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 can be purchased 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 the 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.

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

Simplicity and consistency of design make Sumac so straightforward and user-friendly that training takes just a couple of hours.

Built-in help and wizards, as well as excellent documentation, free online video training and phone tech support give you all the support you could possibly need. Sumac is constantly being improved based on our customers’ needs. If a particular function or feature would make life easier for our customers, in most cases it will be there in the next release of Sumac.

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.

Client Computers

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

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.

It’s up to you!

We can provide Sumac Online service for your database. This means that your data resides on our server, and you can access it from anywhere on the Internet.

Alternatively, you can have all your data stored on your computers. 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).

Sumac is all of the above.

Sumac is a desktop application

When you use Sumac, you have an icon that you double-click that causes the program to run on your computer. So you use it just like any other desktop application – like a word processor or spreadsheet program.

Sumac is a client-server program

A client-server program separates the application program which uses the data from the database manager which stores and manages the data. The application program runs on each user’s computer. The database manager usually runs on a separate server computer. The application program is the client, the database manager is the server.

The Sumac software is an application program that resides on each user’s computer.

Sumac Bronze and Sumac Silver are single-user versions of Sumac. When you use a single-user version of Sumac (Bronze or Sumac), you don't need to deal with the complexity of managing a database server because Sumac does it for you.?If you get Sumac Gold, then the data is managed by a separate, multi-user database management program (usually MySQL) which manages the data and runs on a server computer.

Sumac is web-based

Sumac Online enables you to keep your data in the cloud, and access it from anywhere there is an internet connection. If you opt for Sumac Online, we put your data on a Sumac server, and relieve you of the hassle of doing backups and managing the server. Click for more details about Sumac Online.

Sumac is also web-based in other ways. The actual Sumac software, for example, resides on a web server (sumac.com). Whenever you run Sumac, it checks to see if there is a new version available. The software is downloaded and updated dynamically, as required. For efficiency, and just in case your Internet connection is down, a copy of the software is also cached (stored) locally on your own computer. This means that wherever the Internet goes, you have access to your Sumac database.

Sumac can also provide services to your website: It can add an electronic box office to your website. It also enables you to set up a donations, pledges, address update, and membership renewal pages on your website.?Sumac users can connect to their database remotely, over the Internet.

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:

1. The list of contacts is smaller and more focused in each database. For example, one database may be a list of donors, another may hold a list of media contacts, or perhaps a list of clients.

2. The lookup lists in the two databases (e.g. contact types) can be more specific to the purpose of the database.

3. Users can be given access to only the one or two databases that they need to use.

Potential problems:

a.  Would you ever do the same mailing to people in both databases and therefore need to repeat the mailing? How will you prevent mailings from being repeated to people who are in both databases?

b. If a person needs to be in both databases (e.g. because the person is both a donor and a client), and the person’s address changes, you must remember to change it in both databases.

c. You must ensure that both databases are backed up appropriately. This is usually easy because they are being managed by the same MySQL server, but is worth considering if the databases are put on different servers.

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

Once you have decided you want to get Sumac Gold, two streams of activity begin: paperwork on the one hand, and data conversion & installation on the other.

Paperwork

The paper-work consists of two things: a contract, and an invoice. Because the pricing of Sumac depends on which Sumac options (specialized modules) you choose, the first step is to decide exactly which Sumac specialized modules you need. You can see a list of specialized modules click here. Often a conversation with Sumac staff helps clarify what is most appropriate for your particular requirements.

Once the list of specialized modules is decided, the other issue is to estimate how many contacts are in your data. This is because there is a special price break for small databases with no more than 2500 contacts.

Given the list of specialized modules and the number of contacts, Sumac staff calculate the price, and send a contract and invoice. We like the contract to be signed before we do significant data conversion. We like the invoice to be paid on installation.

Data Conversion & Installation

While the paperwork process is taking place, you gather together all the data that you want to be converted and put into your Sumac database. This may consist of custom databases, data in other purchased software, spreadsheets, email lists, accounting files, and personal address books. The data may represent people and organizations, donations, event attendance, sponsorships, and any other sort of information.

You send us a copy of the data. Usually sending the data as email attachments works fine, but if data volume or security dictates then we can provide alternative approaches. Then we analyze the data and prepare a data mapping which explains how your data will be converted from its current form into a Sumac database. This usually entails a bit of back-and-forth until we both understand, in detail, how this conversion will work. Data mapping usually takes a couple of weeks.

When the data mapping is done, we jointly set a date for installation and training. About a week before the agreed installation date, you need to freeze (stop changing) your data, while we convert it into a Sumac database.

