Donor Tools reviews

Donor Tools BEST and Most Needed for NonProfit Organizations

Opmerkingen: Donor Tools is something I looked for YEARS something simple to use that was online and cloud based. It's more than affordable and the support is beyond anything we could have imagined. I have recommended Donor Tools to so many and so has my son who builds websites. Every nonprofit should get rid of their old software and move over to Donor Tools. It took only a short time to get us moved over, 3 years worth, but when tax time comes, the EASE saves us hours and hours. There are too many features to expound upon, but a few are: allowing donors to update phone numbers and addresses, while also having a print off for the end of the year taxes. Also allowing multiple users, different permissions. Having custom thank you notes, with prior donation amounts included. Tags to group donors. Honestly, the benefits are endless and I have yet to find one drawback to Donor Tools.

Pluspunten:

As I said, there are too many features to expound upon, but a few are: 1. Allowing individual donors to update their own phone numbers and addresses, while also allowing them to see all their donations, then at the end of the year, have something they can print off for their taxes. 2. Also allowing multiple users within your organization, along with different levels of permissions. 3. Having custom thank you notes, with prior donation amounts included. 4. Tags to group donors you need to list on your nonprofit taxes. 5. Honestly, the benefits are endless and I have yet to find one drawback to Donor Tools.

Minpunten:

NONE, not one.

A hermit shell for our organization

Opmerkingen: We are a small nonprofit protecting farmland in Maryland. We went from excel sheets all over the place to Donor Tools and that has been the right choice. There were lots more expensive and complicated donor management tools out there but I like how donor tools has lots of useful features but is very intuitive for a non-technical minded staff to manage. I've had to train a new staffer on it and it is been pretty easy. I see Donor Tools as a good fit for us while we begin better management of our data, its possible we will need a more powerful solution as we grow (hence the hermit shell in the title) but I'm very satisfied now. I really wish I had gone with Mail Chimp way back when because not having that integration is my main gripe, but not Donor Tools' fault (we are on Constant Contact). I have gotten an offshoot organization on Donor Tools because of its ease of use. Best Parts:
Smart tags are magic!
I didn't have to build anything- just add data
Thank You notes and tracking of correspondence
Reasonably priced for the features offered
Searching for lapsed donors is a breeze
tracking pledges
The donor overview page is very helpful- I like the graph Cons
-Sometimes the PayPal integration is spotty, leaving out information (like a last name or street address)
-Learning markdown was tough at first but I got the hang of it. Room for improvement
-I'd appreciate more ways to graph - break out the dashboard graph with other options- maybe a reflection of the number of new donors or number of lapsed donors year-to-date?
-When writing thank you notes, you should be able to name each letter there - viewing them by date is not as helpful as being able to look into that drop down and find the letter I marked "Spring Board Member thanks" or "fall fundraiser" etc. I end up having to save templates in word and cut and paste.
-The printouts of donor records are very small print and gray- please make them more legible.

Pluspunten:

Smart tags, thank you notes and most of all ease of use generally.

Minpunten:

I wish it had integration with Constant Contact. Pay Pal integration is sometimes spotty, leaving out data on donors.

Suitable Tool For Small Nonprofits

Opmerkingen: We've been using DonorTools for the past couple of years and it's been an adequate tool for our basic donor tracking, receipting, and reporting needs. We're a small organization that has a robust web-based volunteer mobilization tool that tracks a lot of user data already. We've connected our platform to DonorTools with some custom API that allows us to take advantage of a platform that already exists rather than our own. So far DonorTools is doing what we need it to do, but we also haven't explored the true depths of using it as a donor management tool as a customer relationship tool. We've had a few issues or can see some drawbacks, but because we do our own software development, that is normal for us as we look to integrate 3rd party tools like this. This is the basis for some of our three star ratings. Overall, the package we pay for and the tool overall is just what we need.

Pluspunten:

It's cost to value ratio for us. It it well thought out as far as features and has more than enough of them.

Minpunten:

Some user experience work could be done or some additional training modules could be created to help users figure out how to use the tools to the full advantage. We'd also like some greater flexibility to develop custom API to help our website talk to DonorTools to do more things relevant to our needs.

Great CRM for non-profits!

Opmerkingen: Donor Tools has been a great fit for our small non-profit. It integrates beautifully with Mailchimp and PayPal, and makes it easy to see how our fundraising efforts compare with past years. Thank you Donor Tools!

