Top Three Sage Summit Sessions Right Here

If you didn’t get to go to Sage Summit this year, you’re in luck, you can still access some of the great speakers and presentations in this blog post below.  YES!   The content from three of our popular sessions at Sage Summit was initially shared in our educational webcasts that can be found on our webcast center.

Did you miss Jamy Squillace’s Beyond the Donation Form session at Summit? Here is your chance to learn a few best practices that will help you convert more web visitors to donors by effectively using all of your online donation tools.  You’ll walk away understanding: why you need a separate form for each campaign and event.  You’ll learn how to optimize your forms to generate more donations and much more.  You can find a copy of Beyond the Donation Form slides here and view the recording of the educational webcast here.

Online fundraising, mobile fundraising, social media – where does it all live?  In “the cloud”.  Before Grant Howe presented, What Nonprofits and Governments Need to Know About Going Remote C-0365B at Sage Summit, he hosted Going to the Cloud: Ask the Expert webcast.  In this webcast, you learn what “the cloud” is and why it’s important.  You’ll learn the benefits and risks of cloud computing, as well as, the top 3 questions to consider before you “go to the cloud”. Listen to the webcast here and download the slides here.

Finally, Gail Vertz, CEO of the Grant Professionals Association presented in a number of Sage Summit sessions.  If you missed Collaboration That Yields Funding Success C-0368 you can listen to a similar webcast entitled Collaborate, Leverage, Build! Managing the Grant Pipeline here. In this webcast you’ll learn how to maximize funding and better manage your grant pipeline. Download the slides here.

Our goal is to continually develop and share helpful content for our customers and friends year round not just for Sage Summit.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for future webcasts, please let us know below.

Patricia Tynan
Social Media and Community
Sage Nonprofit

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Going To The Cloud: Webcast Follow Up

On June 14th Stacy Dyer and I presented a webcast talking about “the cloud” and what It really is.  This post is a follow up to help answer some of the questions asked and to provide a link to the presentation on Slideshare.

During our webcast we spent a fair amount of time discussing what is the cloud – physically.  What does it look like? I found some more pictures for you below.

Here’s a drawing of what a “cloud farm” looks like and a break out picture of an individual container.

This picture is what it looks like inside one of the shipping container data center units depicted above.

We had some really good questions and it makes sense to repost them here in case you couldn’t join us.

Q. What is the security on the cloud as far as HIPAA goes?

A. Many organizations who are subject to HIPAA use a private cloud solution. It’s easier to work with auditors if you aren’t sharing the infrastructure.  My recommendation is that you work with a provider that understands your security and privacy needs.

Q. If you go cloud, what else do you need internally to keep operating … email, printer, internet access …?   

A. The answer depends. Email and file services are ideal for pushing up to the cloud as a service. For sharing printers, I suggest getting an “all in one” printer that sits on the network rather than getting a server to control just your print queue.   Of course, you still need great internet access.  Find a stable internet provider and make sure that the equipment you use to connect to the Internet is working well and configured securely and properly.

Q. What is PCI compliance? 

A. Payment Card Industry (Visa / Mastercard) compliance is a set of standards that govern what you must do to process payments securely. Most customers ask about merchant certification standards that allow you to take credit cards as payments. The certification is usually a yearly self-assessment with a simple vulnerability scan run on your network to make sure the “bad guys” can’t get in.  SAAS and cloud services (like Sage Exchange) that process credit cards make the process even simpler by handling the tough bits of the certification for you.

Q. Are files in the cloud accessible by smart phone?

A. Short answer – yes.  It does depend on the software or service you are using.

Q. Do you need software on your remote device, for example loaded on a laptop, to access and use  cloud files?

A. Not necessarily, it depends on the solution.  There are solutions that mirror what file access looks like locally, but they connect to cloud storage versus your hard drive.

Q. Can non-server apps (like point-of-sale or bar-coding/scanner) connect through a VPN or other connection to a cloud app….or does it need to be 1:1  connection with the cloud?

A. It depends.  Some would probably work just fine and others wouldn’t work at all.  It’s important to go through the list of questions …

Q. How do you refer to things like Dropbox, Flickr that are in the cloud?

A. As cloud-based services, some are more like social media.

Q. Is a cloud server independent of the web or do all cloud servers go through the Internet? 

A. The cloud exists on the standard Internet. You do not need another connection to the Internet to use the cloud.

Q. Is Sage Fundraising 50 available in the cloud?

A. Yes.  You can find more information here.

Thank you  to everyone who attended and if you have more questions post them in the comments below.

Grant M. Howe
VP Research and Development
Sage Nonprofit
@Geekbyte on Twitter

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10 Reasons Why You Should Learn About Cloud-based Software

Web-based or cloud-based software and/services are all the rage right now, you hear about them everywhere. You are probably wondering how they can benefit your nonprofit and if any of them are a good fit for your organization. There are so many types of cloud services today it can be a bit of a daunting question to ponder. Keeping things very simple, here are ten reasons why I think you should learn more about cloud-based solutions and how they can benefit you and your nonprofit.

