Managing information in non-profits requires considering ethical issues like privacy, appropriate use, and control of sensitive donor data. Effective donor databases allow organizations to track donor histories, interests, and relationships to tailor engagement. However, care must be taken to avoid annoying donors by removing those who opt-out from contact and ensuring duplicate data is deleted. When developing templates to track major gift prospects, priority information includes names, giving amounts and dates, and notes on cultivation strategies to facilitate ongoing engagement and fundraising goals.

1. peer1
Analyze and explain the ethical considerations associated with
managing information.
Technology can pose to be a blessing and a curse at the same
time. The information provided is quick and efficient but
unethical considerations can take place easily. This past
decade, there has been numerous attempts by many different
governments, countries, states, people, who have potential of
breaking the law and violating the rights of citizens for selfish
gain. according to an online article, "Ethics refers to the
principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free
moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviors"
(Zheng, 2013).
The first concern with managing information is ensuring the
information cannot be manipulated. Ethical issues would be
considerations to privacy and inappropriate use of information,
global access to these systems and control of these systems.
Managers would have to ensure safety guards are in place to
protect the privacy of their clients, financial information and
other important information for the organization. Per an article
in Colorado edu, "The broad issues relating to electronic
information systems include control of and access to
information, privacy and misuse of data, and international
considerations. All of these extend to electronic networks,
electronic databases, and, more specifically, to geographic
information systems. Specific problems within each of the three
areas, however, require slightly different kinds of ethical
decisions" (Lynch, 1994).
Cause-related marketing has become a controversial issue
among potential donors and funders. What are the potential
pitfalls associated with cause-related marketing?
Cause-related marketing is a nonprofit organization networking
with a well known company and the well known company
promoting and supporting the nonprofit organization. While

2. this seems to be an excellent idea, because this sheds light on
the cause of the nonprofit organization, the potential problems
this can cause is the one of the organizations could make bad
decisions, which will make the other one look bad. Companies
have to protect their reputation and we can see many companies
affected, due to bad business practices from the other company.
Another issue is according to an article in Wealth Group,
"Cause-related marketing triggers issues under Federal and state
laws governing false or misleading advertising, state
commercial co-venture laws, and Better Business Bureau
Standards" (Mathis, 2015). Large organizations may advertise
they may donate to a cause, without disclosing the specifics of
their donation, misleading the population and causing for the
company to be investigated.
Consider yourself as a volunteer hired to develop a template for
gathering information about major gift prospects. What
information would be the most important? Why?
Knowing who your major supporters are, is key to the survival
of a nonprofit organization. The first important information is,
knowing who are potential major donors. Knowing this
information will help you understand how to approach this
prospect and win favor with them. With gathering their
information as to who they are, what they're about, what they
value in an organization will help you build a case for them.
The next type of information is, who will work to develop a
relationship with major donors. Having someone who can build
a relationship will also gain favor with that prospect. This
person will gain extra knowledge on the person you're wanting
to network with and will build a bridge with the organization
and them.
The last piece of information is, are there any donors that can
be cultivated into major donors. An example of that is the
organization that's within my company is nonprofit. We had a
donor who helped us open our doors but through a working
relationship and him seeing the progress we've made, along with

3. the people we've helped, has caused him to become a major
donor. There are always some donors who will support your
organization a little at first, to see what your true intentions are
but can be turned into major donors if the organization is stands
true to who they say they are.
References
Zheng, E. (2015). Management Information Systems. Retrieved
from: http://ocmis.blogspot.com/2013/03/ethical-and-social-
issues-in.html
Lynch, M. (1994). Ethical Issues in Electronic Information
Systems. Retrieved
from: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/ethics/et
hics_f.html
Mathis, C. (2015). Cause-Related Marketing: The Opportunities
and the Pitfalls. Retrieved
from: http://www.marcjlane.com/news/2015/07/01/2015-lane-
reports/cause-related-marketing-the-opportunities-and-the-
pitfalls/
peer2
Ethical considerations are those that pertain to moral values and
decision making at the individual or societal levels. They can
affect a large number of different types of communities ranging
from those involved in healthcare, government, business,
religion, and even social needs. Ethical considerations can thus
involve activities as diverse as information disclosure, research,
practices ecological awareness, and better business. Ethical
considerations help define standard of care. It is useful to
affirm principals to guide a nonprofit organizations decision
and activities.
Affirming values formally grant guidelines for making ethical
choices to ensure accountability. Ethical considerations
associated with managing information are tainted money,
compensation, privacy, stewardship, and conflict of interest.
Tainted money offers money that may have a conflict of

