I have released a couple of small updates to the beta version 3.20 that I released late last week. Details are on the pretest page, at:
www.software4nonprofits.com/pretest.htm
I’m hoping to start releasing version 3.20 to all users on Thursday, so if you have any further testing results, or thoughts about the changes to DONATION included in this release, please get them to me as soon as possible.
Thank you very much!
I have uploaded version 3.20 Beta1 of DONATION to the www.software4nonprofits.com/pretest.htm page, and I invite you to try it out and let me know what you think.
The biggest changes in this version are around email – a new configuration option for configuring sending email from DONATION, the ability to email a compressed and encrypted backup to any email address, and the ability to email PDF versions of receipts to your donors. (So far, this only works with the built-in receipts. Hopefully mail-merge receipts will be added in a future version.)
There are a lot of other smaller improvements as well. Full details of all changes are on the pretest page pointed to above.
Because I had to add a few things to the installation file, this version has no small update installation program – you have to download the full installation program. As a result, I have skipped ahead to call this version number 3.20 (the previous version was 3.15c).
Again, please let me know of any testing results, positive or negative, preferably by adding a response to this blog entry. Thank you!
One suggestion that came out of responses to my recent blog post about creating a free “Lite” version of DONATION (and other posts I made on a couple of software development/business forums) was to reduce the pricing levels. I like that idea, because it would reduce the confusion about payments, and reduce support for me when people exceed the number of donors for their pricing level.
As most of you probably know, currently Full Licenses (for the initial year) are $60 for under 200 donors with donations, $90 for under 500 donors, and $110 for unlimited donors. For the network version, it’s $110 per simultaneous user (not per computer it’s installed on). The Annual Renewal fees are half of each of those prices.
I did some investigation in my database of users and payments, and found that the average Full License price paid this year so far was $69, $137 for the network version. The average Annual Renewal price was $36, $63 for the network version. (Not surprisingly, the average Annual Renewal prices are not far off from half of the annual Full License prices.)
So, I’m thinking that I could change the Full License pricing to be $80 for the regular version (unlimited donors) and $150 for the network version (unlimited simultaneous users). The Annual Renewal prices would again be half those amounts. That would be a slight increase for those with under 200 donors, but a decrease for everyone else. (And an increase for network version users with only one simultaneous user.)
What do you think? Would the slight increase for those with under 200 donors scare any existing users away? What about new users? Probably my closest competitor is Donarius, which is $60 for unlimited donors, $45 for max 100 “active donors” (which is a complex definition). But they charge extra for extra features, like gift in kind receipts, personalized letters & receipts (which I think is equivalent to my mail merge features) etc.
And of course, if anyone thinks the $80 Full License, or $40 Annual Renewal is too much, they could consider backing down to the free Lite version.
I’m also thinking that the Lite version would replace my current free license criteria (under 50 donors, under $5,000 total annual income from all sources, no paid staff using the program). Anyone who currently had a free license could either switch to the Lite version, or pay, when their next renewal date came up. (That’s assuming, of course, that they did want to continue their eligibility for support and upgrades – otherwise, they could just do nothing and keep using that version.)
Your thoughts? Thanks.
I just read the very interesting book “Free”, by Chris Anderson, and I’m giving some thought to creating a limited-feature free version of the program. (The full version would still be available to small organizations, using the same 4 criteria I use now for free licenses.) I’m not at all decided that I want to do this, but I thought I would run it by you for your comments and advice.
The rationale behind doing this is that it brings more users in, some of whom may become paid users if and when they decide they want the full version. They would also have to pay for support (other than free help getting it set up initially), probably at the $30 annual fee level.
Here are the features that after my first review, I think I might remove from a free version:
I’m very open to discussion on any of the above points, as I may not have picked the right ones. (Have I missed anything that you think free version users should not get?)
The free version has to be good enough for a reasonable number of churches and charities with limited needs to use, but it has to omit enough that at least (say) half of all users will either want to start with the full version, or will eventually choose to upgrade to it.
What are your thoughts? Thank you.
