I have spent a considerable amount of time in my previous
          life as a business manager evaluating fund accounting
          software for two museums from 1-2.2 million dollar budgets.
          My advice is twofold. First: don't use the software
          developed by various companies designed for hospital,
          university, school, large museum not for profits. They are
          cumbersome, expensive, and lacking in the refinements of
          more widely used commercial products. They also have
          features which are not particularly useful for a
          small-medium sized not for profit. Without getting too
          technical, from an accounting point of view, full-fledged
          fund accounting is almost always overkill unless you have
          ten or so special accounts, and lots of restricted project
          grants.
 
          Therefore, I would recommend that you use a regular small
          business commercial accounting program. These can be made to
          be perfectly serviceable for your size organization by using
          cost-center accounting rather than fund accounting. There
          are obviously dozens of programs to choose from in the small
          business accounting market.
 
          The best approach to choosing from among these packages is
          to let your auditor do the selecting and installing.
          Assuming that the firm that does your regular audit has
          experience with computers, they are best positioned to help
          you decide what to use. Then they will also be able to get
          you up on your chart of accounts, and train your staff to
          produce the information that they will need for your audit,
          and you will need internally. In addition, they will then
          have the responsibility of assuring that the system you use
          will be in compliance with generally accepted accounting
          principles for a company your size.
 
          You probably will have to pay some additional consulting fee
          to them to help you define your needs, select the software,
          and get you up and running. In my previous job, that was
          about $2,500 (in NYC, which is always more expensive).
          Usually, they have a package that they recommend to all of
          their clients, and will recommend to you. Again, most
          not-for-profits of your size should do perfectly well with a
          regular accounting program, which will be 1/10th the price
          of a specialized program, with better support, and better
          features.
 
          Sorry to go on so long, and all of the above is "IMHO". If
          you need more advice feel free to contact me off the list.
 
 
          Eric Siegel
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