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1
2 Calendula -- Towards a Fundraising Database Standard
3
4 Requirements Document
5
6 Darryl Caldwell darrylc@fudosys.com
7
8
9 Overview
10 ========
11
12 This document provides a general outline of the
13 requirements of the Calendula project.
14
15 Overview
16 Intended Audience for this document
17 Problem Summary
18 Major Required Features
19 Environment/Platforms
20 Documentation
21 Support Maintenance
22 Glossary
23
24
25 Intended Audience for this document
26 ===================================
27
28 This document provides a general outline of the
29 Calendula project. It is aimed primarily at developers,
30 but I hope the concepts are explained in general enough
31 terms so that fundraisers may read it, follow my thoughts,
32 see the error of my ways and provide valuable feedback.
33
34
35 Problem Summary
36 ===============
37
38 * In 2002 (and in a shaky economy) U.S. citizens
39 donated almost $50 billion in individual donations to
40 nonprofits. Nearly all of this money was tracked in
41 closed source, proprietary software by the nonprofits
42 which received the respective gifts. Some of the most
43 popular proprietary systems are Raiser's Edge, Donor2,
44 Paradigm, and GiftMaker Pro.
45
46 * A fundraising database is essential to nonprofit organizations
47 (NPOs) that rely on donations. Nonprofit development directors use
48 databases to solicit donations and track their supporters.
49
50 * High quality, proprietary fundraising systems generally costs
51 $5000 to $20,000. This significantly adds to a nonprofit's
52 administrative costs and reduces the amount of money going toward
53 its goals.
54
55 * Smaller and mid-sized nonprofits are blocked by a financial
56 barrier to the technological enhancements that are enjoyed
57 by larger NPOs that can afford the top proprietary systems.
58
59 * Proprietary databases are not based on any standard in terms
60 of their operations and user interfaces. A typical development
61 director will only stay in his or her job for 3 years before
62 moving on to a different organization. This means they will
63 have to be retrained to use the database system at the new
64 organization or they will attempt to either buy or develop
65 a crude system on their own to get their job done. This adjustment
66 period costs the nonprofit money. If there were an open fundraising
67 database standard, development directors could hop from job to
68 job without the need for more training in the system.
69
70 * Proprietary databases carry strict licenses which prohibit
71 nonprofits from sharing the application with their peers. Client
72 applications can not be copied around the organizations as needed without
73 payment to the proprietor of the database.
74
75 Problem Objective
76 =================
77
78 The goal of the Calendula project is to create a
79 Free Software fundraising system that NPOs, schools,
80 religious institutions can use instead of proprietary
81 ones.
82
83 * A Free Software option would remove the financial barrier
84 to enhanced technological features that mid-sized
85 to smaller NPOs need in their fundraising efforts.
86
87 * A Free Software option would also encourage NPOs to
88 share their own enhancements with other NPOs and
89 build a better system for all.
90
91 * By using other Free Software tools as the building
92 blocks of this system, developers and implementers have
93 access to a wide variety of databases (MySQL, PostgresSQL,
94 Firebird, SAP-db) and programming tools (C development, Python,
95 wxWindows, wxPython) to develop it all rather quickly.
96
97
98 Major Required Features
99 =======================
100
101 Here are the basic requirements of a fundraising
102 database. It must:
103
104 * Be easy to use
105 1. Easy to setup server
106 2. Easy to setup client
107 3. Client UI is easy to understand
108 4. Client UI is configurable to user's desires
109 5. Client operations are easy to execute
110
111 * Maintain a list of donors
112
113 * Maintain a list of prospects
114
115 * Track donors by giving level and type
116 1. Example: "Show all donors who have given gifts over $50"
117 2. Example: "Show all who have given $1000+ annually"
118 3. Example: "Show all 'Patron' or 'Steward' type donors"
119
120 * Track donations received on a periodic basis
121 1. Example: "Show total donations in 2002"
122 2. Example: "Show total donations in since January"
123
124 * Generate information for mass mailings, emailing, and phone banks
125 1. Example: "Return names and addresses of all donors and prospects"
126 2. Example: "Return names and phone numbers of all prospects"
127
128 * Track prospects/donors by demographic information
129 1. Example: "Show contact info for all donors and prospects who
130 live in Colorado"
131
132 * Report on the success of campaigns
133 1. Example: "Show total amount raised for the XYZ campaign"
134
135 * Track relationships between donors and/or prospects
136 1. Example: "Under the relationships listed for Fred Weasley
137 we see the name for George Weasley and Lee Jordan who have
138 records in the database.