We then install Sumac at your site, and train your staff. Installation usually takes about an hour, training typically takes about two hours.

Sumac Bronze: always free.

Sumac Silver: $20 per month.

Sumac Gold: determine your monthly fee using this price calculator.

Sumac Platinum: $400/month

Sumac is a Java program (see the FAQ below for a description of Java). Before you can install Sumac, you must make sure that you have Java on your computer. Click on separate FAQs below to see how to install the most recent version of Java on your computer.

Once you have Java on your computer, go to Sumac.com, click Support, then click the first link to install the current production release.

As with any downloaded software, when Sumac starts to run, your operating system will perform security checks. If you can tell your computer to trust content from Sumac.com, do so. If not, you may be asked to confirm software from different sources: Softwood Technology, Sun Microsystems, and Legion of the Bouncy Castle. Confirm that you want to run the software, trusting these sources.

If you double click the Sumac icon and your system says it is unable to run the specified program, your system may have removed or damaged the cache file holding Sumac. So you need to re-install it.

Step 1: Remove the Sumac program from your computer

Note that this step removes only the software, it does not affect your Sumac database.

First, make sure that Sumac is not running.

On a Windows computer, open the Java control panel, and click the View button. It shows a list of Java applications installed on your computer. Click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it.

On a Macintosh, open the Java Preferences application, click the Network tab, then click View Cache Files, click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it. On an older Macintosh use the Finder run the Java Web Start application, from the menu at the top of the window choose Applications, click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to remove Sumac.

If there is a Sumac icon on your desktop, drag it to the trash.

Step 2: Re-install Sumac

Go to Sumac.com, click Support, then click to install the current production release.

As with any downloaded software, when Sumac starts to run, your operating system will perform security checks. If you can tell your computer to trust content from Sumac.com, do so. If not, you may be asked to confirm software from different sources: Softwood Technology, Sun Microsystems, and Legion of the Bouncy Castle. Confirm that you want to run the software, trusting these sources.

When you first run Sumac on a new computer, it will ask for the name of the server and the name of the database. If you don’t know these, here is how to get them:

1. Run Sumac on another computer (any user computer other than the database server).

2. Choose the Show Configuration command from the Utilities menu.

3. The window that appears tells you the server and database name.

Now use the new computer. Use your browser to go to Sumac.com. Click Support. Then click to install the current production release. Follow the instructions for installing Sumac.

Whenever you run Sumac, it automatically checks to see if there is a new release available. If there is, you are asked if you want to install the upgrade. Click OK and Sumac installs and runs the new version in a few seconds.

Occasionally, if a new release of Sumac needs an upgraded database structure, Sumac will ask if you want the database updated. Click to indicate that you do want the database updated. Wait until the progress messages indicate the update is complete (usually a few seconds). Then log on as usual.

Java is a programming language that comes with a lot of support that enables Java programs to run on different computers, to communicate over the Internet, and to be securely installed and updated. Sumac is written entirely in Java.

In order to support the running of programs written in Java, your operating system (Windows, MacOS, Linux) requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). You install the JRE independently of installing Sumac.

On Windows there is a Java Control Panel, and on Macintosh there is a Java Preferences Application, for managing Java on your computer. Usually you do not need to use these.

Use your browser to go here: http://www.java.com/getjava/ 

Click Free Java Download. This button checks to see if the most recent Java is on your computer. It tells you if you do not have the most recent version, and you need to click the button again to start the installation process. Be patient; it takes a couple of minutes, and there are a few pauses.

Click here and follow the instructions on Apple’s web site.

The first time you run Sumac on a computer it creates a file named "databases.txt" and puts it into a SumacSettings folder in your user directory. The format of this file is as follows:

There is one line in the file for each database that you may want Sumac to connect to. Each line contains two parts separated by a space. The first part defines the database server and name, the second defines the driver that Sumac should use to connect to the database. A typical entry might be something like this:

jdbc:mysql://MainServer/CharityDB com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

The first part says to connect to a server named "MainServer" and a database named "CharityDB". The second part tells Sumac which software to use to connect to the database (a class named com.mysql.jdbc.Driver).

This is not a detailed guide. But, in general, these are the steps:

First, your server computer needs a static IP address. Every computer on the internet is given an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Usually these are assigned dynamically, i.e. every time you start the computer. However, if you want to be able to find a particular server, it must be at a specific IP address. You must get a static IP address for the server in the main office. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can assign you a static IP address for no, or a very small, charge.

