By Chuck Dunlap

Changing software for your church can be very easy if you have a game plan. The first task should be to find several vendors who offer software designed for churches. Thanks to our wonderful friend the Internet, it’s as easy as going to any search engine. Most church-software websites offer some type of trial or online demonstration that can be downloaded to your computer.

If the option to order a trial CD is available, I suggest doing so; this way, you can share your findings with others. Locating information about the company’s history is also a good idea because you’ll want to make sure the vendor is dedicated to developing and supporting church software. Try to find information about program pricing, support, data conversion and training, and print those as well. Contacting the company and asking for references wouldn’t hurt either.

Now that you have all the materials you need, it’s time to begin the evaluation. If you’re doing the evaluation by yourself or have a committee looking into software, referee to your game plan to ensure everyone’s needs and wants are addressed. Begin by asking yourself, What do I want this software to do? or What do I want the software to do that my current software doesn’t? Some examples:

• Is the program user-friendly?
• Is data easy to input?
• Do the reports come out the way I want them to?
• Is the software designed to grow as the church grows?
• Does the company update its program on a regular basis, and does it take customer suggestions?
• Is training needed and available in my area?
• Will the program run on the church network?
• What hardware requirements are needed to run the software?
• What are the technical-support hours?
• Does the program come with training manuals?

Conducting a thorough evaluation ensures your church won’t have to change software for some time.

Now that the evaluation period has been completed and you’re confident in your choice, it’s time to purchase. The No. 1 concern some churches have when purchasing is the price of the software and the cost of keeping it updated. Try to remember that the software you choose will be a tool to help your office run more efficiently and, in turn, will save you money in the long run.

If you or the committee doing the purchasing is confident in the choice, and the program will do a good portion of what you want it to, then you’ve greatly improved your church’s capability to manage its membership and financial recordkeeping — and that’s something you can’t put a price tag on.

Chuck Dunlap is a marketing and sales representative for Computer Helper Publishing, offering software solutions to non-profit organizations with the goal of providing customers with a superior product and unsurpassed customer support. For more information, call 800.533.5227 or visit www.churchwindows.com.

Membership Plus® 2005 lets you track contributions and pledges, take attendance, manage your finances, print reports, access member information and much more. New features include:

True Fund Accounting — fully integrated with complete general ledger, check writing/printing, budgeting, and complete financial reporting

Contribution Check Scanning— Saves hours of entry time by simply scanning weekly contribution checks

Office Smart Tags — Integrates key Membership Plus data directly into Office documents without running Membership Plus

E-mail Reports — Automates member reports through e-mail; includes attachments and lets users choose from a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF, RTF, Excel and more

Progress Tracker — Sets church/ministry goals such as building campaigns, membership, attendance, baptism, confirmation and more; identifies milestones and sub-goals

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PowerChurch Plus is a complete, integrated software system for managing your membership, contributions and accounting. Store comprehensive membership data on up to 100,000 families, manage contributions and pledges, generate contribution statements, and use a non-profit fund-accounting system designed specifically for churches. PowerChurch Plus also includes multi-user network access at no additional cost.

With the release of PowerChurch Plus v9 comes many enhancements to the accounting system, including an Accounting Setup Assistant to get you started. New features make it easier to manage your donor restrictions in compliance with GAAP modifications for nonprofits (specifically, FASB117).

Other enhancements include the ability to e-mail contribution statements and reports; export reports in PDF and HTML formats; locate a person by his or her first name; and define activities by departments, types and roles a person plays in an activity.

Sporg Online Registration Solutions offers event registration, membership management and donation collection — all from one website. Create online membership forms with unlimited custom questions; sort members by questions they’ve been asked, and market other products and services particular to their needs and interests; keep members in touch and up to date with the Invitation Tool by creating and sending e-mails and newsletters; monitor who and how many members accept the invitations; upload potential members to the contact manager and sort them into custom lists; and use the Invitation Tool to invite potential members to join and pay online.

Now it’s easy and convenient to make a large charitable gift online: Donors simply visit a participating nonprofit’s donation Web page and click on the “Kintera GivingFund” payment choice located with the MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, PayPal and other payment options.

Donor-advised funds allow individuals with philanthropic interests to efficiently manage their charitable giving by making irrevocable contributions of personal assets (cash, stocks, bonds, appreciated securities) at the most tax-advantageous time. Donors can then direct funds to the charities of their choice by making donation requests to the public charity holding their donor-advised funds.

Blackbaud’s NetCommunity lets nonprofits establish an interactive online network that creates a connection between community members and the organization, and provides the tools to foster a lifelong relationship.

In addition to offering the e-mail marketing and online-giving tools fund-raisers need to succeed, the online community provides seamless integration with The Raiser’s Edge®, Blackbaud’s award-winning fundraising solution. This provides dynamic Web content based on individual preferences and histories and enriches the information maintained on each person. By integrating these two solutions, nonprofits are leveraging a single donor database, making the technology easier to maintain over time and minimizing the total cost of ownership.

Church Windows lets users access so much without leaving the Membership screen — household fields, individual fields, group and class information, the names of all persons living in the household, personal attendance records, photos and more.

Using the Contributions module, users can effectively track and report giving; use the description field to list non-monetary gifts or to break out “goods received” in accordance with government regulations; and track annual stewardship campaign effectiveness and multiyear capital campaigns.

With the Financial module, users can organize their finances with a flexible account structure; use the recurring-transaction feature to save time; automatically print checks; use preformatted reports; and create custom reports.

The Payroll feature uses Church Windows for direct deposit of paychecks; easily tracks retirement and cafeteria plans; accommodates the unique compensation requirements of pastors; uses local and school district tax wizard; automatically creates W-2s, 1099s and more.

Fellowship One spokespeople say the program is the world’s first Enterprise Church Management Solution (eCMS). Fellowship One is a hosted, on-demand eCMS suitable to for churches of any size or denomination. Fellowship One ensures your data is backed up and secure (and, of course, you never pay for upgrades).

Plus, it’s browser-based, so it’s easy to learn and use, and you can access your data anytime. Contact-management features virtually eliminate missing a contact opportunity, and the program’s impressive check-in system lets you track real-time attendance. The Weblink feature links your church’s site into Fellowship One to support online giving, event registration, small group activities and more.