Security Breach

After completing the webinar for Patron Manager, I was excited to learn more about it. Patron Manger would be an asset for any nonprofit, especially those trying to increase their relationship with their shareholders and community. Since all nonprofits rely heavily on donations and community involvement, strategic planning is vital along with creativity and creating new models of business. With the use of Patron Manager those steps can be easily achieved. The interface seemed to be very user friendly for beginners and a lot easier to learn than Rasiers' Edge. I have used Rasiers' Edge in the past and in the beginning I had trouble with the interface. Patron Manger seems to be more straight forward and less ambiguous. I am looking forward to learning more about Rasiers' Edge next week to better compare the two programs.

One aspect I really liked about Patron Manager was the ability to inform the entire staff about any edits or additions made to the database or to a particular individual through their Facebook style social media/business communication program  called "Chatter". I think that communication is a large problem in many organizations, big or small.  Chatter is such a familiar form of communication, it seems to allow staff to become more efficient in terms of communication.

However there is one thing that was left out of the webinar. How secure is Patron Manager and are constituents' information threatened? I was unaware of this problem and I never really thought about this type of issue until I read on a nonprofit IT blog that explained an organization's database was hacked. (See Link Below) 

NON-PROFIT TECH BLOG: Confessions of a Non-Profit Executive Director

"ONVIO REPORTS SECURITY BREACH ON GET ACTIVE SYSTEMS"

http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/breaking-news-convio-reports-security-breach-on-getactive-systems

I am curious if nonprofits understand their risk for their patrons' information to be compromised  by a third-party. I am sure that a majority of programs of this nature protect organizations against attacks but this may be an important issue for a Board to discuss. Also, I think that donors need to know that their private information is protected against third-party intruders or many may be less likely to provide an organization with credit card and other private information.  It is important that software companies emphasis the steps that the software, the company providing the service, and the organization will take in order to provide their stakeholders with top notch security.