Second, once you have a static IP address, the router in the office can be configured to allow people in remote offices to connect to the office network where the Sumac database resides. This is done by configuring a VPN (virtual private network). VPN is a protocol that enables people in remote locations to use the Internet to connect to an office network .

Third, you need to configure the user computers to connect to the server. All modern PC operating systems (e.g. Windows, MacOS) support VPN communications. Once the static IP address and server are in place, it is relatively straight-forward to configure a VPN on your PC.

Note that this step removes only the software, it does not affect your Sumac database.

First, make sure that Sumac is not running.

On a Windows computer, open the Java control panel, and click the View button. It shows a list of Java applications installed on your computer. Click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it.

On a Macintosh, if you are using Java 7:  Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Click to run the Java control panel. Click the View button. Click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it.

On a Macintosh, if you are using Java 6: Open the Java Preferences application, click the Network tab, then click View Cache Files, click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it. On an older Macintosh use the Finder run the Java Web Start application, from the menu at the top of the window choose Applications, click once to select Sumac, then click the red X icon to remove Sumac.

If there is a Sumac icon on your desktop, drag it to the trash.

Step 1: Remove Sumac Program

First, make sure that Sumac is not running.

On a Windows computer, open the Java control panel, and click the View button. It shows a list of Java applications installed on your computer. Click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it.

On a Macintosh, if you are using Java 7:  Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Click to run the Java control panel. Click the View button. Click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it.

On a Macintosh, if you are using Java 6: Open the Java Preferences application, click the Network tab, then click View Cache Files, click to select Sumac, then click the X icon to delete it. On an older Macintosh use the Finder run the Java Web Start application, from the menu at the top of the window choose Applications, click once to select Sumac, then click the red X icon to remove Sumac.

Step 2: Remove Sumac files

Sumac saves small working files in a folder named Sumac Settings in your user directory. Drag this folder to the trash. If there is a Sumac icon on your desktop, drag it to the trash as well.

Step 3: Remove single-user database

If you installed a demo or single-user version of Sumac, the data was saved in a folder named Sumac Data in the top level of your main disk drive or in your user directory. Drag this folder to the trash.

For example, I use my laptop computer to connect to our Sumac database in the office. When I use Sumac at home, over a VPN connection, the server address is different. How can I configure Sumac to connect to the database regardless of where I am?

When you run Sumac, it looks in a file named databases.txt (this file is discussed in a FAQ above). This file identifies the databases that are available. If there is only one, then it connects to that database. If there are two or more, then Sumac lets you specify which database you want.

You enable Sumac to access the database from different locations by putting two entries for the database in the databases.txt file. Here is how databases.txt could be configured for this purpose:

Step 1: To do this move, you must copy some data from the old computer to the new computer. There are two things to copy: the database and the settings folder. Below you will find instructions for moving these, specific to the operating system you use.

Step 2: Once you have copied the data from the old computer to the new one, you can install Sumac on the new computer and run it, just like you did on the old computer.

Windows

First, move the database folder. It is named SumacData and is located on the old computer's main hard drive - usually C:\SumacData\.

Move it to the main hard drive of the new computer.

Then, move the SumacSettings folder from the user folder on the old computer to the user folder on the new computer. Depending on your version of Windows, the user folder, which holds the SumacSettings folder, may be:

C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\

or

C:\Users\YourName\

Macintosh

First, copy the database folder. It is named SumacData and is located on the old computer's main hard drive. Copy it to the main hard drive of the new computer.

Then, copy the SumacSettings folder from the user folder on the old computer to the user folder on the new computer. The user folder can be found by opening a Finder window, and looking under PLACES. In PLACES, there is usually a folder with the log-on name of the user. This YourName folder is the user folder which contains the SumacSettings folder which needs to be copied.

Linux

Copy the whole SumacSettings folder from the user home directory on the old computer to the user home directory on the new computer.

This folder contains settings used by Sumac. It also contains a SumacData folder which holds your database(s). A typical path to the user home directory is home/YourName.

If you licensed Sumac Gold, or if you separately purchased installation services, we install and configure your database. You need to do a bit of preparation work in advance: downloading some files so that the remote installation process will proceed quickly and smoothly.

On Each User Computer

Step 1 Get Java

Make sure that each computer that will be running Sumac has the most recent version of the Java run-time environment (JRE).

The Frequently Asked Questions in the Support section of sumac.com tell you how to do this. Above you will find FAQs titled How do I install the most recent Java on my Windows/Macintosh/Linux computer? Choose the one that applies to your computer, then follow the instructions to install the current version of Java.

