a history of finger-pointing, and led by a head who takes little interest in organizational dynamics, will not become efficient through a database purchase.

Efficiency and Productivity
Efficiency in applying your development data to the tasks of fundraising does not primarily come from integration with the rest of the organization. It comes from having a system that manages that data in a way that permits productivity, exploration, and reporting within the development office.

If your system requires you to export your data constantly for productivity—letter merge, e-mail merge, labels, or reports—you have to question the purpose of storing it there in the first place.

Thresholds
The effective use of e-mail, in contrast to letters and postcards, can revolutionize many operations. It is a shame how few organizations understand this.

It is important to consider efficiency thresholds. If you currently can broadcast e-mail to constituents by exporting those e-mail addresses and importing them into your Web site system, and then creating an e-mail and sending, that is potentially useful. If that process takes three to four hours, and handholding by your IT staff, chances are that you will only do that two or three times before abandoning it. So, here is the philosophical conundrum—if your office has e-mail broadcast capability, but no one uses it, does it exist?

In contrast, if you can search your database quickly for a particular group—those attending an event, those who gave to a fund last year, those who are from a particular year—and can write and send them an e-mail right in the database, it becomes a very powerful tool. Sending a focused group e-mail is as simple as sending a single personal e-mail. Now it exists.

Data Mining and Noodling
Data mining is the current buzz word. Theoretically, we could send our data to highly trained (and highly expensive) experts who could analyze our trends for us to allow for more strategic decisions. This misses the point.

The best use of your data is daily exploring by the entire staff. I refer to ad hoc thumbing through your own data as "noodling." Who came to this event last year? What have they given? Who are major donors to this fund? How much has the board given this year? If you, as a senior staff member or director, cannot answer basic questions in seconds—yourself— you have a problem. If the director of development cannot query his/her own database, what is the point?

Social Networking
Creating your own private Web community can be an expensive experiment. It is one that has cost early adopters significant expense, with mixed to disappointing results. The initial excitement in the first few months gives way to very low use. People are too busy and have too many choices to make your site a daily habit. Schools that persist in searching for a way to engage their alums in visiting their site daily or weekly are ignoring the evidence.

A more sensible approach is to have presence in one of the areas that your constituents already go—such as Facebook—and putting interesting or important notices there. A particularly timely notice might entice numerous alums to click on the link and jump to the school's site directly. But the important point is that the alum is not going to start at the school site first and little will change that.

In this time of heightened need and tighter budgets, we need to take a balanced approach. We need to cautiously embrace some new technologies while preserving the personal touch, question our assumptions about integration and traditional means of communicating, and strengthen our human connections across our organizations.

Kevin J. McAllister is the president and chief executive officer of inRESONANCE, a technology firm providing open, customizable FileMaker based databases and Web applications to schools and non-profits, www.inresonance.com.