Introduction

This manual covers version 3.11 of Dan Cooperstock's DONATION program for Windows XP, 2000, 2003, and Vista and version 2.40f for Windows 95, 98, NT, ME. (To see the changes between these versions, see the Revision History.) DONATION is a product of Cooperstock Software (operating as Software4Nonprofits.com), which is owned and operated by Dan Cooperstock.

The program is used to track donors and donations, and issue receipts, for charitable organizations in Canada, the U.S.A., and elsewhere. This Windows version was first used by Toronto Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in January, 1999 and has over 4,000 registered users as of May, 2007. The previous DOS version was used successfully for several years by Toronto Monthly Meeting.

•	It records names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of donors.

•	It allows for the specification of various categories of donor and donation.

•	It allows for the recording of 3 user-specifiable fields about donors, plus a comments field of virtually unlimited length.

•	It records dates, amounts, donation categories and cheque numbers (or how the donation was paid) for individual donations.

•	It is very quick and simple to use - donors can always be picked from a scrolling list, or searched for with two different Find features.

•	There is a special data entry form to speed entry of weekly donations, collections or offerings for churches. See Features for Churches for details on this and several other helpful features for churches and places of worship.

•	There is an optional limited-entry password for volunteers to do entry without seeing full details on donors or donation history.

•	It prints over 30 different reports on donors, donations, receipts and categories.

•	It allows you to export reports to various file formats, such as Excel or CSV (comma-separated value).

•	It has a powerful ability to create mail merge letters or receipts for one, all or some donors.

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It prints numbered charitable receipts in a simple standardized format, plus mailing labels for those receipts (Note: In Canada, you have to have a charitable registration number to issue charitable tax receipts. While other organizations do send receipts, they cannot be used as a tax deduction, and the receipts printed by this program may not be suitable for that use.)

•	It can print a receipt for just one donor, or for all donors with unreceipted donations, or for a selected subgroup of all donors with unreceipted donations.

•	The receipts include a section to send with your tax form that just gives the total, an optional 2nd section with the details of each individual donation during the year, and a 3rd section with the totals by category of the donations.

•	The receipts can be printed on tear-off forms and can be mailed out with window envelopes.

•	It has different receipt formats for users in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, and other countries.

•	Canadian receipts properly handle what the Canada Revenue Agency calls "split receipting" - the handling of donations where the donor receives an "advantage", by the use of an optional Eligible Amount field.

•	It can optionally print bilingual (French/English) or French-only receipts, for users in Quebec.

•	It can print corrected receipts (if something in the receipt was incorrect).

•	It can print receipts in a format of your choosing instead of the built-in formats, by using the mail merge features.

•	It uses a powerful open source SQL-based Firebird database, and thus the data can be accessed for other purposes (with appropriate tools).

•	It can be used to store donations for multiple organizations on the same computer.

•	It has a simple option to backup all of your data to floppies, your hard drive, or elsewhere (e.g. a writeable CD or USB memory key). It also has an option to restore such backups.

•	It reminds you to do backups of your database weekly, or at a frequency of your choosing.

•	While the program is entirely in English, limited entry of accents etc. for foreign languages should be possible, and both dates and currency are displayed in your regional format, as defined in Windows Control Panel's Regional settings.

•	It is probably best suited to situations with about 2,000 or fewer donors because of the way it organizes its data. Also, larger organizations might want a more full-featured and customizable program. Technically, however, DONATION can store an unlimited number of donors.

•	It can generate at most 9,999 receipts per year (another reason that you cannot have too many donors).

•	It is not a full fundraising system. Use a larger and more expensive system if that is your requirement. This program is intended primarily for record-keeping of donors and donations, and issuing receipts.

•	It runs under all versions of Windows. The most current version only runs on Windows XP, Vista, or 2000, however a previous version is available that runs under earlier versions of Windows.

•	Some users have used it successfully on a Mac using the Virtual PC program (which allows you to run Windows programs on a Mac). However, I cannot support any problems that are specific to using it on a Mac.

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It requires your screen properties to be set to 800 x 600 or higher, with Normal size Fonts selected in your Display settings, or to 1024 x 768 or higher, if you are using Large size Fonts. This program will not work on a 640 x 480 display, and part of the main window will be hidden if you use 800 x 600 resolution and Large size Fonts.