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December 28, 2009

Donor delivery | A conversation with David Unger, president of Total Community Manager in Cape Elizabeth

Photo/David A. Rodgers David Unger

Founded: July 2009
Employees: Three independent contractors
Startup costs: $95,000
Projected revenue, year one: $50,000
Projected revenue, year two: $150,000
Contact: 956-8264
PO Box 6320, Cape Elizabeth 04107
www.tcmgr.com

 

What is Total Community Manager?

Total Community Manager is a data management, relationship-building, fundraising software that’s been designed for the small-to-intermediate nonprofit. It has a lot of different modules and features that are part of the basic package that really allow a small-to-medium nonprofit to manage their entire community. So once they’re entered into the system, they’re able to manage their events, their fundraising, and they’re able to correlate the people who make contributions to those who participate in their events. It enables the management of the organizations to communicate efficiently and effectively with their donors and their membership.

 

Why did you start this venture?

I saw there was a significant need in smaller-to-midsize nonprofits for an effective database system that would fit their budget. One of the things I’ve found is that a lot of smaller organizations and startups don’t have any type of data management system that’s either affordable or easy for them to use given their resources. There are a lot of products out there that do what TCM does, but for the price of what someone would pay for TCM and what they can do with it, it will grow with the organization over the years versus being outgrown.

 

How do you market this business?

We’re putting our marketing plan into play in January. I’m going to be inviting 100 organizations via personal mail and e-mail to participate in free licensing of TCM to get them engaged and involved in it. I’m contracting and negotiating with nonprofit consultants throughout the country to include the selling of TCM as part of their practice. We’re working on a plan to drive people to our website and we’re going to be pushing TCM out there to a lot of organizations who promote database software to nonprofits and let them test it and explore it and pass it on.

 

How did you finance this business?

Personal savings.

 

What’s the biggest challenge running this business?

The biggest challenge has been getting the word out there of how TCM can benefit an organization. Because we’re unknown right now and we don’t have that many users, organizations may be a little gun-shy about looking at us. We’re confident that once people are using it they’ll be pleased with it, but it’s just getting the word out there and getting people using it. There’s a lot of competition in this market, but we feel TCM has a unique niche for the multipurpose agency. One of the things we’re stressing, especially with small-to-midsize organizations that don’t have a lot of resources, is not only providing the nuts and bolts of the software, but also helping them evolve their fundraising campaigns and overall programs to grow and use the software to manage that. We hope to provide more support than just a software company, so we’re trying to provide a more complete package as the software grows.

 

What’s the most useful takeaway you’ve learned starting this company?

That the product really has to work for [managers] individually and if we try to put a round peg into a square hole and say this is your software, it doesn’t work — the software and everything else has to work for the organization and we have to show the flexibility of working for them rather than telling them how it works. That’s been the biggest thing I’ve learned when I’ve been doing demos so far.

 

What are your goals for the future of your business?

My goals are to grow TCM to the point where we have regional hubs and to build a strong sales team and move into developing and managing and running TCM for as many nonprofits that would want to use it. My outreach right now is to nonprofit consultants who’ve shown interest in this. The first phase is getting the website re-launched Dec. 18 and after that we’re beginning our major push both to attract new salespeople and to attract new clients in January.

 

Interview by Mercedes Grandin

New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.

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