Step 2 Install Sumac

Click here to install Sumac on each user computer. The first time Sumac runs on each computer, it asks which database to connect to. Just click Cancel. The database does not yet exist, so you should not specify these settings yet. Now that you have done all this preparation work on each user computer, once the server is set up, it will take just a few seconds to get Sumac running.

On The Server

Use your browser to download some software to be installed on your server. DO NOT install it: just download it so it is ready for Sumac personnel to install and configure.

Direct your browser to: ftp://ftp.sumac.com

Use this user ID: anonymous@sumac.com. There is no password. Although you may be asked (more than once) to enter a password, just enter nothing at all and click OK.

You should get a directory listing that shows (amongst other things): Server Software. Click to open Server Software. Inside Server Software, click to open the folder that applies to your server: Windows or Macintosh.

If Windows, then download all the files in this directory.

If Macintosh, then download the files appropriate to your version of the operating system and processor. Also, download the files in the folder “All Macintosh”.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

This message means that for some reason Sumac is unable to establish a connection to the database server computer.

Single-User Sumac (Trial, Bronze, Silver)

If you are running a single-user version of Sumac, the data is on your computer, so this message almost always means that another copy of Sumac is still running. Quit all running versions of Sumac and wait for half a minute, then run Sumac again. The problem normally goes away and you can run Sumac normally after that. If this does not fix the problem, restart your computer and try again.

Multi-User Sumac (Gold)

If you are running a multi-user version of Sumac, then Sumac connects to the database through a communication network. So probably something is wrong with your network. Network communications usually work, but when something fails, you need to systematically check for several things that could cause the failure, and fix any that you identify.

Here are some things that might be wrong. Check each one, if something is wrong, fix it and run Sumac again:

1. Is the server computer actually running? Check that it is turned on and connected to the network.

2. Is MySQL up and running on the server? You can ensure that MySQL is up and running by using the Services Manager on Windows, or the MySQL System Preferences on Macintosh.

3. Is the databases.txt file set up correctly? This file (which resides in a Sumac folder on your hard drive) contains a line that identifies your server and database, and looks something like this:
jdbc:mysql://OfficeServer/SumacDatabase com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

Ensure that the server (OfficeServer in the example) and database name (SumacDatabase in the example) are correct in your databases.txt file. If you are unsure what the server name and database name should be, log on to Sumac on another user’s computer (not the server) and use the Show Configuration command in the Utilities menu.

4. Can other Sumac users connect to the server, or is the problem with only one computer? If no one can connect to the server, there may be a firewall on the server that prevents connections to MySQL. In this case, you need to add an exception to the list of programs allowed through the firewall. On Windows servers, the program for which an exception is required is named mysqld-nt.exe.

5. Can your computer connect to the server? You can quickly determine this by trying to telnet to the server on port 3306. On a Macintosh run Terminal, on Windows run cmd, and enter:

Time Tracking is part of Sumac Roots – every Sumac installation has it. Before using it, you need to specify programs. Programs identify areas where people perform the work being recorded: e.g. transportation, office work, kitchen work, outreach.

Use the Lookup Lists command in the Administrator menu to specify your programs. Then at the end of the year or month, you can produce reports that break down time by program.

Note, by the way, that you can record both volunteer and staff time this way too. For example, if you get a grant to provide transportation for clients, and need to report on the time spent doing transportation, you could record both staff and volunteer time to get a complete picture of the hours being spent on transportation.

Finally, you need to tell Sumac that you want it to show Time Dockets in the Sumac Console window. Do this by choosing the Preferences command from the Administrator menu. Click the Time Dockets tab. Then click to turn on the checkbox "Show a button for Time Dockets in the Sumac console"

Before you can order tickets, you must enter information about the ticketed event, its venue, pricing of seats, and the layout of seats in the venue, taxes, surcharges, and discounts. All this information is set up using the Lookup Lists command in the Administrator menu. The Ticket Order chapter of the Sumac User Manual suggests the order in which this information can be most conveniently entered.

Sumac prints tickets on standard sized paper on standard computer printers. You can print on ordinary white bond paper and cut the tickets to size.
For a better looking ticket, you can get paper, in different weights and colours, that is already perforated for tickets. Here are links to some companies that may be able to help (use Google to find more):

Paper Stock

PerforatedPaper

TicketMeister

The rules Sumac uses for putting someone in the directory are different for top level directory entries (e.g. an organization) and for secondary level entries (someone who works for the organization).

