Getting Started

The CDM+ Essentials platform allows you to create online giving links, manage donors, and track donations. In this video we demonstrate, how to get started using Essentials for your nonprofit organization.

CDM+'s powerful data management tool allows you to track and pull the data that you need about your donors and their donations. Because it's a database, it's important to get a good start when beginning to enter in your data. This way you can optimize how the system pulls your data into reports. Below is a suggested list for Getting Started.

• Click on Installing CDM+ Desktop on macOS and Windows. The CDM+ application is where your admin users will be able to manage your donors and their donations. You can install CDM+ on as many computers as you need. 
  
  
• Set up the administrators for your account. You can have as many admins as you need. You can also specify what permissions you want each member of your team to have depending on their role. It's important that each person working in CDM+ has their own login. CDM+ tracks what each user does in the system. Click on How to Create a CDM+ User for steps on creating your admins. 
  
  
• Click on this link, How to Create a New Fund , to setup your Funds. The definition of a fund is "something for your donors to give to". You can create as many or as little funds as you'd like. You can keep it general with a "Where Most Needed" fund or be specific, "Building Campaign, Diaper Drive, Outreach Programs." You can also add a fund when you are about to have a fundraiser to track donations that came in from that fundraiser. 
  
  
• Once you create that fund,  you want to assign it to a Giving Set. A Giving Set is an online giving form the you will put on your website or wherever you are advertising to your donors. Click on this link, How to Create a Giving Link , for step by step instructions. 
  
  
• Once you have your funds and giving sets you can start entering in donations. There are a few ways to enter in donations on behalf of your donors. 
• If you have several brand new donors that you are entering new donations for, we suggest that you follow these steps, How to Add a New Donor with Engage.
• If you are just entering in one or two donors, you can follow theses steps, How to Add a Brand New Donor through CDM+ .
• If you want to enter in historical donations from a previous provider, you can manually enter these records by following these steps, How to Enter a Check, Cash, or In-Kind Donation . You will follow these same steps when you want to track new check, cash, or in-kind donations in CDM+. 
  
  
• Once you start to receive donations, you can track these donation by creating custom reports to pull data that you are looking for. You can follow the steps on this page, Preparing and Producing Reports to create your custom report. 
  
  
• *For eKyros users, you will want to set up your integration. You can follow the steps at this link, Connecting eKYROS to CDM+ , to get started. 
  
  
• *For WayCool users, you will want to set up your integration. You can follow the steps at this link, Connecting CoolFocus to CDM+, to get started. 
  
  
• As you continue to use CDM+ check out, CDM+ Essentials , that provides you with step by step instructions on commonly asked questions and procedures. You can also reach out to our support team at support@cdmplus.com at any time.