139
140 * Export data in variety of open formats
141 1. All the database tables or record sets can be exported in CSV,
142 tab-delimited, and XML formats. Or any other standard database format.
143
144 The exported files must be accessible to word processors that
145 perform merging of names and addresses into form letters and mailing
146 labels.
147
148 * Secure varying levels of access to the database information
149 1. Example: "Admin level can access all reports, screens, and
150 enter new donor types"
151 2. Example: "Entry level can enter new prospects/donors/donations
152 but not add donor types. Nor can Entry level authorization create
153 new users in the database."
154
155 * Check for the presence of duplicate entries the database and send
156 the user some flag or warning.
157
158 * Process matching gifts
159 1. Example: "The database notes and notifies the user that if Rubeus Hagrid gives
160 a donation, his employer, Hogwarts, will match his donation."
161
162 * The user must be able to design and preview reports based on the data held
163 in the system according to her needs.
164
165 * The database must be able to generate periodic pledge reminders for those
166 donors who have volunteered to donate certain amounts over a period of
167 time.
168 1. Example: "Minerva McGonagall pledges to give $100 quarterly to her local
169 foodbank. The database produces the reminder along with her contact info
170 for the mailing.
171
172 * The database queues up the contact info for all donors who have given a
173 recent donation. Each record contains this contact info and the amount given
174 so that the donors are promptly thanked with a written letter.
175
176 * The database must produce a special report on the zip codes for all contact info
177 generated for a bulk mailing. The report is a tally by zip codes which determines
178 the discount offered for presorted mail. Nonprofits in the U.S. must make their
179 calculations available to the post office when sending out the mail.
180
181
182 Environment/Platforms
183 =====================
184
185 The project will be built on the client/server model, with the
186 idea that multiple clients can connect to the server. In smaller
187 offices the client and server can reside on the same machine.
188
189 The Calendula client will need to be able to run
190 on a variety of operating systems and it will need to be
191 run over a secure connection to the server.
192
193 The Calendula server will run on a GNU/Linux or BSD operating system.
194
195
196 Documentation
197 =============
198
199 The Calendula project needs the following documentation:
200
201 * Developer's manual offering insight into system design, architecture,
202 API, and programming guidelines.
203
204 * Administration Manual which outline installation, customization and setup
205
206 * User's manual which covers all the ins and outs of daily operation.
207
208 * Supporting website offering a forum for users to ask questions, tutorials,
209 and latest news on the system.
210
211
212 Support/Maintenance
213 ===================
214
215 Support for this project will need to come from a variety of
216 sources. I see the greatest help coming from users helping
217 each other, the open nature of the system will mean that
218 the end users will have as much access to the system operations
219 as the developers.
220
221 The next level of support will come from developers active
222 in the core system and the extension modules designed for it.
223
224 The project websites will offer discussion forums, mailing lists,
225 online bug databases.
226
227 The third party support will be offered by paid consultants.
228
229
230 Glossary
231 ========
232
233 -Campaign
234
235 A connected series of operations designed to bring
236 about a particular result. For a nonprofit this can be
237 a concentrated effort to raise money for a particular
238 cause or program.
239
240 -Development Directors/Development Officers
241
242 The person or persons whose job it is to oversee the
243 fundraising activities of a nonprofit.
244
245 -Donation
246
247 A gift to a nonprofit. Donations are usually in the form of money
248 but inkind gifts can be goods or commodities other than money.
249
250 -Donor
251
252 A person or organization that gives a donation.
253
254 -Free Software
255
256 Software that allows the end user a liberal amount of freedoms
257 See www.fsf.org for details
258
259 -Gift
260
261 a donation
262
263 -Matching Gifts
264
265 A matched gift is a monetary contribution given by an employer to a nonprofit
266 that equals the amount given to the same nonprofit by an employee.
267
268 -Nonprofit Organization (NPO)
269
270 In the U.S. these are organizations that are given tax-exempt status.
271 Charities, churches, educational groups, etc. that are given 501(c)3
272 and 501(c)4 designations by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit
273 is based on the common interests of its members. It has no shareholders
274 or profit motive.
275
276 -Nongovermental Organization (NGO)
277
278 The United Nations' term for nonprofit organization.
279
280 -Open Source
281
282 Software which the end user has access to the source
283 code used to produce it. See www.opensource.org
284 for details
285
286 -Prospect
287
288 a potential donor

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