Running a nonprofit means juggling many tasks. How do you manage donors, fundraising, volunteer schedules, and community outreach, all while trying to further your mission?

Many nonprofits rely on outdated methods that consume much of their staff’s time. This makes scaling and outreach difficult. Thankfully, a non profit crm, a type of software, can bring the efficiency that organizations desperately need.

What exactly is a CRM and why is it essential for organizations today? You’ll learn here why organizations of all sizes need a non profit crm software solution, which stands for customer relationship management.

Why You Need a Nonprofit CRM

• Why You Need a Nonprofit CRM
  • Task Automation
  • Accessible Donor Information
  • Contact Records and Reminders
  • Data and Reporting for Spotting Trends
• Finding New Donors for Your Nonprofit
• Key CRM Features for Fundraising
  • Robust Donor Profiles
  • Track Email Performance
  • Integrate Social Media Engagement
• Top 10 Non Profit CRMs to Check Out
  • Bloomerang
  • Giveffect
• Make Your Content Mobile-Friendly
• Reading Referrals
• Non Profit RFP Checklist
• Keela’s Unique History
• Additional Considerations for Selecting a Nonprofit CRM
  • Data Migration
  • Security Measures
  • User-Friendliness
  • Volunteer Management Features
• The Role of AI in Nonprofit CRMs
• Nonprofit CRM Case Studies
• Conclusion

Why You Need a Nonprofit CRM

A nonprofit CRM, also known as donor management software, centralizes donor data and helps grow relationships. Sixty-seven percent of nonprofits use a CRM to track communications according to the Nonprofit Tech for Good 2023 report.

Nonprofits can analyze all of their data while knowing their important information is secure. You can track donor interactions, spot giving trends, and even improve donor retention with the right CRM solution.

Task Automation

Imagine how much more you can achieve with time-consuming administrative tasks off your plate. Task automation can save time while providing a more personalized donor experience.

The right CRM can automate reporting, help in making donor segments, and integrate your email marketing platform. That lets teams put more of their time and efforts toward supporting the actual goal, not stuck managing data. Streamlining tasks will drastically improve your fundraising efforts.

Accessible Donor Information

Stop wasting time searching aimlessly for data and answers. With non profit crm, nonprofits can now instantly find donor information within clicks.

With nonprofit CRM features, you can easily update a donor’s address and remind yourself of your last interaction. You and your team will be empowered to work efficiently.

Contact Records and Reminders

CRMs enhance relationship management with helpful features. You can review past donation records, communication preferences, and giving habits.

Contact profiles in the CRM give a detailed record of interactions with donors. You will know when your donors last gave and can set reminders to schedule a thank you.

You can also improve donor communication by segmenting communication to better personalize touch points.

Data and Reporting for Spotting Trends

Having donor information and data will reveal important trends. Much of your valuable donor data may be spread across different platforms.

These platforms could include payment processors, email systems, and online fundraising platforms. By having a CRM in place, you can identify lapsed donors and find first-time givers.

Proper follow-ups become easier. Tracking reporting in a single CRM gives better visibility into actionable items and steps that need to occur for the mission.

Finding New Donors for Your Nonprofit

Finding donors for your nonprofit doesn’t have to feel like an uphill battle. There are ways you can bring in new supporters and expand your support.

Many of these techniques can be further streamlined with your non profit crm solution.

• Connect with individuals online.
• Organize events to raise awareness.
• Create powerful relationships within your network.
• Partner up with other organizations.

For additional techniques to expand your support base, consider these “10 Ways to Find New Donors for Your Nonprofit Organization.”

Key CRM Features for Fundraising

Different nonprofit organizations will have their own unique needs. Let’s explore some key CRM features and fundraising tools that nonprofits often look for in a nonprofit CRM solution.

By examining these features, you can determine which aspects of a non profit crm could immediately benefit your organization.

Robust Donor Profiles

Effective nonprofit CRM solutions empower teams. How do they empower your team exactly?

These tools let teams store and organize vast quantities of data from any support that matters to the organization. This includes important notes, donation data, contact info, and demographic data.

By storing everything important on your supporters in a single location, your team members can communicate more clearly which can empower engagement. The custom fields allow the organization to store additional data specific to their organization.

Track Email Performance

If there are team members using Hubspot to send personalized messaging it is also easy to keep your mission at the forefront with integrated templates. Hubspot offers a 40% discount for nonprofits, and a vast array of integrations for organizations of all sizes.

Nonprofits also have the tools for onboarding and segmentation. To reach various different audience sets, a non profit crm may require different email performance parameters.

Integrate Social Media Engagement

There’s no longer any denying how important social media has become for donor engagement. CRM tools can help monitor social media presence to respond in real time and keep engagement top of mind.

Staying up-to-date is essential. The nonprofit world moves at a breakneck speed. To discover insights about peers in the nonprofit sector, you can connect to the global user group.

Consider integrating your social media platforms for more efficient donor communication.

Top 10 Non Profit CRMs to Check Out

The specific software is one of the key variables. Many can say one platform will cover the job.

It will never truly be the case that a single non profit crm platform has a stronghold in the market. It all just comes down to feature needs that will address your organization’s priorities and current tech limitations.

Remember, one of the most important factors here is budget, and some vendors offer non profit licenses and tiers. You might wonder “Hey, are nonprofits eligible for Salesforce?”.

Any eligible organization that signs up with the Salesforce’s Power of Us Program will receive 10 free licenses to Salesforce’s Nonprofit Cloud.