4. interest. The organization should considered where the money is
coming from and whether it would be a conflict because of their
mission. Conflict of interest is when an individual’s personal
interest or concerns are inconsistent with the best for the
organization. Then there is privacy, which bring transparency
and trust to the organization. Privacy grant the organization the
opportunity to plan ahead. Compensation enduring ethic
principals that represent standards, and the standards are
situational that depend on the context of the situation. Lastly
there is stewardship, which the board members are responsible
for the overall wellbeing of the organization. The board
members work exclusively for the benefit of the organization
and its mission. It is required that ethical issues are considered
during the formulation.
Cause related marketing ties an organization’s brand to
something bigger that it’s firm that will resonate with customers
and gain recognition. Cause related marketing can plunge to the
ground. The company can make a wrong decision when forming
a partnership. Its potential pitfalls would include false or
misleading advertising. Advertising should clearly disclose
information. An organization’s information should be clear,
complete, and truthful.
Over commercialization of activities designed to benefit society
may harm the activities that are trying to help. Some other
issues of concern are shifting in giving, tarnishing the causes
image, and reduced overall giving. Shifting in giving is difficult
to prevent. Causes may demonstrate the value from specific
activity. Cause’s image is of prime importance. Inconsistence
identified and generate extensive negative publicity. It is
difficult to identify how causes affect firm’s overall giving
style. The overall impact of any or all of the problems is that
causes may face financial shortfalls.
Conducting solicitation is like guiding a vessel through water.
A crew of informed, committed, prepared professionals are
need. As a leader you need to know all fundraising programs
and campaigns are based upon key elements. These key

5. elements are relationship, charity, and an organization. The
relationship is for support and teamwork, because it will
cultivate relationships with donors. Also the organization can
successfully build its giving by communicating the needs and
offering creative ways for donors to support the mission. Lastly
organizations with a dedicated solicitation team can effectively
develop.
Building an effective solicitation team and matching the right
solicitor to a prospect is another indication of a successful
solicitation. The team should model stewardship giving. The
staff professional are the educator, communicator, planner, and
motivator. Their confidence is determined by their stewardship
and monetary support and must be the first to give leadership
gifts if they expect to receive. Qualified, educated prospects,
the right team of well-prepared professional and a compelling
reason to give are key necessary components for a successful
solicitation.
References
Weinstein, S. (04/2009). The Complete Guide to Fundraising
Management, 3rd Edition, 3rd
Edition. [South University]. Retrieved
frohttps://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/#/
books/9780470647479/
peer3
Donor information management in the non-profit world can
be both hectic and ridiculously easy at the same time.
Understandably, this depends on the information system chosen
for your organization. “In reality, the system should help
development professionals identify, cultivate, and solicit
current and prospective donors.” (Weinstein, pg73). A plethora

6. of options at available to choose from when it comes to
information databases for non-profits. The databases I have
worked with in the past have been Civi, Salesforce, Blackbaud,
and Abila. Each system has its ups and downs accordingly. I
should mention though, that they also had a few user difficulties
in its capability department. Both Civi and Abila were basically
vaults of information with little to no user-friendly functions.
They lean more towards a development centered program. If
other departments wanted to utilize it, the cross functioning is
very limited. For instance, the use of tracking volunteer hours
coinciding with a donor group was nearly impossible to keep
accurate. The rivals Blackbaud and Salesforce were both
amazing to work with and but they had so many functions that
after a while, it became too much to remember each function
available. The feeling was eerily similar to going to a restaurant
and having to look at a 20-page menu. While the options are
nice, and it is more than I anticipated, the amount of options
undoubtedly takes me forever to find what you want.
Depending on the nonprofit and the data that needs to be kept,
each system listed above could be the right one for you. “A
well-designed software package will permit users to record and
retrieve…names, addresses…prospective donors…a history
of…pledge payments…and a great deal more information
concerning the prospect’s interests and relationship to the
organization” (Weinsten, pg74). Civi, Salesforce, Blackbaud,
and Abila each had those capabilities, but it is vital to
remember that the work you put into the system, is work that
will pay off later. What I mean by this is, the most important
part to any database is to input and save any and all data. I
would recommend keeping all of the data collected strictly
confidential unless specific people request otherwise. While it
may seem ridiculous to say, it is important to be aware of the
fact that personal information is indeed personal. It would be
ethically sound to do so. Any nonprofit would make it a point to
collect any data concerning friends, volunteers, donors and
prospective donors. It would serve any non-profit well to