1. Save Time: Running a nonprofit is like having two or three full-time jobs. Because there are so many things to do – time – is one of the most valuable assets you have. In my experience, cloud-based software = substantial time savings.  From easy to access email to no longer having to install software updates, cloud-based solutions can really make an impact on efficiency.
2. Share and Empower: I have found cloud-based software to be much easier to access, use and share information across my team. My team is more empowered to do things that only I used to be able to do. That is a win/win!
3. Work from Anywhere: I spend a lot of time traveling, so being able to work, in addition to accessing my full email and calendar from my mobile device is critical. This allows me to be productive when I am waiting in lines, at restaurants, and anywhere really. The thing I love most is that when I am in the office; I am not playing as much catch up.
4. Keep in Touch: When I am traveling I like to keep in touch with my family via mobile video calling, but I also use it to stay in touch with donors and my team. Video calling adds a face to face interaction (which I am a huge fan of) in a very convenient way.  I recommend Skype, but there are a ton of great services.
5. Stay Safe: Your data is your lively hood. Backing it up in a secure environment is essential.
6. Learn More: Take time this summer to use a web-based survey tool to learn more about your donors. The information you gather can be used to build a more successful year-end campaign. I recommend Survey Monkey because it is easy to use and the base product is free!
7. Build Awareness: I meet nonprofits all of the time that have not yet started an email marketing program. There are a multitude of web-based email solutions that will really make getting started easy. Consistent communication is key to building awareness for your organization. So, what are you waiting for?
8. Network Online: Social is another blog post all together, but becoming social and networking online is critical to your nonprofits future. Make it your goal to join the top 3 by the end of summer. (Start with Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.)
9. Collect Donations: My new favorite web-based service is mobile payment processing. Check out this blog to see why I love it so much, and check out Sage Payment Solutions mobile offering.
10. Get Current: Summer is a great time to consider moving your old solutions to the cloud. Many of you close your year in June, so it’s a great time to start fresh. Think about how your organization might benefit from moving your accounting, fundraising, and/or grant management functions to a cloud-based solution.

Cloud-based solutions can really make your life easier, increase productivity, and most importantly enhance your fundraising efforts.

Still need to learn more? We are hosting an educational webcast (more like an interactive discussion) about cloud computing with Stacy Dyer and Grant Howe our VP of Development and Technology Thursday, June 12th at 2 pm ET. Click here to register today. It’s part of our Sage Summer School Series. I hope you can join us!

Bridget L. Brandt
Director of Marketing
Sage Nonprofit

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Nonprofit Accounting: To Cloud or Not To Cloud?

As nonprofits seek to better steward their organization’s resources they are challenged with providing the best in technology and support to increase efficiency, funding, and mission success.  Boards have expanding responsibility and oversight as well, so conversations are happening at all levels around how to reduce costs and increase benefits with the best IT setup and solutions.  Top of mind in all these conversations is cloud computing and promises of lower up-front costs, greater scalability and freedom from the burden of managing IT resources.  If you are involved in these conversations, here are ten points to ponder.

1. Strategic Plan.  What do you want to accomplish? What does success look like?  Start with a long-term organizational strategy and treat technology, deployment, and payment choices of solutions such as financial management software, as enablers to executing on the strategy. While you may understand this, remind other stakeholders who may be caught up in the latest buzz of in the software or technology market.
2. Autonomy and IT Outsourcing. Keep in mind that (Software-as-a-Service) SaaS applications are designed to be managed by business users, not IT specialists.  This may not result in complete outsourcing, as you will potentially still need savvy users to develop sustainable practices, customize the solution to suit your organization’s needs, as well as connect and integrate with other systems.
3. Cost & Startup. Nonprofits are being drawn to cloud applications to reduce costs and IT burdens and improve operations.  The comparatively low upfront cost and quick startup can be a big plus for your financials.
4. Security & Risk Management. As you look at the benefits of cloud computing, make sure you balance the security and risk management concerns by fully vetting the solutions and providers you select. Ask if the vendor has had a  security breach in the past several years, and if so what was the impact  customers and remediation of the issue.
5. Audit Trail. Transparency and accountability are top of mind for donors, community, board members and staff.  It is important to make sure that the cloud provider you are considering has the ability to provide tracking of information regarding user activity.
6. Board of Director and Auditor Support.  From the initial planning stages, get buy-in from your Board of Directors and CPA firm.  With increased governance and accountability demands, these partners will be essential in developing      strategy and executing a successful plan to achieve your goals across all critical areas.
7. Exit Plan.  One of the nice things about cloud accounting and subscription pricing for solutions is that you can always change your mind if the solution is not the best fit or if your organization’s needs change. The cloud ecosystem is complex and you need to have a defined exit strategy that you can execute. Look for flexible options that allow you to move (with your data) to on premise solution if desired. Pay attention to agreement details related to “if” you can move your data, and how much the transition will cost you.
8. Integration.  Most organizations will make a gradual shift in business processes to the cloud over time, as security, cost and ROI are proved out.   You want to make sure that you choose technology solutions that work and play well together – both on premise and in the cloud.
9. Connectivity Options.  Whether through a web portal or terminal services connections, you will want to have your IT and planning team test and confirm connectivity options with the cloud platform and architecture that you select.
10. Performance.  The contract between your organization and your cloud provider is critically important and should include a Service Level Agreement (SLA).  It should be reasonable and state the performance standards – along with appropriate penalties and protections in the event of non-performance by your provider.

So, cloud or not to cloud? What are your thoughts?

Joan Benson
Product Marketing Manager
Sage Nonprofit Solutions

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