1. Bloomerang
2. Salesforce
3. Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT
4. Neon CRM
5. DonorPerfect
6. Keela
7. CharityEngine
8. Giveffect
9. NationBuilder
10. Classy

Bloomerang

Among non profit crms, Bloomerang is rated highly on G2 and Capterra. Bloomerang specializes in building strong supporter relations through its nonprofit crm features.

Bloomerang’s pricing starts at $99 per month. They emphasize engagement to lift retention, cut down supporter attrition, and maximize revenue.

Giveffect

Giveffect has combined many functions into a singular CRM option, including event management and volunteer management. If your non profit handles lots of volunteer coordination, Giveffect could also prove invaluable.

Giveffect is designed to function almost as ten tools, making for an accessible interface for growing organizations. Users have mentioned how much they have appreciated how many processes they bring in the singular digital location.

Make Your Content Mobile-Friendly

Having all that amazing functionality and content won’t matter much if your content looks bad for much of the audience base. If it does, your goals will suffer.

In 2023, 52% of nonprofit website traffic came from users on mobile devices, and that is telling in a day and age where everyone can take actions directly on a mobile platform. That simply highlights how important mobile compatibility for content is now, which is called responsive design.

Ensure your CRM platform is optimized for mobile use to maximize reach.

Reading Referrals

Don’t just take my word for it about platforms. Seek out the opinions of your professional peers and see which CRM solution they recommend.

For referrals, you can see trusted third parties like software reviewers from G2 and Capterra. These tools allow everyday users to test the non profit crm for their needs.

This level of practicality ensures accountability and helps you make an informed decision about your nonprofit crm software.

Non Profit RFP Checklist

Here’s a practical method to find out which software has most of what your organization desires. Use a “Non Profit RFP” template as a tool.

Utilize their checklist from “non profit organization” template. These checklists put all software on an equal and clear evaluation platform.

These resources are great fundraising tools and are designed to enhance the evaluation process.

Keela’s Unique History

Keela distinguishes itself as women-led and boasting a diverse team representing over 17 countries. The company is made of professionals spread out worldwide.

As a global entity, the Keela team prioritizes effective donor communication. With such diverse thought leaders, they’ve been able to incorporate a strong variety of backgrounds and expertise, which sets them apart from for-profit companies.

Keela’s platform built specifically for nonprofits focuses on relationship management and donor data, including volunteer management tools.

Additional Considerations for Selecting a Nonprofit CRM

Selecting the best nonprofit CRM involves more than just features and pricing. Consider these important aspects to guide your choice.

Consideration	Description
Scalability	Choose a CRM that can grow with your organization.
Integration	Verify seamless integration with existing tools.
Training & Support	Evaluate the availability of training and customer service.
Customization	Opt for a CRM that offers flexibility and create custom solutions to meet unique needs.

Data Migration

Switching to a new CRM can be a complex process. Effective data migration is important to minimize disruption and preserve data integrity.

Here are some of the steps that your organization should keep in mind during the process:

1. Data Assessment: Identify the types of data and where they are stored.
2. Data Cleaning: Fix inconsistencies and eliminate outdated data to improve the quality of the data.
3. Backup: Protect against data loss during migration by creating a comprehensive data backup.
4. Migration: Utilize automated tools for transferring data.
5. Validation: To make sure everything is correct, check migrated data with original data.

Security Measures

For nonprofits, protecting donor data is of utmost importance. Verify that the CRM offers robust security features like data encryption, secure access controls, and compliance with data protection regulations.

These elements safeguard confidential information and help maintain the confidence of donors and stakeholders. Look for nonprofit crms that provide payment processing in compliance with industry security standards.

User-Friendliness

A nonprofit CRM should be intuitive and easy to use for all staff members. Request demonstrations or trial versions to determine user-friendliness, as user adoption greatly influences productivity and the use of the CRM. Easy to use custom dashboards and out-of-the-box reports allow users to efficiently track progress.

A CRM with a complex design will lead to staff dissatisfaction and under utilization.

Volunteer Management Features

An efficient nonprofit depends on its volunteers. Check if the CRM provides tools to manage volunteer schedules, track hours, and coordinate communications. Volunteer management is crucial for ensuring volunteers are organized, informed, and recognized.

Having this is place will allow a smoother process when getting them in place.

The Role of AI in Nonprofit CRMs

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly integral part of modern nonprofit CRMs. AI-driven analytics can find trends, predict donor behavior, and personalize communications. AI driven tools also have the ability to automate data entry, classify donors into specific segments, and optimize fundraising campaigns.

Nonprofits can increase donor engagement and improve operational efficiency with AI driven systems.

Nonprofit CRM Case Studies

Real-world examples showcase the benefits of a non profit crm.

• Improved Fundraising: The organization was able to improve online fundraising with donor segmentation.
• Operational Efficiency: With task automation the organization was able to save time.
• Enhanced Donor Engagement: To improve donor relations, they have increased personalization.

Conclusion

Choosing the right technology is no easy feat and requires that each and every person know what can address and tackle specific objectives and objectives can take years to achieve for growing nonprofits. The choice becomes all the more paramount.

That’s why picking out which platform has more to offer and scale is critically vital to stay top of mind as we incorporate different forms of AI software into non profit crm in years to come. Consider these factors carefully when selecting the nonprofit CRM software.

Whether it be better volunteer relations, stronger outreach, or refined communications, there are many things a non profit crm can assist an organization in. Organizations of all kinds can truly appreciate what CRMs bring to the digital modern age.