Regarding top level entries: When you create the directory, it asks for which types of contacts are to be included in the directory, and you can tell Sumac to include contacts based on membership information, and whether you have manually specified that a contact should be included in the directory (by clicking the Include in Membership Directory checkbox in the Membership Directory tab of the contact record).

In addition, to be included, a contact must have a membership contact type specified. Membership contact types are checkboxes in the Membership Directory tab of each contact record. Confirm that the organization missing from the directory has a relevant contact type checked off in the Membership Directory tab.

Secondary entries must be related to top level entries by a relationship whose name (in the Administrator Lookup Lists window) starts with md. Check that this is the case.

Create a search criterion which searches on a Contact field. The field to search is Pref Street A (the street address of the contact’s preferred address). Then choose the search relationship is null. This finds all contacts who have no street address. Click the Reverse the search checkbox to find the contacts who do have a mailing address.

You can save this single search criterion as a group, to be used in other searches or, since it is just a single fairly simple search criterion, include this box into other searches as required.

If you already have a search that produces a list of people to receive a mailing, use this new search criterion by connecting it (with an and connector) to the criterion that produces your mailing list.

Here are some problems that may arise when doing Mail Merge using an RTF or DOCX template:

It is possible that the template is too large. This usually happens because the template contains high resolution pictures. In RTF documents, pictures are saved in a format that makes them rather large, so a high resolution picture can make the template enormous. Shrink the template by reducing the resolution of the pictures to a more appropriate size; usually 300 dots per inch works well since that is around the resolution of what people can see.

Another possibility is that you are saving many merged documents (for several contacts) into a single RTF file, and the resulting document is too large. Again the problem may be caused by pictures. If the template contains pictures, then make sure they are as low resolution as possible. Also, if at all possible, put the pictures into the template’s headers and footers; this ensures that the resulting output file contains only one copy of each picture, instead of one copy for each contact.

If Sumac complains about a formula, inside angle brackets <<...>>, but the formula works fine in Sumac’s Make Template window, or when you use it in a text-only template, then the problem is probably embedded formatting codes. Some document editors (e.g. Word) insert invisible codes into your documents. Sometimes it inserts these codes in the middle of your formulas. So even though it looks like <<c_name>> (which is correct) on the screen, it may actually be <<c_XXname>> (which is incorrect) where XX is some embedded command which Word does not display on the screen. The way to fix this problem is to type the entire formula in a plain text editor (e.g. Sumac’s Make Template window, or Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Macintosh), then copy the formula, from before the opening angle bracket to after the closing angle bracket, and paste it into Word as a single piece.

First, tell Sumac which country to remove. You do this by ensuring that the country in your Office record is correct. A Sumac administrator can choose Offices from the Administrator menu, and put the correct country in the default office record.

Second tell Sumac that when it is performing  a mail merge, it should remove the country from mailing addresses. A Sumac administrator can choose Preferences from the Administrator menu, click the Mail Merge tab, then click the checkbox telling Sumac to remove the default office's country name from addresses.

Third, whenever you generate labels, choose an office record (usually the default office record), to tell Sumac not to put the default office's country in the labels.

Expansion control fields in the contacts list allow you to specify how far back in time Sumac should look when gathering data to show in the expansion. The default is 24 months, so when you expand a contact, only the last 24 months of data are displayed. If you change the number from 24 to, say, 60 months, you see more information when you click the expansion icon.

Typically a fund is the purpose for a donation. If you allow donors to specify that a donation is for a particular purpose (e.g. "here is $100 to use for the Triple A Production next year" or "here is $10,000 for your capital campaign"), then the purposes (e.g. Triple A Production and the Capital Campaign) are funds. Sumac can keep record and report on which pledges relate to a which funds and which donations were allocated to which funds.

A campaign is a set of steps you pursue to get donations. For example, your Christmas Fundraising Drive might be a campaign. Sumac can record which communications, pledges, and donations relate to a particular campaign.

We found that some people consider a campaign to consist of several solicitations, while others reverse this and refer to a solicitation containing several campaigns. So we made Sumac neutral on this issue: from Sumac’s perspective, a solicitation and a campaign are exactly the same thing.

Sumac generally uses the term campaign to refer to these kinds of things. But when you define a campaign, you can indicate that it is of type campaign or solicitation, and use whichever terminology you are most comfortable with.

Generally you should not use the inactive checkbox to indicate that a membership is no longer current. If a member contact lapses, then there would be no current membership record for the contact which, by its absence, indicates that the contact is no longer a member.

The Inactive checkbox indicates no further relationship of any sort is likely with a contact. But a lapsed member may become a member again in the future, or may even be a current donor or attend current events.

