GoRaise Mobile Review

I recently had the opportunity to preview Electric Plum’s GoRaise Mobile application.  Electric Plum was founded in 2011 by Shaun Sullivan, the former CTO of Blackbaud.  GoRaise Mobile provides a simple, intuitive mobile interface for The Raiser’s Edge® (RE).  Those of you who are familiar with Shaun know his passion for all things mobile, so it’s no surprise that his first consumer product is a mobile interface for the software he shepherded for more than 20 years.

In general, mobile functionality for RE feels a little like a no-brainer, and some on our team were wondering why this wasn’t available through Blackbaud sooner.  Well, here it is, so let’s take a look.

The Smarter Way to Convert Your Fundraising Data

Over the past 20 years JCA has seen the fundraising software industry evolve; from DOS to Windows, from client/server to ASP to SaaS, from data silos to enterprise solutions that connect directly to constituents over the Internet.  At JCA, we understand that no matter how well a software package functions and no matter how sophisticated the features, a bad data conversion will render the system useless and undermine user confidence.  From our experience in managing implementations, we have seen that the same vendors who have built best-of-breed software products often have unsophisticated data conversion procedures.  This need in the market inspired us to develop internal conversion software with the sole purpose of converting fundraising data.

When I started at JCA more than 10 years ago, there were four consultants responsible for all aspects of data integration projects, from meetings with clients to conversion programming, training and report writing.  As you might guess, we each had our own methods and preferred tools for completing the conversions. It was especially difficult for us to help each other on data conversion programming since we each maintained our own script libraries and frequently used different programming applications – a couple of us used FoxPro, others used MS Access, and occasionally various command line applications were thrown into the mix (remember this was a long time ago).

As the company started to grow, we decided it would be useful to consolidate all of our conversion programming and devise a methodology that would provide a common language and tool set. We had several goals for this project:

• Encourage more collaboration via software and methodology
• Enable less technically experienced consultants to assist with the conversions
• Establish a library of database and table structures for fundraising and ticketing applications that we encountered frequently

The result of this endeavor was an application we call FIDO.

Initially we developed FIDO using MS Access as a front end to MS SQL Server 2000 databases. We recently reinvented FIDO as a .Net windows application written in C# with an SQL Server 2005/2008 back-end.

When working on a data conversion of any complexity, substantial data cleanup is inevitable.  Most fundraising systems have similar high-level functionality (name, address, gift, pledges, etc.) but each software typically stores data very differently from the next.  FIDO was designed to allow every field, code and value within the source system to be reconfigured, recoded, moved or deleted  to feed the target system in a way that fits the needs of fundraisers.  In my experience, simple field-to-field mappings represent only a tiny subset of the work required.  A successful conversion may demand the reconfiguration of nearly every detail in a database, and FIDO helps JCA achieve this objective.  Here are some examples:

JCA Helps Nonprofits Bridge the Technology Gap

In this week’s Crain’s New York Business, columnist Anne Fischer featured JCA in an article about nonprofits and their struggle to implement and maintain technology.  Citing JCA’s involvement with the Kaufman Center’s technology overhaul, Crain’s focused on the high stakes and challenges that nonprofits face as they try to automate and streamline their operations.  While we are happy to report that we and the Kaufman Center were successful in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of Kaufman’s key systems and business processes, the outcome is often not the same for other nonprofits.  Lack of technical expertise, insufficient funding and tepid support from key executives and board members are all too often a prescription for failure.  It’s long past the time when nonprofits can get away with underinvesting in technology.  But technology in a vacuum is never the answer: it’s also about people and process, and the willingness to effect change.

We are proud to contribute to the Kaufman Center’s success.  Let us know if we can do the same for your organization.

Read the original Crain’s article here.

Steve Jacobson is President & CEO of Jacobson Consulting Applications, Inc. (JCA)
JCA provides strategic consulting to the world’s leading nonprofits.

A Few Tools of the Data Archeologist: Tips for Preparing Data for Cleanup or Conversion

Examining a client’s database, whether in preparation for a data conversion or to plan an in-situ data cleanup, is a little like an archeological dig.  When we plan a conversion to or from the Blackbaud® software The Raiser’s Edge® , for example, we dig down through layers of historical strata to prepare for mapping.  This work can be very revealing as we work together to interpret the meanings of various records, create maps of where important clues may be, and wade through decades of an organization’s informational history.

In order to do this with our clients, we have developed tools that help us unearth and find patterns in the layers of information.  Let me share some of my trade secrets.

One of the most useful reports that JCA has developed to assist with system analysis and data conversion and cleanup is a Code Frequency Report.

Welcome!

Hello, I’m John Jakovich, Chief Information Officer at JCA.  I’m pleased and excited to share our experiences working with non-profit technology with you in this blog under the “JCA Innovation” category.  At JCA we work on an assortment of projects including systems integrations, data migrations, custom applications and internet development. Generally we utilize a Microsoft “stack” including SQL Server, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, ASP.Net and the .Net platform. The JCA Engineering group is composed of 9 talented engineers with a wide variety of experiences.