New software enhances fund-raising efforts

3:38 p.m., July 22, 2005--The University of Delaware’s more than 123,000 alumni live across the country and around the world, and maintaining up-to-date information on them is an important component of all UD friend- and fund-raising efforts.

To facilitate such efforts, a new software system has been implemented by UD’s development office and Information Technologies to track biographical, gift and other data about UD alumni, friends and major prospective donors.

The new Advance system, powered by SunGard BSR’s “best-of-breed” software, allows authorized users to track alums and manage individual and organizational donations, as well as manage relationships with prospective donors. SunGard BSR, [www.sungard.com], is a global leader in integrated software and processing solutions, serving more than 20,000 customers in more than 50 countries.

“University operations are significantly affected by our fund-raising ability,” Kevin O’Brien, associate vice president of University development, said. “As the University continues to prosper, we require an updated software system to handle our changing fund-raising and donor relations needs.”

The new system replaces an outdated one that had a number of limitations, O’Brien said. “It was very difficult to extract reports from the old system, and it took a career-level programmer to retrieve certain information. We needed to move into a more flexible, user-friendly, Windows-based software system.”

The new software will help to successfully address and process data in several areas, including:

Helping keep track of biographical information, including the names and addresses of alumni and donors, as well as relationship information, including spouses, children, business affiliations, organizations and other interests. “We use such information to communicate with our alumni and friends and inform them of various University events, including Homecoming,” O'Brien said.
Gift history of donors, including when and where they have designated their gifts or pledges. “We encourage donors to direct their support wherever they choose,” O’Brien said. “The new software allows us to allocate gifts to the areas designated by the donors and properly record the date of the gifts.”
Prospect development. “The new system assists us in identifying and cultivating donors who have the potential to make larger gifts to the University,” O’Brien said.

“The Advance system communicates daily with the University financial system to ensure that gifts are properly recorded and directed as designated by donors,” O’Brien said. “This lets authorized users of the system verify that gifts were processed and allocated to support programs the donors specified.”

Article by Jerry Rhodes

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