7. properly delete all duplicate data made in error, as wells as
understand whether or not any of the aforementioned people
have indicated that would like to not be contacted. Annoying
those who have opted out, potential donors, or current donors
with any or double solicitation emails, phone calls and/or
mailings would be disastrous. To me, this is equivalent to
shoving something in other person's face, without prompt. It
looks bad for your organization and can portray an image of not
being a well-constructed organization. This error can happen
often when a database is shared among multiple people. Pulling
reports from the data collected can assist an organization with
setting goals. This is why every non-profit organization should
have their development department go through some type of
FERPA (Family Emergency Rights and Privacy Act) training,
have an IT person on hand to help with information
containment, as well as obtain an information database to safely
contain donor information.
References:
Weinstein, S. (2009). The Complete Guide to Fundraising
Management, 3rd Edition (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
peer4
On the word of Weinstein (2009) fundraising reports can be
grouped in three main categories: attention directing, problem
solving, and scorekeeping. Managing this such information
properly is very important. The integrity of data can be
counteracted by making some fields in the software system
must-enter fields. “One approach might be to make the type,
gift date, appeal code, and use of funds must-enter fields,”
(Weinstein, 2009). The ethical considerations that are
associated with managing information such as the information
concerning fundraising data bases it that it may include some
sensitive information. Such fields as:
Names, addresses, and phone numbers of current, past, and
prospective donors; a history of every donation, indicating the

8. amount of the contribution, the solicitation method, and any gift
restrictions; the form of the contribution (cash, stock, in-kind,
or other); a history of pledges and pledge payments; comments
and memos containing vital information concerning the
prospective donor; volunteer solicitor assignments; deadlines
and contact dates; memorial and honorary giving; and a great
deal more information concerning the prospect's interests and
relationship to the organization. (Weinstein, 2009, p. 88)
There can be quite a bit of controversy among potential donors
and funders. Liston-Heyes and Liu (2013) discussed three major
concerns relating to issues of: alliance risks, organizational
identity, and the prioritization of NPO stakeholders. These can
all be pitfalls of cause-related marketing.
On the word of Liston-Heyes (2013) an organization's
identity is created through iterative negotiations between an
organization’s stakeholder. This makes it hard to alter the
organizations cognitive image with support of its stakeholders.
According to Liston-Heyes and Liu (2013) partnerships amid a
NPO and a firm allows employees to realign their social with
their commercial and moral identities which strengthens the
organization's validity. However, this study showed that this
may not be the case for NPOs. “More concretely, NPO concerns
regarding how CRM will impact on organizational values and
the management style of the NPO substantially restricts
engagement in CRM” (Liston-Heyes and Liu, 2013).
Other concerns that are associated with safeguarding strategies
that use contracts and which are supported in most cases by
expert negotiators. According to Liston-Heyes and Liu (2013)
there are emphasis on publicizing governance mechanisms to
foster levels of trust between stakeholder groups while deterring
the corporate partner from NPO brand misuse and other goal
displacement attempts. Moreover, the issues of trade-offs
between social and corporate priorities can be a pitfall of CRM.
“In most of the organizations surveyed, these trade-offs are
carried out by making explicit references to the ethical
guidelines endorsed by the NPO,” (Liston-Heyes and Liu, 2013)

9. As a volunteer hired to develop a template for gathering
information about major gift prospects information such as
prospect names, dates, giving status and next moves would be
among information considered important to collect. This will
allow there to be some predictability about reaching out to the
same donor again. It also allows you to get a feel for how
generous they are and what they plan on doing next as far as
donating.
References
Weinstein, S. (2009).
The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management, 3rd Edition,
3rd Edition
. South University
Liston-Heyes, C., & Liu, G. (2013).
A study of non-profit organizations in cause-related marketing
. European Journal of Marketing