Pluspunten:

Our team likes that DT connects with MailChimp and PayPal, offers graphics on the Dashboard showing fundraising levels, and is a good price for the quality of the product. We also like being able to have different log-ins and a fundraiser page. The customer service has also been really fast and helpful.

Minpunten:

1. Figuring out the smart tags and running reports has been a challenge. We've been using our own tags, and those help, but it would be great if we could more easily tag large groups. 2. Creating a fundraiser page was challenging - we had to design it on our website in HTML and then move it over, and it still needed a lot of tweaking. But it was great that it connected so easily with PayPal, and we could use a graphic tracker to show the fundraising level. 3. It would be great if we could send group emails, and also attachments with emails since we send our acknowledgement letters electronically. 4. It would also be great to have an app to enter and change data using a smartphone. 5. Perhaps all of the above are things we haven't figured out yet, and the product may actually do them. Although DT is not as intuitive as I would like one year in, but it's a vast improvement over using spreadsheets!

Incredible value for non-profits!

Opmerkingen: I'm able to use the Microsoft Office software for a low price to do my typing, create presentations and spreadsheets, and pretty much all daily work on my computers. My co-workers enjoy the same.

Pluspunten:

As a program director for a small (8 person) non-profit, I'm always looking for ways to provide the most value for my team at the lowest price. Since some of our staff work on PCs and others use Macs, the TechSoup deals are awesome because we're able to customize the programs we choose to meet our needs. I found the sign-up process to be simple and we were quickly able to get our software installed. TechSoup is truly wonderful for non-profits!

Minpunten:

I had some initial confusion about the steps of setting up and validating a Microsoft Volume Licensing account. But now that I've figured it out, I'm able to help my co-workers when they need to install software.

Great Product

Opmerkingen: We were using something that cost a lot more and had many more "features". It turns out that we just needed something that worked better and was easier to use. DonorTools is a great product.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, intuitive, api

Minpunten:

There isn't a way to get a webhook on events, so I can't get two way syncing with an outside service. Certain things that other software does offer out of the box isn't present here. No bulk entry, no end of year letter generation, no easy way to customize the look and feel of emails coming from DT. It would be nice to have some other payment processors integration as well (Stripe). Also, two way data syncing by using webhooks would be amazing. Right now I have to query DT every time I do anything with donations or donors and many times I have problems because someone merged a donor, but my software doesn't know about it (there is no field for 'previous_persona_ids'

Began using Donor Tools soon after it was created; gave suggestions which were accepted and acted on

Opmerkingen: Donor Tools made it possible for us, a small but vigorous nonprofit religious community, to handle our donations and donor information in an efficient and helpful way--at a most reasonable cost. The developer had experience with nonprofits, but I was able to give input early on about language and how we were using it which benefited the application--and other users. Frankly, we were not able to afford the "big boys" and Donor Tools gives us a lot for our money. We really appreciate it!

Pluspunten:

Very responsive to my needs. Easy to search database, to input info, to retrieve info, to write thank you letters and to print reports.

Minpunten:

There's only one thing I want that it doesn't *yet* have: a donation memo that shows on reports but NOT on tax receipts. I have requested this feature, and since DT creator has been responsive in the past, I expect it will be added at some point.

A pretty solid choice!

Opmerkingen: Overall this tool was a pretty good solution for organizing and tracking all of our incoming donations. It's not the best on the market, but it's very serviceable.

Pluspunten:

I found this software very user friendly. A lot of donation management software can be very convoluted and overwhelming to even just look at. After spending 10 minutes with Donor Tools, I knew how to do pretty much everything I would need to do on a regular basis. It's laid out very easily.

Minpunten:

At least in my experience I found the software itself to be a bit glitchy and buggy. Navigating around the software and trying to create reports, for example, often led to pauses of up to 7 or 8 seconds while the program found its bearings. It seems like things on the coding side are not quite perfect.

Web dev

Pluspunten:

The website is easy to use and understand. Was also easy to get started using the XML feed as a developer.

Minpunten:

The API has much to be desired, adding things like date range to better filter results for goal oriented websites.

Donor Review

Opmerkingen: My overall experience with donor tools has been great since I stumbled upon the software while browsing online. I don't know what we were doing prior to this installation of software but we definitely will use this moving forward... good job guys

Pluspunten:

The overall creation of software to capture this type of service is Standalone and unique this gives my nonprofit organization the ability to keep track of all donations coming out which is excellent for tax purposes.

Minpunten:

The cons are very few when talking about this software the ease of navigating through the program is almost seamless and it's also an excellent way to keep your nonprofit organization organized I understand this is the section where the negative views are supposed to be but there are none in my opinion.

