Our friends at Idealware have partnered up with Third Sector New England to offer a one-day, intensive bootcamp on October 7 to help organizations maximize their fundraising through email. And, they've extended an offer to TechSoup users for a special 15% discount off the registration fee by using the discount code TS325 when registering.

Here's more info from their site:

Starting next week, on September 2 at 2 p.m. Eastern time, our donor partner GrantStation, will be offering free webinars for TechSoup's nonprofit users in order to help them determine whether the product will work for their fundraising needs. They'll offer a second webinar "tour" of GrantStation on September 15 at the same time to review the ways that nonprofits can use the product to identify program-specific grantmakers, write compelling letters of inquiry, and create powerful proposals. Both of these free webinars are designed to help our users determine whether GrantStation will support their fundraising and grantseeking efforts.

In addition to the upcoming webinars, starting on September 16 and running through September 17, GrantStation will be offering a special, limited-time discount on a one-year membership — reducing the regular admin fee by $300. Eligible nonprofits can request the one-year membership for only $99 for the promotional period. Read more about it here, but don't place the product in your "cart" until the start of the promotion so you get the special discount.

Paying bills never sounds very sexy, but having money in your bank sure can be! And one thing nonprofits universally need is money in the bank to run programs and provide services, conduct advocacy and education, or a host of other social benefit work.

One financial management tool frequently used by companies and organizations is QuickBooks. If you're not familiar with it QuickBooks helps organizations manage essential financial tasks like paying bills, creating invoices, producing reports, and tracking expenses, contributions, and payments.

QuickBooks Premier 2009 allows the installer to select from a general business version or five industry-specific versions of QuickBooks, including Nonprofit Edition. QuickBooks Premier Editions 2009 is available for an admin fee of only $45.

Need an accounting package for your nonprofit, but don't know what to look for? Read A Few Good Accounting Packages in TechSoup's Learning Center to find outmore about QuickBooks and other solutions.

The generosity of others is a beautiful thing. For nonprofits, it is our lifesblood. If you find that you are challenged with needing to manage large lists of donors, or manage large groups of volunteers, I think that you may want to check out GiftWorks Standard and GiftWorks Volunteers. 

GiftWorks Standard can help you more effectively manage donors and prospects. You can gain greater insight into vital donor and donation information, with customizable reports on trends, revenue, segmentation, and more. The software even includes a feature allowing for the creation of custom mailings targeting your constituents or printed solicitations for attracting donors.

If you weren't in the Bay Area on June 20, or wished you could've cloned yourself to attend multiple sessions at the same time, never fear. You can see presentations from anywhere, anytime online.

The Craigslist Foundation's annual Nonprofit Bootcamp was a fantastc one-day conference, chalk full of workshops on topics ranging from marketing advice (PPT 10.1MB) to advanced ideas about the future of technology (PPT 1.7MB) for nonprofits, which featured our very own co-CEO, Marnie Webb. Many of the slideshows presented at the event are already available to be viewed on their site. Downloadable podcasts will be available for most sessions soon (we'll update you when they become available but in the meantime, check out the podcasts from previous years!)

Aside from Marnie's presentation, TechSoup was there with bells on as a sponsor and exhibitor. I was there along with my colleagues Elliot Harmon, Ricci Powers, and Barbara Shaughnessy. We really enjoyed the opportunity to get to talk to throngs of people from established nonprofits around the country, start-up organizations, and future nonprofit hopefuls.

Last month we mentioned GivingUSA's annual assessment of individual giving which showed that donations from individuals had dropped 5.7% overall in 2008. Things were even worse on the corporate side.

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy's 2008 assessment of corporate gving (PDF) reports that corporate giving was down nearly 8% overall ($30.78 million compared to $33.19 million in 2007). Although 53% of corporations surveyed said they had increased their giving, and 27% had increased giving by at least 10%, it wasn't enough to make up for the overall decline.

Our friends at Idealware and NTEN have released their Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems. The guide presents detailed comparisons of 33 donor databases that cost less than $4,250 in the first year. It includes a high-level overview of common features, comparisons and summaries of the systems they reviewed, recommendations for which systems might be suited to a variety of nonprofit scenarios, and a directory of consultants who can help you select a database. (Full disclosure -- I contributed to the report and am one of the consultants listed.) 

A companion 85-page report provides in-depth reviews of the twelve systems that emerged at the top of their ranking, including details of the functionality offered for each of 127 criteria they considered. The guide is available for free here.

Some of the solutions they reviewed are available discounted our donated for nonprofits and public libraries via TechSoup Stock including: eTapestry, Telosa products, and GiftWorks.

Earlier this week, I blogged about a promotional offer for Sage Fundraising 50 software. Well, get it while it lasts! The deal only lasts until 4 p.m. Pacific tomorrow so if your nonprofit (with a budget between $1 million–$10 million annually) hasn't requested yours yet, you need to shake a leg. Sage Fundraising 50 is software that is built specifically with larger organizations in mind. You cannot currently be using Sage Fundraising 50.

A couple of weeks back, Matt blogged about an upcoming promotion for Sage Fundraising 50 software. Well, the time has come, so get your orders in today.

Available from TechSoup this week only, Sage Fundraising 50 allows larger organizations to manage donors and events, report results, and increase operational efficiency through an assortment of built-in tools. This special offer is only available to qualified organizations with annual budgets of between $1 million and $10 million and who are currently NOT using Sage Fundraising 50.

The Nonprofit Finance Fund has announced a special package of services designed to meet the needs of nonprofits in the current economic climate. According an email from the NFF:

We have put together a flexible combination of advice, coaching, planning tools and a variety of loan products … to help [nonprofits] manage through the recession while positioning them for long-term financial and programmatic strength. These services can be combined and customized to fit the needs of nonprofits on both an individual and group basis. They are designed to help answer questions that range from the simple to the complex: "what’s our current financial condition and where are we headed?"; "how do we decide whether to reduce, combine or cut programs?"; "how do we communicate our position to our board and funders?"; "how do we plan for different financial outcomes such as reductions in funding?"; "how do we deal with cash flow shortages?"; "what measures can we adopt that will leave us stronger when the recession is over?"; "should we consider [a] merger, or strategic alliances?"; "how do we protect our core services?"; "should we borrow and/or open a line of credit and how do we do that?"; "what should our financial strategy be over the long haul?"; or even "how can we turn the recession to our advantage?"