That said, I’m a huge supporter of Laura’s efforts at Idealware and have in the past donated to her organization. Just so you readers know, we have never collaborated on research together.. It just so happens that we have a tendency to reach similar conclusions more often than not.

That said, I'm a huge supporter of Laura's efforts at Idealware and have in the past donated to her organization. Just so you readers know, we have never collaborated on research together.. It just so happens that we have a tendency to reach similar conclusions more often than not.

There's good reasons for wanting an installed systems, particularly if you compare the actual hosted vs. actual installed systems available. Things like mail merges, querying, reporting, and generally easy to use interfaces are easier to build in an installed system, so often those systems are stronger in those areas. You also have more control and often more options over what you can do to the system, if it's installed on your own network. Just to put that out there to weigh against the many pros of hosted systems that folks have already mentioned (that I agree with, by and large).

I do find, though, that many of the folks that say they want an installed system don't have good reasons for wanting one. They often mention things like security or wanting to own their data as reasons they don't want a hosted system… which are not well founded reasons, in my mind.

If your computer goes down and you are using SAAS, then you switch to another computer and log in, correct? But that computer must have a browser installed, and it probably does. The solution is the same in a desktop-app environment. Computer goes down, you switch to another one with GiftWorks and you're good to go. My point is that there currently are tradeoffs on both approaches.

Ideally, your data is replicated in real time–perhaps to the cloud, perhaps across other desktops in a peer system, perhaps to a series of backup servers. Perhaps your app is similarly available–if a desktop app, then hosted at a Citrix farm, or running on any number of machines, OR running as a web app in parallel with the desktop app, and your data is both online and behind the firewall. That last combination might nail all points–data available regardlessof app uptime, accessible through whatever app interface is needed or available.

That said, you're right about those sales issues. You can't "force" non-profits to one particular type of solution (even if you think it's the right one). That's not the way nonprofits think about their fundraising software. However, I hope in some tiny way with my blog some nonprofit managers will at least rethink their existing bias in favor of mine. I'm sure you'll agree that from a maintenance point of view on the part of a software vendor, a SaaS solution is much easier to update and support than on-premise software.