Dan - I just got done doing my year end and your step by step instructions are FABULOUS!!!! I LOVE THIS PROGRAM!!!! Once I get caught up I will definitely promote this to fellow church administrators. Thank you for such a great product, resource and especially your hands on involvement and accessibility. You make what could really be a grueling task so easy and trustworthy.
I have sent you compliments every year because every year your product just gets better and better. It is so user friendly and how you have it set up just makes sense for the average user. It's simple enough yet detailed enough and you can customize it to fit your needs so easily.
You really have been a blessing over the years Dan.
Kathy Landwehr, Administrative Assistant
New Covenant Community Church
Somers Point NJ, U.S.A., January 2009
This is from an email that the user below sent to a number
of his friends and colleagues:
Just wanted to share with you a wonderful resource - in the form of a donation tracking software - that a fellow in Canada has developed and made available to churches and non-profits at a ridiculously low price - in an even more ridiculous easy format to download and use.
If you're needing to capture, track, and provide end-of-year reciepts for contributions and giving, you will be amazed at the ease of this system. I have been using it for 3 years and have expressed to the developer of this software what a tremendous service he is providing to the religious and non-profit sector by making this program available for virtually nothing with the ease of use it provides.
Check it out, and if you know of non-profits or churches looking for a system...tell them about this one. I have no vested interest in sharing this with you except to bring awareness to an incredible resource, and selfishly, hopefully help insure this gentleman's sucess.
Luis A. Perez, Network Overseer
The BridGe Network of House & Micro Churches
Rochester NY, U.S.A., January 2009
Quite impressed with your DONATION software trial package. The software is
easy to negotiate and the price is very competitive. Your applications is
straight-forward and simple; not like the other expensive packages I have
tried, only to discover the software does everything except what is desired.
H.R. Winstead, assistant finance officer
St. John A.M.E. Zion Church
North Carolina, U.S.A., July 2008
Excellent work!! You have saved me hundreds of hours of balancing and cross
checking our financial books and have made receipting easy when it used to
be a chore I hated to do.
Richard Hol, Treasurer,
The Gathering Place and Revival Centre,
London ON, Canada, May 2008
I was so pleased to find this software, I didn't know it existed, it is the most user friendly software I have ever used.
Looking forward to using this software program for a long time.
- A Church Treasurer,
New Brunswick, Canada, April 2008
We have now completed the first full cycle of using the program at our church,
and I found it a wonderful program to use. I had formerly used
Excel spreadsheets (which I still like), but the elimination of writing
manual receipts was a huge improvement for me!
Thanks for a great program, great "help" instructions &
your personal support via email over this past year. I can tell that this
is truly a labour of love on your part. I will continue spreading the
word about it!
- Dagmar Carter, Financial Secretary,
First United Baptist Church,
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada, February 2008
I have worked in charitable organizations for 20 years - and the receipting has always been the bane of my existence.
I was surfing the net for receipt paper in three sections for a template I developed in Word using an Excel spreadsheet to record the data (but did not create real 'professional looking receipts') ... yours are wonderful.
I am a volunteer treasurer of two other not for profits and will most certainly be sharing this program with them!
Thanks for this program!
- Joy Fyckes, Executive Director,
C.E.L.A.M. (RECLAIM Literacy Council),
Quebec, Canada, January 2008
We use your program at our church and I love it. Thank you for
developing an easy to use, straightforward, and extremely useful
program. I can honestly say it was a blessing when I found DONATION
and put it to use. It has made my job not only easier but more
efficient and organized. I don't like overkill (i.e. too many features
in software) and it's hard to find
software that's not just that. Thanks again.
- James Parnell, Treasurer,
Cornerstone Christian Fellowship,
Crescent, PA, August 2007
Being a non-profit on a tight budget, DONATION was an answer to prayers. After using it, I find it is probably better than any other program on the market. It is easy to enter data.
