eTapestry offers discounts to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries agencies

INDIANAPOLIS - Nazarene Compassionate Ministries USA/Canada, an organization of 166 ministries, has chosen Indianapolis-based eTapestry.com as its only recommended software vendor.

eTapestry, a Web-based provider of donor management and communications management software, is offering special discounts of up to 10 percent to the ministries' agencies.

"We are always looking for ways to provide resources to our constituents," said Dr. Oliver R. Phillips, coordinator for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries USA/Canada based in Missouri. "We've struggled with recommending software to our people, particularly when considering the integrity of the organizations."

Phillips found out about eTapestry through Rev. Jay Height, director of Shepherd Community, a ministry in Indianapolis that was using eTapestry.com to track donation records. Phillips said he caught Height's enthusiasm for eTapestry after visiting the company's Web site.

"I unreservedly recommend eTapestry to our folks," Oliver said. "I want to push our guys to use it. It is very, very important our people understand the whole Internet phenomenon and the magic of fundraising."

Phillips said he believes eTapestry can help the smallest of Nazarene Compassionate agencies that have annual budgets as little as $50,000 to the largest, which administer budgets of more than $3 million.

Before eTapestry, Height said his ministry had used traditional software packages that the ministry continually outgrew, forcing it to buy all new packages every few years.

"We needed something that would grow with us," Height said. The ministry offers after-school programs, emergency food and shelter, a summer day camp, home repair classes and other outreach activities.

"This is something that takes me into consideration, meets my needs, can grow with me and has a smorgasbord of things to pick and choose from," Height said. "We're almost a $500,000 nonprofit. If in two years, if we're a million-dollar nonprofit, I have a package that will grow with me."

Chip Muston, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries account executive for eTapestry, said eTapestry's versatility allows it to efficiently serve the very smallest to the very largest of nonprofits.

"eTapestry handles program upgrades so smaller nonprofits without IT staff don't have to worry about paying for or installing new software," Muston said. "eTapestry is designed based on the needs of nonprofits and no one else."

Founded in 1999, Indianapolis-based eTapestry.com is the first Web-based donor database and communications management system that rents its software to customers who access it over the Internet. Nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes using eTapestry.com do not pay the large upfront purchasing costs or the ongoing maintenance and support contracts typically paid in the purchase of more traditional software. For more information, go to www.eTapestry.com.