Good but use with caution.

Opmerkingen: We are a small conservation land trust with a membership under 1000. We have been using DonorTools for about five years now and, for the most part, it has served us well. However, there are some potential problems that can get you if you are not careful, and one unaccountably cheap lack of resources. Extracting mailing lists from the data has to be done with a great deal of caution. Extracting a particular set of donors is done with Smart Tags. These amount to logical combinations of rules for selecting donors using functions such as "last donation after {date}" and can be ANDed and ORed. However, there is no way to group the functions such as parentheses to make sure the ANDs and ORs are delimited the way you want them. In fact, according to customer support, using both ANDs and ORs in a Smart Tag definition will give unpredictable results. I can vouch for that. The work-around is to use multiple Smart Tags, one for every parenthetical expression, and then reference those Smart Tags in the main one. So one extraction can take two, three or even four Smart Tags. At the payment level that fits us, we are limited to 10 Smart Tags. It is nice to save extractions from year to year and just change the dates. But there are not enough Smart Tags for all of the mailing lists so we need to delete Tags and re-enter them as needed. The Smart Tag editor is not very user friendly, and does not catch typing errors. (The last extraction I tried resulted in only half as many donors as I was expecting. I checked the typing and everything appeared to be correct I but got the same result. Only by deleting the Smart Tag and rewriting it from scratch did I get the correct result. This is not the first time.) Ten is just not enough Smart Tags. The solution, of course, is to pay twice as much for a full subscription which we don't need for any other reason. This coercion to pay more for a resource that doesn't cost anything seems cheap. I looked around for a different vendor because of this but the effort to move was just too great. Customer support has always been very helpful. They were able to tell me how to do things I could not figure out on my own. There are hidden features. However, they seemed quite aware that my solution was to pay more and were unsympathetic.

Amazing Software & Support at a terrific price point!

Opmerkingen: We absolutely LOVE Donor Tools. The ease of use and customer support is second to none! We are a small non-profit and I really appreciate the customizable features - especially the ability to track relationships (which is so very important in fundraising). All of our emails to customer service receive very quick responses too. I especially appreciate the cloud base software - where I can easily look up donor information on my smartphone when I'm at an event - or simply run into a donor on the street. Thanks for a wonderful product!

Pluspunten:

See notes.

Minpunten:

Sometimes it can be tricky to figure out the exact logic of the smart tags. It takes a while for a user to get used to the interface. Also, it would be great to add comparative reports.

Good Software, Limited Updates

Pluspunten:

This web-based account software is affordable, easy-to-use and beats the rest of the pack. It allows for the easy input of donors and donor date. Printing year-end tax receipts is easy.

Minpunten:

This web-based account software was affordable, easy-to-use and beat the rest of the pack in 2011 when we first began using it. Since then, it hasn't been updated. Seven years later it is exactly the same! The Web 2.0 interface is the same, no features have been added and the price has gone up too much.

Good Program for Single-Person NPO Shop

Opmerkingen: As a small nonprofit without a big budget, Donor Tools has served us well. We don't have the complex fundraising needs that larger organizations might have - we just need to track to donations accurately and be able to thank our donors in a timely manner. Donor Tools helps our Development Director do just that and not have to take expensive classes to learn how to use the system. Very user friendly and easy to use.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use. Gets the job done with less fuss and low cost.

Minpunten:

Formatting the documents & reports can be a bit challenging.

Perfect for Small non profits

Opmerkingen: We use it every day to track our donor and donations. Great tool.

Pluspunten:

After searching different sites to track donors we found Donor Tools to be the best one for us. It has everything we need and for the price, i could not find anything better.

Minpunten:

The reports are not customize like others, it comes out in excel, but once in excel you can customize the entire report and obtain all the information you need.

Donor tools review

Opmerkingen: Donor tools is a fantastic tool for the rescue. The organization & the amount of options makes correspondence & archival of donations & donor records extremely easy. The system is costly, but there are not many systems able to handle the vast amount of options needed for our rescue in relation to donations in multiple forms. The only functions I would improve are merely fine tuning the ease at which you move from one correspondence to the next. In addition, the program's ability to recognize similar donors & merge more automatically & adjust. I would love a program that adjusts the screen & holds your place to the next unfinished job. In addition, it would be fantastic to have options to improve the design such as font, logo, a photo, PDF, or video insertion, as well as areas to insert links to fb or instagram.

Pluspunten:

Organization Variety of options for sorting, locating, logging, etc. Solid program for a rescue in need of multiple options, arranging, archiving, tracking. It is extremely useful!

