Alice Bumgarner, Moderator

Alice Bumgarner, editor of Administrative Professional Today and contributing writer for Executive Leadership, has been writing about workplace and family issues for 13 years. Her articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including http://Salon.com, http://MSN.com, Continental magazine, Southern Living and Town & Country. She lives in Durham, N.C., with her husband, two daughters and dog Milo.

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Question: “What user-friendly database software can connect to Quicken Books?  The nonprofit I currently support has MS Access, but I don't know if that's the answer.  Is there a program that’s more user-friendly?” — Anonymous

Comments
We use filemaker which I have found to be easier and friendly to use with a much more variety of use and capabilities.

Posted by: Jo | September 12, 2008 at 02:25 PM

I also work for a non-profit and we have recently purchased a program called GiftWorks. It is very user-friendly and can run circles around MS Access. Information can be exported to Quickbooks although I don't use that feature.

Posted by: Carrie | September 12, 2008 at 03:20 PM

I've worked with both Raisor's Edge and Advance C/S in the past and were both user friendly; although I like R.E. better. Both play well together with Quickbooks. The size of your nonprofit will ultimately determine what software you end up - what's the budget like? IS there a budget? What is the focus of your nonprofit - annual gifts, endowments, gifts in perpetuity, planned giving? Or all of the above? Every program out there caters to a different type of nonprofit. Here is a GREAT link I found called "Donor Management Software Comparison": http://www.techsoup.org/products/downloads/donormatrix.pdf. Good luck.

Posted by: Alison | September 12, 2008 at 04:59 PM