To outline a system which could be run by the all-volunteer board of a very small non-profit organization (in this case a volunteer-run club), all of whom cannot afford to run the organization as if it were a full-time business yet the organization has to meet the same financial ends as a small business. The treasurer is currently a different person each year or so. All financial organization for the club is currently on the lone laptop of one of the club’s volunteers and the creator of last year’s budget for the club has a child in high school who just graduated.
Start with payment handling, because it sets your constraints
You need payment processing solutions. This will allow you to put products online, to collect membership fees and to hold fundraisers to collect donations. And, you will be able to take online credit card payments and have that money deposited into your checking account. But, generally, online credit card payment processing only reports out the minimum information for each transaction, amount, date and type of transaction. It can take a long time to sort through all of the transactions to find out which were paid by families of children participating in the spring concert or to find out that the money someone spent was to buy uniforms.
Will the payment processing allow you to add notes to payments (e.g. A parent’s payment to a child’s account for a given event)? If not then you have simply spent money on a card reader to create the illusion of having a system in place.
Fees are a policy decision, not just a cost
Payment processing fees typically range from 2.5% + $.30 per transaction for processors like Square up to 3.5% + $.10 per transaction for processors like Give using a card reader on a tablet or computer connected to the internet. These fees can be paid by the club or passed along to the donor. It is wise to make a financial policy decision regarding these fees before the season begins. Change in the middle of the season equals a huge reporting nightmare.
Volunteer coordination tools earn their keep through accountability
Sign-up tools for clubs are often the most misused software category. Many free solutions look to work for the short-term needs of a club, but eventually, they fail. A simple shared calendar looks great for scheduling shifts, but it does not allow for tracking of attendance, background check status of volunteers, etc. Or to see if the Concession Stand has sufficient staff for highest revenue hours.
Furthermore, volunteer-run clubs track service hours for their members, and thus require volunteer sign-up tools that link sign-up to member records. Such a tool should enable marking of members as having completed their required hours. In addition to enabling scheduling on a simple calendar, tracking of volunteering of other types (e.g., of fundraising assignments to families) is also crucial to running a volunteer-run club successfully and to resolving disputes that arise over time regarding who did what.
- Automated reminders at 48 and 24 hours, which measurably reduce no-shows
- Shift-level check-in rather than event-level sign-up
- Credential expiry tracking for roles requiring clearance
- Exportable participation history tied to member records
Where fundraiser administration lives
Some types of events that a club will hold are, 1) product sales to order and distribute to members who pay to sell elsewhere; 2) pledge drives where payments are made on a recurring basis; 3) special events such as galas that have “bids” for items and money is paid at checkout for purchased items.
| Approach | Best suited to | Main limitation |
| Spreadsheets plus a payment app | Single annual event, under 50 families | No continuity between treasurers, high error rate |
| Crowdfunding platform | One-off capital campaigns | No member accounts, no volunteer or dues management |
| General nonprofit CRM | Clubs with staff and donor cultivation programs | Cost and configuration load exceed volunteer capacity |
| Purpose-built club platform | Recurring seasonal operations, dues, multiple fundraisers | Annual subscription, migration effort at setup |
Matching the tool to your cycle
That leaves a club that collects dues, manages service hours, sells spirit wear and manages 2-3 different fundraising events per season. For this type of organization, the most practical option is purpose-built booster club fundraising software that keeps dues, member records and event income in one place.
Evaluating options without a procurement team
Testing the management of finances by the club over a demo typically leads to the club deciding on the best way to manage their finances with the chosen system. Testing to see how easily the system can be handed over to a new treasurer and how easily past financial information can be retrieved by the new treasurer and if that information can be exported is much more valuable.
- Confirm you can export complete transaction and member data in a standard format, unprompted
- Check that roles and permissions are granular enough to separate approval from execution
- Verify the audit trail records who changed what and when
- Ask what happens to your data if you cancel
- Price the total annual cost including processing, not the subscription alone
Internal controls the software should support
First, controls (dual authorization for payments, depositing and payment approval recorded separately, and reconciling regularly). Then, fundraiser functions (easy to replace with something seemingly better). Be very careful when demoing clubs’ financial decisions, testing to see how easy it will be to hand the whole system over to the new treasurer every year and allowing them to look at past financial information and download it as necessary will expose a system quickly.
