Frequently Asked Questions: Before You Get Sumac

Click the topics of interest.

Does Sumac's data reside on my servers or yours?

The data resides on your computer(s). We do not normally host it; if you are interested in this service, please let us know.

If you use a single-user version of Sumac (Bronze or Silver), the data resides in your computer, much like you would save word processing and spreadsheet documents on your computer.
Sumac Gold is multi-user; its data resides on your server (typically a desktop computer running database software).

In addition, Sumac has a Multi-database feature. This enables one Sumac installation to have multiple databases, all residing on the same server. Each of the databases can be for a different organization. The administrator of the overall multi-database system can search and communicate with people in all the databases at once. But each database is completely separate. This configuration enables sharing of a server, and all the backup and administration that goes with that, so it may be a convenient way to operate for several similar or related organizations.

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Is Sumac user-friendly enough to be used by a staff member working only a few hours per month on donor related matters, or do we need a full time fundraiser?

Sumac is, by far, the easiest non-profit database software. It was created to address a major deficiency in the non-profit software marketplace: the software was  much too difficult to use.

We focused especially on making Sumac easy to use. Simplicity and consistency of design make Sumac straightforward to use. In addition, there is built-in help and wizards, as well as excellent documentation and free online video training you can watch anytime. Most significantly, if a particular feature or issue arises in several tech support calls, the next release of Sumac enhances the feature to make it easier to use; in effect, Sumac users cause Sumac to get easier to use.

The result is software is so powerful that fairly complete on-site training takes just a couple of hours.

Sumac is used by organizations of all sizes: from less than one employee to hundreds of employees. Most do not have a full-time fundraiser. Staff at very small organizations often use Sumac for only an few hours each month.
Sumac supports you to accomplish the basics very easily. But it also lets you go beyond the basics, for example to run a multi-level renewal campaign, with very little effort.

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What future fees may be required?

Sumac Bronze: always free.

Sumac Silver: $250 per year.

Sumac Gold: in the second and subsequent years, 60% of what you pay in the first year.

Click Purchase to see the types of support that come with each version of Sumac.

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What computers are needed to use Sumac?

Client Computers

Each client computer (i.e. the computer that is running Sumac) should have the following display size and processing capacity:

	Minimum Screen Size	Preferred Screen Size
Roots modules	800 x 600	1024 x 768
Specialized modules	1024 x 768	1280 x 1024

Operation System	Processor	RAM
Windows 7, Vista	1GHz minimum 2GHz dual preferred	1GB minimum 2GB preferred
Windows XP, 2000	500MHz minimum 1GHz preferred	256MB minimum 512MB preferred
MacOS X 10.5.2 and later	1GHz or better	512MB minimum 1GB preferred

Server Computer

Sumac Gold is a multi-user system: several people can simultaneously use Sumac and share the database. When you use a multi-user version of Sumac, the data resides on a server – a computer that is running a database management program (MySQL) to manage the data for all the client computers.

The server does not have to be a specially built server computer; any desktop class machine that can run Sumac can be a server. A notebook usually does not work well as a server because notebook computers tend to have slow disk drives. If someone is going to use their personal computer as a server then it must have at least the levels of processor and RAM capacity marked as “preferred” in the table above.

Exactly what capacity a server needs to serve Sumac users depends on what else the server is doing, how many people are using Sumac, etc. For three or four users, the load on the server will be very light: perhaps 10MB of RAM and 1% of the CPU.

The server must have a connection to the office local area network (LAN), and all the client computers must be connected to the LAN too. Sumac works fine on relatively slow (e.g. 1 Mbps) networks, so you can access your office Sumac database from home or remote offices. But much of what Sumac does is move data to and from the database server. This means that a faster network is better. A 100Mbps or even 1000Mbps network is ideal. Wireless networks in offices work much more slowly, so use wired connections if you can.

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How do I get all my old data into Sumac?

Your data may be in other places: spreadsheets, word processing documents, email programs, accounting programs, other databases. You want to import much of this data into Sumac. You have two choices: do it yourself, or let us do it for you.

Data conversion services are part of the Sumac Gold. You can also purchase them separately (for a very low flat rate). If we do your data conversion, the process is:

• You send us a copy of your data. You export all of the key data from your databases, and gather this together with spreadsheets, email lists, and whatever else you have, and send it to us.

• Then we look at it and prepare a data mapping document which says how the data will be converted from your current system into Sumac. This usually entails a bit of back-and-forth until we both understand how this conversion will work: you learn more about Sumac, we learn more about your data. Typically this takes about two weeks.

• Once we agree on the data mapping, we set a date for the installation and training. Then a week or so before the installation, you send us an updated copy of any of your data that may have changed, and we convert it. After you sent the data second time, you should not change it before the installation is done.

• We do the conversion. On your first day of Sumac usage, you are up and running with all your data in place.

If you decide to do the data conversion yourself, you can use the same tools that we use to do data conversions. Sumac includes an Import Workspace that lets you import, validate, and clean up your data. Once the data is clean, you use Sumac’s Import command to bring the data into the database.

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Should I use multiple databases for the data in my organization?

Sumac has a Specialized module to manage multiple databases for multiple organizations. But  you might want to use multiple databases to manage the data for a single organization.

If you choose to manage multiple databases, each user can have a different ID and capabilities (or none at all) in each database, so access to the data can be controlled precisely.

For example, some Sumac users keep regular contacts in a separate database from media contacts, since the mailings to the two are quite different and the overlap between the two is minimal. Other organizations use one database for fundraising and another for managing client data. 

There is no clear-cut answer to whether you should or should not configure Sumac to handle multiple databases. When thinking about this, you should consider carefully how the benefits of multiple databases compare to the problems that might arise.

Potential benefits:


Potential problems:


Let us know if you want to discuss this issue in more detail.

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