When you edit certain types of records (e.g. contacts, programs, ticket orders) Sumac locks the record so that only one person can edit it at once. If, while the record is still being edited, Sumac is terminated or the computer crashes, the record is left locked.

Later, when someone tries to edit the locked record, Sumac prevents the record from being used, thinking it is already in use.

If you are sure that no one is editing the record, a Sumac administrator can unlock it by choosing the Clear All Locks command from the Administrator menu.

Sumac can do a mail merge directly with a pdf template, and can then email them to the donors directly. This saves many steps in the receipting process.

The Sumac Administrator Manual explains how to put formulas into fields in PDF documents to create the template. When Sumac does a mail merge with a pdf template, it encrypts the resulting document with a key that is not known to anyone, so the document cannot be changed, thereby satisfying government rules for electronic receipts.

Then use the Email Receipts button in the Donations list window to email them.

The best way to record this is:

1. Create a contact record for the organization itself, with no particular individual's name in it. Give this contact record a gender of organization.

2. Create a contact record for each of the people associated with the organization. Then enter relations that relate the individuals to the organization. You may want to use relations that provide useful information. For example, if the organization is a school, you might want three or four relation types like "is teacher at/has teacher", "is primary contact for/has primary contact", "is principal at/has principal", "is billing contact at/has billing contact". Since relations can be searched, you will then be able to do a search like "Find all people who are principals at a school".

The advantage to this approach is that it does not mix up an organization and individuals within one contact record (is this phone number for the person or the organization?). It also defines the organization independently of any individuals that work there.

Usually you must check any data that comes off a web site: people enter things incorrectly, whether maliciously or inadvertently. You will also likely get information from people who are already in the Sumac database and you won't want them in there twice.

Web sites typically store the information entered on their forms into databases. They can make this information available as files. Import these files into the Sumac database. Sumac has a very powerful and flexible import command, that looks for duplicates, validates fields, etc. The import can be semi-automated, so that column selections and other time consuming parts of the process don't have to be repeated.

If firewalls and server security allow it, Sumac is also able to import directly from the Web site’s database, making the operation much faster and simpler.

Email Format

The body of an email message can be formatted as a plain text document, a picture, or an HTML page. Sumac supports all these formats.

Plain text documents can be created using any text editor, or created with a word processor then saved as a text-only document. Few people send plain text emails because the appearance is rather boring: no pictures, colours, styles, fonts.

Sending a picture as the body of an email can be quite effective. For example, you may send a flyer or poster that announces an upcoming event. The problem with this is that sending a picture is a common spamming technique, so many spam filters block emails whose body content is a picture.

Therefore it's better to sent  bulk email  as HTML pages. HTML is a standard way of formatting data so that email programs and web browsers can display the data. In fact, a web site consists of many HTML pages linked together.

Creating An HTML Page

You create an HTML page much like you create a word processing document. Only instead of using a word processor like Word or OpenOffice, you need a program that edits HTML pages.

You may be tempted to use Microsoft Word to create a page, then save it as HTML. Don’t do this. It won’t work. The HTML produced by Microsoft products is non-standard; it only works with a few email client programs, so many of the recipients of your email will not be able to read it properly.

Get An HTML Editor

If you already have a favourite HTML editor, perhaps for maintaining your web site, you can use it. If not, we recommend SeaMonkey (for both Macintosh and Windows), a good HTML editor that produces standard HTML that can be displayed correctly by virtually all email programs. Click here to download SeaMonkey.

Then you need to install it. SeaMonkey is an integrated web program: it does browsing, email, address book, chat, and HTML page composition. You probably do not need to use it for anything except page composition. To eliminate all but the page composition functionality, when you first run SeaMonkey, choose Edit/Preferences, click Appearance, then click to turn off all but the Composer, then click OK to save the preferences. Quit and start again, and you will have an empty HTML page to edit.

Use The HTML Editor

Entering text into your document is much like putting text into a word processing document. Type the text, select and change its appearance.

Pictures are done differently. While it is possible to embed pictures into an HTML page, this is usually a bad idea because it delays email download time, and also runs into trouble with spam checkers. Instead, you put the image (e.g. a jpg or gif file) on your web site, in a folder that is not generally viewed by web browsers. Then you choose Insert/Image to insert a link from your HTML page to the image.

For example if your web site is www.charity.org, and you put the images in a folder on your web server that is named newsletterImages, and the  particular image file is named logo.jpg, then you would specify this example link to cause your page to show the specified image:

http:// www.charity.org/newsletterImages/logo.jpg

Putting Pictures On Your Website

Website content, like pictures, is usually put on a website by transferring files from your computer to the website server. This is typically done using FTP: file transfer protocol.

