BEST SOFTWARE DEBUTS FUNDRAISING AND DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION.

Best Software has debuted MIP Fundraising Millennium 7.3, the latest version of its fully customizable, Web-based fundraising and development product for large organizations, including higher-education institutions, museums, and hospitals. Giving nonprofits an even more robust fundraising solution, the new release features significant enhancements, including CorrectGM, a giftmatching service; My Millennium, a personalized, user-configurable home page; and Express Reports, functionality that enhances report accessibility for nonprofit executives.

The company has also introduced Millennium sales to its business partner channel. Other Nonprofit and Government Solutions products from Best Software are already offered via business partners, including the MIP Fund Accounting solutions, and GT Pro and Paradigm, two additional MIP Fundraising products.

"Millennium 7.3 contains some great features we've been looking for -- some complex, some simple," said Craig Dinsmore, IT director at the University of Connecticut Foundation, Inc. "We love the new matching gift service, and the ability to make simultaneous updates to many linked data tables. And, the new automated data entry procedures will have our Gift, Biographic, and Prospect Management teams cheering. The new user data fields and the Print Screen button that prints only the data are great too."

CorrectGM, a new component of Best Software's CorrectDATA services for nonprofits, enables users to access Higher Education Publishing's comprehensive database of matching gift companies from directly within Millennium. According to "Giving USA 2003," the American Association of Fundraising Counsel's (AAFRC) Trust for Philanthropy's annual survey, matching gifts from corporations represented approximately 10 percent of the $12.19 billion companies donated to nonprofit organizations in 2002.

"Nonprofit executives depend on their Millennium systems to help them build strong donor relationships," said Kent Hollrah, SVP and GM of Nonprofit and Government Solutions for Best Software. "CorrectGM provides immediate value to organizations - helping them locate donors working at matching gift companies. Nonprofits can automatically increase, and sometimes even double, donations just by correctly identifying these donors."

Specifically designed to increase the availability of reports to nonprofit management, the new Express Reports feature allows executives to run reports without being trained in every aspect of the report writing process. Set up with pre-determined parameters, the enhanced reporting functionality gives users greater independence and ease-of-use.

My Millennium, a personalized dashboard, allows users to easily display key reports, tasks, and user-defined alerts on the Millennium home page for optimal use. Customers can have immediate access to Advisories, Agent Notifications, Assignments, Statistical Charts & Graphs, Personal Reports and Tasks.

Featuring comprehensive relationship and alumni tracking, flexible tools for on-the-move executives, and advanced healthcare philanthropy functionality, Millennium provides advanced management of major gifts, donor profiling and management, events, volunteers, members and alumni management and tracking, customer reporting and mobile access capabilities

Added Dinsmore, "We're happy to see so much new functionality in Millennium 7.3 -- much of which came directly from user requests. The new pre-release pilot program is also great, since it allows users to test and comment on new versions before they're released. It's obvious Best Software values input from its user community."

Millennium 7.3 is available now from Best Software and its business partners. For more information about the solution or other MIP Fundraising products, visit http://www.mip.com/software/fund_raising.htm or call 800/647-3863.

About Best Software

Best Software offers business management products and services that give nearly 1.8 million small and medium-sized businesses in North America the insight for success throughout the life of their business. Its parent company, The Sage Group plc (LONDON: SGE.L), supports over 3.6 million customers worldwide and has revenue of approximately $899.7 million. For more than 25 years, Best Software has delivered easy-to-use, scalable and customizable applications through its portfolio of leading brands, including Abra, ACT!, CPASoftware, FAS, MAS 90, MIP, Peachtree, Timberline and SalesLogix, among many others.

Best Software can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.bestsoftware.com

For more information, call 866/308-2378.