Minpunten:

Lack of design options & personalization for correspondence. Would love a better tracking for completed responses/printed while viewing the screen--logs a "to do" & "completed" job more accurately & moves down screen.

Susan Nelson, Executive Director

Opmerkingen: Overall ease of use is good however there are limitations to the program that when we want to find out how to overcome those, there isn't a customer service representative that we can call for help. Often, we are required to try and figure out by the manual what to do which takes a large amount of time. It would be nice to have an 800 number to call to get quick answers when needed.

Pluspunten:

ease of use

Minpunten:

no one to talk to when we have a question

Great software, easy to use, very intuitive.

Pluspunten:

DonorTools is intuitive, easy to use and affordable. They have a great support team and they respond very quickly whenever we need help.

Minpunten:

The API isn't great. I integrate a couple pieces of software with the API and sometimes I have to do a lot of work to get exactly what I need from the API.

Solid software for donations managmenet

Opmerkingen: Donor Tools is an easy and time-efficient donor software. It does't feel overly flashy or cluttered, and it gets the job done. I've never had to contact support because everything about it is pretty self-explanatory. It's main gap is a lack of support for logging events and similar things.

Pluspunten:

Easy to use, straightforward and intuitive

Minpunten:

No support for events

The search takes FOREVER; constantly popped out, etc.

Pluspunten:

It maintains information. Other than that, NOTHING.

Minpunten:

Popping me out; searching for minutes at a time; repeated inputting due to popping out from a page; repeating a checked box when it has been unchecked--repeatedly; "automatically" inputting multiple emails/phone etc.

Decent for the price, but not a perfect tool for donors

Opmerkingen: Lots of great features in this product, but a serious security and compliance flaw which may make users want to look at other products eventually. 3 main issues with this product: 1) Security - once people leave your organization, there is no good way to prevent their continued access to private donor data. The only way is to actually delete their account. But if you do this, then you lose all activity and audit information that was tied to their account. 2) Compliance - repeat of the issue above, but for compliance reasons. This is basic database 101 admin stuff which should be common to any DB program but for some reason is lacking here. Admins need the ability to turn off access without deleting accounts. They also need the ability to set 'read only' access to certain users. 3) Donor correspondence generation can be a frustrating exercise. The ability to look and use up past letter templates is very limited. The program autocaches the last 10 or so letters that you create, but they are not actually saved for reference anywhere. If you just created, for example, 20 identical letters for different donors and then need to come back to reuse a different letter template, you can't. You have to create it all over again. This causes a lot of rework.

Pluspunten:

Ease of use, intuitive interface.

Minpunten:

Lack of security, compliance, and correspondence template management / retention.

Donor Software Review

Opmerkingen: This program is a good product overall. The customer support is good, but not very quick to remedy problems. There are numerous features this product does not provides, however, they do offer workarounds. Overall, our company has been using the program for 4 years and is pleased. Great value for the price.

Love Dropbox!

Opmerkingen: Dropbox is one of the most valuable tools we use for our organization! It helps us stay organized with all the documents/files we generate; allows for easy sharing of materials; and keeps us very organized.

Pluspunten:

Ease of use and features

Minpunten:

Could offer more features for organizing files.

Communications & Partnerships Manager...Also manage the the DT software

Opmerkingen: Ideally it works.
Does not have feature for deceased persons--VERY IMPORTANT. Exporting smart tags can be hit or miss. Customer service is pretty prompt but I'm to the point where I hate addressing issues as the same problems have become cyclical with no solutions. Would love to have email communications linked to DT, Instead you have write emails with donors in DT to have it recorded. Tired of copying donor comms on to notes tab. We never print letters out of PDF on DT as alignment is always off. In short it "works". Software is not a one-stop shop. There are various critical capabilities that should link but don't. Need to improve process and user experience. On the look out for other options.

Fundraising is almost a breeze with Donor Tools

Opmerkingen: At least twice a year I am responsible for creating a fundraising mailing for 500+ donors of our organizations. Depending on our goals and visions for the appeal, I may want to send a special set of letters to our most frequent donors, donors who haven't donated in the last year, etc. With Donor Tools I can easily define groups by these categories and export them for a straightforward mail merge. If only Donor Tools could seal and stamp the envelopes.

Pluspunten:

Simplicity.

Minpunten:

Occasional difficulties in creating smart tags that work. For example, creating a smart tag for donors who have donated at least 50 dollars and and have donated within the last year.