5 Benefits of Nonprofit CRM Software: How Does an Organization Reap the Rewards of a CRM Tool?
As a nonprofit professional, we’re willing to bet your schedule is busy. And, if you haven’t audited it in a while, you may be bogged down by tasks that can easily be automated.
Or, you could feel a little more organized with the right tools!
No matter what you’re looking for, if your organization isn’t yet set up with a nonprofit CRM software, then now might be the time to look into one!
We’re detailing 5 benefits of nonprofit CRM software here:
What is Nonprofit CRM Software?
A nonprofit CRM software is a tool used to better organize information about your supporters. You can build out detailed personas, which can help you better understand who your ideal donor is. And you can track prospective donors throughout their entire donor journey.
It’s a tool that, dare we say, almost every nonprofit can benefit from.
What Are 5 Benefits of Nonprofit CRM Software?
There are numerous benefits of a nonprofit CRM software. Ultimately, a comprehensive list of benefits depends on each individual organization.
However, some of the best benefits are consistent across the board. Here are our top 5!
1. Store, Access, and Secure Information About Your Donors
Nonprofit CRM software acts as a hub for all of the crucial information about your donors. You can store the basics, like their names, email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates. And you can store more advanced information like their giving history and your communication history between your organization and them.
Accessing information about your donors is easier than ever with these tools, too. With search features, you can identify individual donors. Or you can use advanced search features to look up groups of donors based on specific filters.
Plus, the majority of nonprofit CRM software is well-secured. And that makes data responsibility much easier for your organization.
2. Manage Your Time Better with Automated Tasks
Your time is valuable. And believe it or not, you may waste a lot of it doing repetitive tasks that can simply be automated with the right tools!
Rather than manually inputting email addresses from your latest nonprofit fundraising event, you can streamline the process by having it done automatically. A CRM software can connect to certain tools, like your fundraising platform. So when someone enters their email address to purchase an event ticket, their contact information automatically populates into your CRM software.
While it seems like such a simple task to do yourself, it could easily take hours depending on the size of an event. That’s a day’s worth of work you could spend on things to make a better impact on your organization!
3. Upgrade From Only Using Spreadsheets
Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets are often the “go-to” platforms when nonprofits first begin. And for good reason! They’re excellent tools that are easy to understand and use.
But at a certain point, they may limit your organization’s operations. Spreadsheets don’t offer a quick search tool to navigate and sort through hundreds of contacts.
They also don’t allow for multiple users to use and assign specific contacts to.
Ultimately, your nonprofit may quickly outgrow the use of spreadsheets to keep track of contacts. And a nonprofit CRM software can easily be the solution!
4. Pull Reports and Monitor Analytics
All excellent decisions for a nonprofit come from education and data. And a nonprofit CRM software is one of the greatest ways to find data from your supporters!
With most CRM tools, you can easily pull reports and analytics from your list of contacts. And you can apply filters to pull specific reports, too. If you need to know how well your last event went, pull a report checking to see how many contacts purchased a ticket!
Curious to know how many of your nonprofit donors have given multiple times in the last year? Pull that report from your CRM tool. That can help you make better decisions, like whether or not a monthly donor program is a great idea for your organization!
A great CRM tool is an excellent way to get a better understanding of how well your organization is performing.
5. Better Communication Between Your Teams and Your Donors
A nonprofit CRM software isn’t only great for your internal teams. It’s great for your donors, too!
Sometimes, nonprofit professionals get so bogged down with other work they have to do. So, they end up going a long time without reaching out to supporters. Ultimately, that lack of communication can hurt the relationship between your organization and donors!
A CRM is an excellent tool to build into your nonprofit communications plan. With it, you can see how long ago you last spoke to contacts. You can even set reminders for certain time periods so you can reach out to them regularly.
And in the end, that’s going to do wonders for your relationships!
What To Look for When Researching New CRM Software?
There are numerous nonprofit CRM tools on the market to choose from. And each of them have different features and price points. So, how do you know which ones to look at when researching a new software?
Ultimately, knowing what to look for comes down to knowing what your nonprofit team members need. So, doing a little bit of homework and research before purchasing a software is crucial!
But many nonprofits look for a CRM software that can:
- In-depth donor profiles – track everything your organization needs to know about your supporters. That can include their giving history and the communication history between your organization and them.
- Integration with other important nonprofit software – a CRM tool is powerful, but it’s probably not the only tool your organization needs. Awesome CRMs offer integration capabilities, so you can connect your email marketing software, your online fundraising platform, and more to it. That helps with automating more tasks!
- Segmentation – to create personalized donor experiences, a list segmentation feature is necessary. You can send out personalized, relevant, and compelling information to the donors who want to see it.
- Analytics and Reports – as we mentioned, data is the driving force behind the best decisions! So get a better understanding of your organization with a CRM that offers data reports.
There are plenty of other features that CRM tools offer. But what your organization needs, depends on the tasks your team members want help with.
The best way to find out is to meet with the team members who will regularly use a CRM tool. Ask them what they could use to make their daily tasks easier and more streamlined. In doing so, you’ll see an increase in productivity and efficiency from them!
With the list in hand, start researching some of the best nonprofit CRM software. Cross-reference what your team needs and what the tools offer, and begin marking out ones that don’t make the cut.
When you have a list of 3-5 tools that you think will work, then it’s a great time to start preparing for a nonprofit tech software demo!
And if you want to go ahead and get started with a free, zero-obligation training on one of the most trusted nonprofit CRM tools, then check out our webinar on Bloomerang!