- Germaine R. Carter, Executive Director
God's Word, July 2007
This program is very useful, it saves lots of time and hassles from what was used previously. Training ushers to properly input data takes ten minutes.
- Tony Jullion, Treasurer
Barrhead Alliance Church
Barrhead, AB, June 2007
The version of DONATION I am now using as pledge secretary for my church -- 2.50 I think -- is fantastic. It is well designed, easy to use with the user very definitely in mind, and extremely functional.
In my 40 years as a computer programmer, I worked mostly on midsized computers with very stable operating systems. I have been so disillusioned by the PC software coming out of large organizations that it is extremely refreshing to work with software that actually works and is intuitive. A computer programmer's AND a user's dream -- a rare combination these days. Thank you.
- Cathy Washington, Pledge Secretary
St. George's Episcopal Church
Carmichael, CA, June 2007
Thanks for making your DONATION software available - it is a great tool to use. May God bless you for making it affordable and excellent! Apart from the program itself, I also appreciate the prompt and personal attention from your company to answer my questions and concerns. Thank you!
- Mike Knoll, Senior Pastor
Orillia Life Centre
Orillia, ON, May 2007
Thanks for your product Dan. I appreciate the easy learning curve of your product. I was able to use it within 5 minutes of downloading it.
- Gloria Flora, Executive Director,
Sustainable Obtainable Solutions
Helena, MT, May 2007
As a user of your program for many years now, I can not think of any other that is so simple to use and fairly self-explanatory for the things that you might need help with. As a small non-profit organization we have a limited amount of staff. Namely one. Myself. Previously to this we also had one, who was with us for 10 years. With this person having all administrative duties there was no one to take over when she left us, that was remotely computer friendly, except for me. Thanks to this wonderful program it saved the organization and me at tax time last year, when she left and again this year.
Even as a smaller nonprofit, a membership of under a thousand members and less than 50 private donors including small donations (we hope to fix that this year), it is a full program with all of the needs that we require. It holds all the relevant information that Revenue Canada expects from us and you have allowed us to add any additional information ourselves to personalize the receipts to our organization.
I remember a few months back when you had originally asked us users if we would still use your program if it became open source and was supportive of your reasons then as I am now of your decision to charge a small price for the program. I agree that you should be compensated for spending all this time on helping others. Even though it is your 'ministry' as you worded it, I don't feel that you should be required to maintain this forever free of charge. Don't get me wrong, I am a philanthropist myself. Volunteering is much of my life, and gives me my quality of life. But we also need to survive and take care of ourselves. If we don't we are no good for anyone else. That goes for healthy mind and spirit as well as physical wellbeing. For all of the good works you have done for us, over 4,000 users of this program, I think that the majority of us probably feel the same and feel that we can if able, pay a voluntary amount for the program.
I don't think the minuscule prices you are asking ($30 originally and $15 for subsequent years for an organization of our size, under 200 donors), are at all very much, and you are leaving it open to the users that can't pay. [Dan's note: These prices were later increased, and are currently $60 and $30 respectively.] As we are all in this together, I am sure that there would be some organizations that would add extra to make up for those smaller orgs that could not afford to pay. Looking at and pricing other charitable donation programs, some are charging over a thousand dollars for the program itself, then additional fees for updates and renewals. Of course this does not include the tech time to install it nor training a user.
With all that your program has to offer and the simplicity of it, I think most would agree that what you have put forward as fee levels are more than generous. You have afforded us an opportunity for years now to access something that has become vital to our organizations and offered it free and of your own volition. In this day and age it is less and less frequent. Even the small amount that you are asking for is more like a continued donation to each of us users.
I know that our organization would be lost without this program. I also know that we would not have a problem paying a voluntary yearly subscription amount for the program.
- Ruby Black, Executive Director,
Vancouver Island Persons Living With HIV/AIDS Society
April 2007
There are also earlier testimonials
from before May 2007 were from when the
program was free, and did not require a small payment as it does now.
