How important is a computer?

Summary:

Computers are important productivity tools, especially for small organizations. (Very early comments from the dawn of the computer age -- 1994!)

A good system (not fancy) will more than pay for itself in the way you
can generate donor lists and track donations; do personalized mail
merges to cultivate interest and donors; create fundraising event and
campaign lists, track your committees, etc. etc.

Most brochures, flyers, promotional pieces and camera-ready ads can be
done in-house. If you train just one person how to use Pagemaker, say,
you recoup the $175 cost of the course (found everywhere) by the second
outside typesetting job you can pass up.

See information in other sections for sources of low-cost equipment and software. However, when
determining how to set up your operations, your should consider putting
your money into a good computer system.