You can maintain multiple databases for multiple charitable organizations on your machine. To do this, use the Database à Switch Databases option.
N.B. This option is not available with the free Lite version of DONATION.
This option brings up the following window that lists all of your organizations:
There are three editable columns of information. The first is the Extension, which is the ending of the filename for the database. All database filenames start with "DONATION4.", and live in the Data subdirectory of the program's Data Directory. Your standard database is called DONATION4.DB, so you will see "DB" in the Extension field.
The 2nd column of information is the Organization Short Name. This may be the same as the full Organization Name entered in Maintenance à Organization Info, or may be a shortened version of it. (It holds a maximum of 40 characters). It is only used in this window, to help you remember which database is which when you are switching between them.
The 3rd column is a checkbox labelled "Current". Whichever line has a check mark in this checkbox is the current database. To switch databases (once you have more than one database on the list), just check the Current checkbox on your desired database, then click Close or Switch at the bottom right of this window. (The Close button changes to say Switch as soon as you check the Current database for a database other than the one you are currently in.) It will confirm that you wish to switch to it, and if you answer Yes, the old database will be closed, and DONATION will be restarted with the new database open.
To create additional databases, click the New button, and on the new row that appears, fill in an Extension (which should not contain spaces, and must be different from all of the other databases on your list) and an Organization Short Name. Click Save to save your change. As usual, you can click Cancel to cancel the addition of the new database. After you click Save, it will ask whether you want to create a new database by copying from an empty database. In most cases, you would answer Yes to this question. If you then want to switch to this database, check its Current checkbox, and click Switch.
Alternatively, if you have a database file, perhaps from another computer, that you have already copied into the Data subdirectory of the program's Data Directory, you can click New, leave the Extension field blank, and click the Browse button to select that database from the list of databases in that directory. If you have selected a valid database, its extension will then be filled in to the Extension field, and you can continue from there.
When you switch to a new database for the first time, a version of the Startup Options windows will appear, allowing you to select between initializing the database normally, or restoring a backup of that database. The latter would be appropriate, for instance, if you were moving an installation of DONATION that had additional databases from one computer to another.
You can also change the Extension or Organization Sort Name of an existing database by just editing the data then clicking Save. Be very cautious about changing the Extension of an existing database, however, as it does not rename the file for you. In most cases this will mean that you will lose access to that database, and just have to change the Extension back to its correct value. (Or, you can rename the database file yourself, using My Computer or Windows Explorer.)
If you wish to remove a database from the list, click anywhere in its row (so that the pointing hand points to it) and click the Delete button. This will confirm that you want to delete the row, then do so. It does not delete the database file. If you wish to do that, you may do so from My Computer or Windows Explorer.
When you are done in this window, make sure you have the Current checkbox checked for the database you wish to resume working on, and click Close or Switch to close the window. As mentioned, if you have changed which one is Current it will confirm that you want to switch to it, then do so. The Organization Name is now displayed in the title bar of the DONATION program's main window, so you can easily see which organization's database you are using. (N.B. what is displayed is the Organization Name from Maintenance à Organization Info, not the Organization Short Name from this Switch Database window.)
If you used version 2.70 or lower of DONATION, there is one thing to beware of when creating new databases and switching to them. The first time you switch to a database, if you had a database with that same extension in the earlier version, it will give you the same prompt it gave you when you started version 3.00 or later for the first time. That is, it will ask whether you wish to convert the database from your earlier version of DONATION into this new empty database. In most cases you will want to answer Yes to this question.
Backups and Switching Databases
It is important to understand that when you backup your database, with Backup/Restore à Backup Database or Backup/Restore à Email Backup, only the current database that you are in is backed-up. If you also want to have backups of your other database(s), you must switch to them and back them up as well.
Note on Software Licensing and Switching Databases
The software licensing in DONATION is associated with your Organization Name. When you use Database à Switch Database to create or switch to additional databases for other organizations, you may no longer be licensed and DONATION will temporarily go back to being an Evaluation version (but only for that new organization). You will have to request another license key for the new organization name. To make this request immediately, you can either exit and restart DONATION, which will bring up the Evaluation and Licensing window, or use Help à Request or Install License Key which will also bring it up.
Starting in version 3.21, there is no additional charge for maintaining databases for more than one organization on the same computer (before that there was a $20 Additional Organization fee for each additional organization). So as long as you have paid for DONATION in the last 12 months, your license key for an additional database will be freely granted.
Network Versions and Switching Databases
If you are using the Network versions of DONATION, only the Network Server version can create new databases. Once it has done so, users of the Network Client version can also access those new databases. However, to get access to them, you need to manually copy the file named databases.txt from the program's Data Directory on the computer with the Network Server version to the Data Directory of any computers with the Network Client version.