Survey: What Do You Think About Donor Cultivation Tracking Software?

Over the years I’ve had some fascinating conversations with development professionals on the pros and cons of donor cultivation tracking software. By and large, those I speak with either swear by them or curse them as a one-size-fits-none time suck.

With the explosion of purpose-built apps, there are quite a few dedicated donor management apps, most of which offering some pretty slick cultivation tracking tools. Some are completely self-contained while others connect with existing ticketing and box office systems.

All of this made me wonder what devo pros think so to that end, I put together a little survey. Thank you in advance for sharing it with your development colleagues. We’ll examine the results in a follow-up post toward the end of the month.

This survey is now closed.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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