Straight Forward Software’s LifeLine 8 Nonprofit Management System

Written by Karen Corey

Monday, 25 May 2009 14:35

The LifeLine 8 Nonprofit Management System (http://www.straightforwardsoftwareinc.com/) which was developed by Straight Forward Software Inc. is designed to help small to medium sized nonprofit organizations manage donor, donation, addresses, pledges, and mailing lists. This system allows the user to define their own mailing, status, donor, and group codes. This is versatile software that allows the user to print custom lists, mailing labels and many types of financial and pledge reports.

In Use
LifeLine 8 has a straightforward design, and upon opening the system, the Constituent List is displayed. From this list you can access constituent information, work with donations, pledges and gain access to reports. You can navigate through the system by using the mouse, menus, button, icons and shortcut keys.

LifeLine 8

LifeLine 8 has no predefined codes; it is up to the user to define unique codes for their organizations needs. There is no limit to the number of codes that can be entered. For each code you enter you will enter a numeric code and a definition. The account codes are 4 digit numeric codes that can be used to track where money goes when it comes into the organization. It also has multi-user capabilities.

Technology employed
LifeLine 8 is Windows based and installed on a single workstation or a network of computers by using a CD. System requirements are Windows 95 or higher, 50MB of available hard disk space to install the software and at least 10MB of available hard disk space for your data.

LifeLine 8

Ease of use, configuration, and deployment
LifrLine 8 has to be installed on a workstation using a CD provided by Straightforward Software. The installation is easy and only takes a few minutes to install and configure. The whole process is simple and easy for anyone to do. Technical support is available, and there is also a help guide built into the software that can answer most of the questions concerning configuration and deployment of the system.

Recap
LifeLine 8 is a donor management system that allows you to define your own codes for tracking donations and pledges. The constituent list is displayed on the main screen, and from this list you can access all the information, work with donations, pledges, and gain access to reports. This is an easy to use application to fit the needs of small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations.

Straight Forward Software offers single user and multi-version licensing. The single version costs $595, and can be run on a standalone computer or on a single computer that is part of an office network. The license for the multi-user version is $845 and can be run on a network that allows access to all computers in that network. There is no extra charge for technical support and the software has a built in help system.

Advantages

Easy to use
Customizable
User defined codes

Disadvantages

The cost of additional licenses my boost the cost of the system

LifeLine 8

My Opinion
LifeLine 8 is basic donor manager software that doesn’t have a lot of fancy features and innovative tools. However, it is a complete and simple solution for small to medium sized nonprofit organizations wanting to manage their constituents in a user friendly format. I found this software to be easy to use and one of the features I liked best was the fact that the codes were user defined, enabling an nonprofit organization to customize the program to fit their specific needs.

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