On a Macintosh, you can connect to an FTP server like you would connect to any other server: Choose Go/Connect To Server, then specify the server (e.g. ftp://ftp.charity.org), and click Connect.

On Windows, you need to install a special FTP program. We recommend Filezilla client, which you can get here.

If you are using Sumac to send bulk email for the first time, probably the information about the SMTP server is configured incorrectly or not at all. A Sumac administrator needs to set up the details of your SMTP server in the Office record (Administrator menu, Offices command, edit the office record paying special attention to these fields: SMTP Server Port; SMTP Server; SMTP Server User; and SMTP Server User Password).

If you are sending email during a busy time of day, is it possible that the SMTP server is busy. Wait 30 seconds and try again.

When sending email, Sumac tries five times to establish a connection to the SMTP server for each email. If the SMTP server does not respond, then either the SMTP server is unavailable, or your connection to the Internet has failed.

Before sending bulk email you should have a discussion with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Explain to the ISP:

1. that you are a charity,

2. that the recipients of the email have asked to receive it and can opt out whenever they want to, and

3. the level of traffic you anticipate, e.g. send email to 1000 contacts twice per month.

Then ask the ISP how email traffic should be timed. Perhaps the ISP will ask that the email be send mostly at night, or that you space emails at least 10 seconds apart.

Once your ISP is informed, you need to configure Sumac. All computer programs send email by connecting to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. So you need to tell Sumac which SMTP server to use, and how to connect to it. This information is stored in Sumac using an office record. Here is how to edit it:

1. Log on to Sumac as an administrator.

2. Choose the Offices command from the Administrator menu.

3. Double click to edit the office record for the office that is trying to send email.

4. Specify all the SMTP Server fields (port, server URL, user ID and password). Also, specify the Outgoing Email fields (display name and the return email address). Then save the office record

Once these administrative tasks are done, you search to find people to receive an email, then use a Send Email button to send mail. The Sumac User Manual explains how to do this.

If you send an HTML email which contains links to pictures stored on your web server, here are some things that could go wrong:

1. The picture is not actually on the server. In this case, put the picture on the server.

2. The picture is on the server but its file name on the server is different from the name in the link in the HTML email. If this is the problem, fix the name in the HTML document. Note that some web servers are case sensitive with respect to file names: PICTURE.jpg is not the same as picture.jpg. So make sure that words are entered precisely.

3. The picture is on the server and its name is correct, but the directory holding the picture is not publicly accessible. Move the picture to a public directory on the server and change the HTML document or, alternatively, make the directory publicly accessible.

Most often, these types of messages arise because the email address is invalid. Perhaps the recipient is no longer at the email address being used, or the organization has changed how it forms email addresses.

Occasionally, an email may be undeliverable because the destination email server was down for awhile. If you try again the next day it may be up and the email will be delivered. Try waiting at least 24 hours and sending the undeliverables a second time. If they fail a second time, then you can conclude that probably the email address no longer works. You should still not delete the contact, although you may want to delete their email address. You should follow up to find out the person's correct email address.

It could also be that you, as an email sender, are being blocked by the recipient's ISP. Speak with the ISP to find out if this is the case. In this case, it may be necessary for the recipient to contact their ISP and ask them to allow transmission of emails from you.

You use Sumac to manage valuable information. This data describes the details of how your organization works: its contacts, its communications, its revenue.

If your data is not backed up, a simple computer failure can cause you and your organization incalculable damage.

It is imperative that you back up this data on a regular basis.

You should back up your data on a regular basis. At least weekly, better daily. Loss of a week's data is a nuisance. Loss of a month's data is a serious problem.

Back up to media that is not in the same location as the computer being backed up.

This can be removable media like a USB key, a writable CD or DVD, a remote backup server, an external hard drive. If you put your backup on relatively unreliable devices (e.g. CD-R or DVD-R), then make sure that the backup program verifies the data after writing it.

Once the backup is performed, remove the media. This does not mean to just turn it off or disconnect it from your computer. You need to physically remove it from your office. If you just put the backup device into a drawer beside the computer being backed up, then the same disaster (flood, fire, theft, lightning, etc.) that destroys the server computer will probably also destroy the backup device.

You should have multiple copies. Don't just back up to one device and re-use it every week. We recommend at least five different backup devices, using a different one each week on a five week cycle. Like any other electronic equipment, they can fail. Having just one or two is not sufficient.

