In our our ongoing “Search Of The Top Donor Database Software Series”, we have prepared a quick look at Little Green Light Donor Management software for Nonprofit Executives like you. Please note that this summary below is not intended to provide our comprehensive 40 page full report but rather should serve as a quick snapshot of the Little Green Light database software.
For those interested in learning more, we have prepared a detailed “Smart Report” for Nonprofit Executives who would like the full picture of this nonprofit software solution. The software review provides detailed information about the software product, company, and support in an easy to read question and answer format. At this time, the full report is free for Nonprofit Executives only.
Review of Little Green Light
Donor Management Software
Brief Summary of Little Green Light Fundraising Software
Little Green Light is a web-based donor management system that helps you track gifts, grants, asks, pledges, and tasks; plan events and send appeals; create mail merges; everything you need to make the most of your development efforts.
One of my first questions to LGL was centered around the name. What the heck does it mean, right?
Well, what I found out is that the name comes from a Taj Mahal song called “Candy Man”. The co-founder Nick loved that song as a child. From their perspective, they thought it projected many good things but two specific: “green light ” means “go” and signifies success; and “little” connotes lightweight and easy, all of which match the promise of LGL—it helps you reach your goals and it’s easy to use.
In addition, a common association with “green light” is from The Great Gatsby: “I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and faraway, that might have been the end of a dock.” (pp. 27-28) The green light in the book is broadly understood to be a symbol for hope.
In terms of the software product, LGL offers management of constituent profiles, giving histories, tasks, memberships, event attendance, and relationships. Automated reminders and notifications keep everyone up to date and on task.
On-screen reporting views show the information you need in real time. Included with an LGL account is LGL Forms, which makes it easy to build and publish webforms. Integrations let you collect donations and payments, send emails, and validate deliverability of your addresses.
In short, Little Green Light is intended to:
• Be simple to use • Allow for third-party integration • Be affordable • Include outstanding support
The Key Features Of Little Green Light Software includes:
360-degree view of constituents (single page)
Track donations & pledges
Build online forms
Collect online donations (with ProPay integration)
Grants & major gifts
Manage solicitations
Personalized mailings
Simple & advanced searches
Custom reports
Import and export
Coordinate events
Track volunteers
Manage memberships
Powerful integrations (Mandrill, MailChimp, Constant Contact,Wufoo, Formstack, Paypal, SmartyStreets)
Where Does Little Green Light Software Best Fit?
Per LGL, customers manage between 500 and 5,000 constituents in their LGL account, though many track more, including a handful of customers who track over 60,000 constituents. Schools make up the single largest type of nonprofit at about 30% of our customer base, and after that arts organizations and human services organizations are next most common, but every major NTEE code is thoroughly represented.
From review, LGL serves a large number of membership organizations, and most organizations hold events. It’s very typical for LGL customers to have one large event and one annual giving appeal per year. LGL customers typically have 2-3 people who work with the fundraising database on a daily or nearly-daily basis. Per LGL team members, some have a couple of dozen (all using LGL) and some have just one.
From our interview session, what is probably most common across LGL customers is that they want to track information about a broad range of constituents: donors, prospective donors, volunteers, event attendees, etc. They manage communications and relationships with a large number of their constituents. After review, many of LGL’s customers also work very closely with major donor prospects and may be in the midst of a capital campaign.
Almost all have their own websites where they attract prospects to mailing lists and have donate buttons. Many use Paypal for online donations (though now an equal number are using LGL Forms), and most use QuickBooks for accounting software.
The Key Functional Areas of Little Green Light CRM Database?
Managing donor information (Constituents Management)
Constituent Categories & Segmentation
Prospecting and proposals
Gift Entry
Querying and Reporting (Gift Reporting, Donor, Contact etc.)
Task Management
Dashboards
Mail merging letters (Mailings including regular mail and email)
Tracking events with complete events Management & appeals
A Glimpse Of Little Green Light For Nonprofit Fundraisers:
Want More Software Reviews?
Please stay tuned to our ongoing “We Still Have Not Found What We Are Looking for Software Search" where we will continue to provide further insights into membership database software options designed for our 501(c) 6 membership focused organizations.
For the most recent published reviews, please click below:
Do You Want to Learn More about Little Green Light?
We have prepared a detailed “Smart Report” available for any Nonprofit Executive interested in learning about our view of this nonprofit software. Please take some time to request your complete “Smart Report” by clicking below.
Further, you may take a free test drive by clicking here. And, if you follow that link from our site, your nonprofit will get a $150 credit! And, don’t forget our free consultation too. What a deal!
Finally, if you work for a nonprofit or software vendor and have a software system which you would like us to include in our series, please contact us.
Until next time, keep SmartThoughts in mind.
