Client Testimonials

  • I am a Silent Partner user and have been for four years now. The program works like a gem. There are tons of functions you can use it for. Here are a few; donations, receipting, tax donations, sales, mail outs, personal data entry for customers and much more.

    I would have to say that working with Doug and the Team has been my highlight. They are always there to help and they are able to customize according to your needs.

    If you are thinking about a program for your organization I highly recommend the Silent Partner program. I have promoted to everyone who asks what we use. I really have no complaints, it has met everyone one of our needs to date!!!!!!

    Shelley Payne
    Dept Head Administration & Human Resources
    The Miracle Channel

  • Greater Vancouver Youth for Christ has been using Silent Partner for the past 18 years. We have been very pleased with the product and with the service that we have received. I find the program very user friendly and it provides me with the reports that I need. Over the years we have trained several people on the software program, and all have been up and running and comfortable with the program in a very short time. I have recommended Silent Partner to many similar organizations in the past and continue to do so.

    Dean Klassen
    Director of Support Services
    Greater Vancouver Youth for Christ

  • I had been using Silent Partner to do receipting for two small charities in Winnipeg when we had the opportunity to invite one of the on-site trainers, Kathy Herbert, to our office. As I had only been using Silent Partner at a very minimum level, I was blown away with the multi layers the program had to offer.

    I now use the tracking elements and codes in a far more effective and efficient way, and am able to generate reports more specific to our organizational needs. I felt like I was just scratching the surface of what the program is capable of, and now have a better grasp of what it can do.

    Kathy used our own program and data in our training session, allowing us to ask questions and create scenarios very specific to our organization. It was not only informative, but fun. I have come a long way, but know there is more to learn. Together with another local non-profit that also uses the program, we are planning another 2 day training session, and seriously, I can’t wait.

    Fiona Plett
    House of Hesed

  • Dear Doug and the Silent Partner Team,

    We thank you for developing a great system that meets the needs of a
    Canadian and US non-profit organization. The cost is amazing and the
    support is far beyond what one could hope for.

    Thanks for everything!

    Charis Pearce
    Empower Ministries

  • In the early 1990s, Chosen People Ministries (Canada) desperately needed an easy-to-use software program that could manage our donation process and constituency communications – at the very least. Total novices, we purchased Silent Partner without really understanding all we needed or what we wanted to accomplish. The staff at Silent Partner/Custom Management walked us through the process and, when needed, have held our hands in the years since. We’ve seen the program grow and develop in directions that have made it indispensible to us.

    I have been involved in Chosen People Ministries’ relationship with Silent Partner since the beginning and commend Doug and his staff for ALWAYS being available to help us when we’ve run into a question or problem. Never once have we been unable to contact them or be guided to a solution. His personable and reliable guidance has been much appreciated.

    Silent Partner is a very stable program and almost never gives us trouble; any difficulties we encounter are far more likely to be an issue of operator error.

    Would we purchase Silent Partner again? Absolutely.

    Janice Beurling
    Director of Communications
    Chosen People Ministries (Canada)

  • I first encountered Doug Chaffee and his Silent Partner software late in 2000. At that time we were engaged in an organizational transition that required a complete overhaul of our current donor database and point of sale software. We are a small and underfunded Canadian charity that had used a well known and highly powerful software program that is produced and supported in the United States. We found that this particular program, while indeed full of functions and useful features, had a number of serious drawbacks:

    1. The annual service contract ate up a full 1 - 1.5% of our total annual budget.
    2. The level of sophistication of the assorted functions contained within this program were not user friendly in the least. Having witnessed the degree of difficulty programmed into this package first hand, the implementation of this program would require on site training with an attached cost in the range of $1500-$3000.
    3. Because we are a smaller charity, we do not have the luxury of a full time dedicated development department. This meant that the initial benefit of on-site training would be quickly lost on staff and volunteers. The program would not be used consistently and regularly on a daily basis; thus personal memory of functions and versatility would be lost within a very short time frame.
    4. You could not easily train a volunteer or part time person to use the program on an as needed basis.
    5. The cost to acquire a retail point of sale module was in the range of $10,000.

    With these drawbacks and concerns in mind, we began our quest to find a software developer that not only addressed the concerns stated above, but also was compliant with government requirements.

    After examining a number of “value priced” alternatives, the reasons to buy Silent Partner became readily apparent. Virtually all products tested could satisfactorily capture basic demographic data and produce a receipt, but not much else. Their interfaces were unattractive; their system logic was not intuitive. I found, after downloading a demo version of Silent Partner, that I could successfully navigate the program within 30 minutes. Moreover, Silent Partner’s search, segregation and retrieval capabilities were more than adequate for our ministry needs. With some small encouragement from Doug I easily maneuvered through some of the higher functions of the program. Eight years later, we are still finding charming features that brighten our day. Best of all, the program is so user friendly that volunteers and staff can easily be trained in basic functions within one hour.

    In short, after investigating several options, the obvious choice was Silent Partner.

    But we required a donor database that could handle not only charitable receipting, but also point of sale retail sales. After we had presented Doug with an extensive list of our requirements, the programmers and developers of the Silent Partner produced a fully functioning bookstore module from scratch within 3 months. As the relationship matured, this module has been fine tuned and revamped a number of times over the years as we have encountered new and unforeseen issues. Each time a suggestion has been raised, the Silent Partner crew has eagerly seized the opportunity and often come up with innovative solutions.

    Prior to joining this ministry, I worked in the automotive leasing business for 20 years, where I had gone through three or four major software changes. Our transition to the Silent Partner was by far the easiest and most painless software change I have ever experienced.

    In 2002, our organization added a new component to its operational matrix. In addition to serving our donors and retail clients, we entered into wholesale book distribution. This now required some additional wrinkles, requiring that we be able to segregate wholesale customers from retail, and that we be able to produce purchase orders for quick and efficient restocking. Again, the Silent Partner did not disappoint us.

    If I were to summarize the benefits of using the Silent Partner, they would be:

    • A reasonable up-front acquisition cost
    • An extremely reasonable annual support fee
    • Staff that are knowledgeable with government tax requirements
    • A corporate ethos that is willing to accommodate each customer's unique IT requirements

    I unhesitatingly recommend and endorse the Silent Partner, and would happily entertain any questions as to its suitability to your organization.

    Heinz Dschankilic
    Executive Director
    Sola Scriptura Ministries International

  • We have used Silent Partner since November 2003. We have found it to be good value for the money we spent. It provides all the necessary information to feed our accounting system and we can produce our own custom reports for special times of inquiring. The staff at Custom Management Software have been very helpful every time we call for assistance or guidance.

    Bruce
    Arab World Ministries - Canada