Instead of physically removable media, you can use an online backup service, which sends your data to a remote server.

If you use a single-user version of Sumac (Sumac Demo, Sumac Bronze, Sumac Silver), then you should follow these steps to perform your backup:

1. Quit Sumac.

2. Copy the folder SumacData from the top level directory of your computer's main hard drive to removable media.

If your server is a Macintosh computer running MySQL, click here

If your server is a Windows computer running MySQL, click here

Even if you think your backup is being performed on a regular basis, check again. Make sure that media are being taken off-site. Make sure that there are multiple copies of backups.

Heat Dissipation

Computer components produce a lot of heat. If they get excessively hot, they fail. That is why they have fans: to draw in cool air and blow out hot air.

But running too hot on a continuous basis also shortens their lifetime. So take steps to help your computer keep cool:

1. Make sure the ambient air temperature around the server is not too high. Normal room temperature (about 20 Celcius, 68 Fahrenheit) or a bit lower is ideal. Putting a computer in a closet is a bad idea: the temperature builds up too high.

2. Make sure all air flow channels are clear. Air flow can be driven by a fan, but it can also be driven by convection. So you really need to make sure that all holes (not just those in front of fans) in the server computer’s case are clear. Note that there may be holes on the bottom – check for them and adjust the position of the computer appropriately.

3. Make sure that the hot air output of one computer is not being drawn in to the cool air input of another.

4. Clear the area around the server computer’s case. Fans cause heat to be dissipated by air flow, but a lot of heat is also dissipated by convection. Piling books and papers around and on top of your server thermally insulates its case, preventing heat from being dissipated. The computer is not a bookshelf or bookend. Keep it clear.

Power Cycling

A very high portion of computer failures are caused by connections breaking. A leading cause of broken connections is the expansion and contraction caused by thermal cycling: getting hotter then colder then hotter then colder. Ideally, a server should stay powered on all the time.

Contaminants

Do not put your server in a dirty location. Its fans are always sucking air into the case. If the air is dirty, dirt is pulled in along with the air. This dirt gradually works its way into computer components (e.g. disk drives) and causes them to fail.

Here is a list of places where you should not put your server:

1. The floor. Rub your hand on a typical office floor and it comes up dirty. Dust settles on the floor; people drop things on the floor, shoes bring in dirt that ends up on the floor. Servers sitting on the floor are going to be dirty.

2. Beside a busy printer. Printers that handle a lot of paper emit paper dust. Paper dust is made of very hard cellulose fibres. The dust gets sucked into computer cases and causes damage.

3. Near a kitchen or coffee station. The water hazard is obvious. Less obvious is that food preparation areas frequently have an aerosol of oil particles in the air. Once these are pulled into a computer case, they act like glue, ensuring that any other dust and dirt that arrives will never leave.

Disk Fragmentation (Windows)

If your server is a Windows computer, the disk needs to be regularly defragmented. Fragmentation of a disk occurs because any particular file may be broken into pieces – fragments – that are stored in different places on the disk.

If the fragmentation gets excessive (too many files are stored in several places), performance drops noticeably and the disk drive is strained as it constantly has to reassemble pieces of fragmented files. Eventually, severe fragmentation causes Windows to crash.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 enable you to schedule regular automatic defragmentation. Earlier versions of Windows require you to manually defragment. Every month or two is usually adequate.

Sumac stores your data in a database. You have two choices as to where you want this database to reside:

In-house Hosting: Your database resides on a computer in your office.

Sumac Online: Your database resides on a server managed by the Sumac team. This server is accessible, 24 x 7, from anywhere on the Internet.

If your staff works in multiple locations, an online Sumac database simplifies their lives. No matter where they are, the database is available.

If you lie awake at night worrying about whether your database server is reliable and being backed up on a regular basis, an online Sumac database will let you sleep better.

This service costs $25 per month (plus applicable taxes). This amount is billed in advance, at the same time as your annual renewal fee for your Sumac license. There are no additional usage-dependent charges.

No. You have your own database, just for your organization. No one else can access it.

The data is actually on a server located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The server in Vancouver is backed up locally (i.e. in Vancouver) every day.

Every day, the data is also copied from Vancouver and backed up to a server in Toronto.

The Toronto server, in turn, is backed up locally (i.e. in Toronto) every day, and off-site twice per week.

Every list window in Sumac has an export button. These buttons enable you to export anything anytime.

In addition, on request, we can provide a copy of the backed up database in a standard .sql file format.

It amazes us that people have to ask this question but, amazingly, some database hosts claim they own the data on their servers. Not us. All your data is yours. Period.