[MUSIC] Welcome back. In the last lesson, you learned to define and distinguish between four common planned giving agreements. In this lesson, we will explore and evaluate planned giving software programs. After this lesson, you will be able to compare and contrast features of the popular planned giving software programs. PG Calc and Crescendo. Write a customer review of the planned giving software program you choose. And evaluate planned giving software appropriate to specific needs to help you calculate benefits to donors. Let's get started. The planned giving field, like any other, has tasks that require the use of software programs tailored to this area of expertise. The two currently most popular are PG Calc and Crescendo. In this lesson, you're going to become familiar with both. However, the process she used to evaluate them can be applied to any planning in these software programs that may be developed in the future. Before you start to explore PG Calc and Crescendo, let me explain what I consider important functions and features of any planned giving software program. With the software on the market today, development professionals can generate calculations instantly and compliment them with colorful illustrations, graphs, and audio-visual accessory that explain complex planned giving options. It provides a set of versatile tools that crunch the numbers and generate elaborate marketing presentations that visually illustrate gift scenarios. Such data visualizations can increase understanding and motivate donors to give. You want to find planned giving software that serves three essential functions, it should be a marketing tool that provides visual and written information to help prospective donors, planned giving officers and professional advisors review gift scenarios. As a closing tool, it generates the calculations and contractor require to complete gift agreements. And the last function is that planned giving software should act as an administration tool. The software tracks hundreds of donors' gifts, payments, and tax forms. Both of these software programs are useful in the field of planned giving. You need to learn to evaluate which will be best suited to a particular organization or constituency you work with. Let me explain the process l recommend to evaluate any planned giving software. I recommend you make a priority list in the functions that you plan to use most. Demo each software program you're going to consider to test the important functions. You will also want to consider support offered by the software provider and the cost. With large organizations, they may only need the basic features because they have the staff and expertise to produce some of the added features like producing a contract or an agreement. The added features may be more important to smaller organizations who do not have the staff or expertise to produce these contracts and agreements. You should evaluate the software based on the features your organization and situation requires. You will need to receive specific training on the software that your organization decides to purchase. The software company will provide various options to get this training. PG Calc is a great software product that produces accurate calculations in easy-to-read reports to illustrate the benefits to donors. You can find more information by going to their website at www.pgcalc, C-A-L-C, .com. There is an abundance of information on the website to inform you on the benefits of their product. As you'll see, when you go to their website, they offer multiple different products for your consideration. The software product is essential. Your organization may also be interested in other services like marketing, gift administration, and education. It really comes down to what you can handle internally with the expertise of your staff versus outsourcing it and using a third party provider, like PG Calc. I would explore the planned giving manager under the software option. This type of software is what every planned giving program will need. Review the overview of the software. And make a list of the features to compare to the Crescendo software. Crescendo is a great software product that is comparable to PG Calc. You can find more information by going to their website at www.crescendointeractive.com. There's an abundance of information on their website to inform you of the benefits of their product. As you'll see when you go to their website, Crescendo offers multiple products for your consideration. The software product is essential. Your organization may also be interested in other services like marketing training and administration. Most large organizations have staff in place or relationships with other vendors to handle the marketing, training, and administration. Our focus for this module is evaluating the software option. I would explore the Crescendo Pro under the software option. You already reviewed the PG Calc software. So you should see some familiar features. Review the general information of the software. And make a list of the features to compare to the PG Calc software. Now that I've introduced you to these two software programs, your task is to explore them both enough to choose the one of greatest interest to you. To help clarify your thinking, try writing your observations as a customer review, where you would describe how specific features would accommodate the needs of a specific charity with which you are familiar. Let's recap what we've covered. After this lesson, you should now be able to compare and contrast features of the popular planned giving software, PG Calc, and Crescendo. Write a customer review of the planned giving software program you choose, and evaluate planned giving software appropriate to specific needs, to help you calculate benefits to donors. In our next lesson, we will explore the possibilities and benefits of the local and national planned giving associations.
