8 Tips For Choosing The Right CRM for Nonprofits

A CRM, or customer relationship management system, is a software tool designed to help businesses manage their customer data. This data can include contact information, purchase history, and other important data points. For nonprofits, a CRM can be a valuable tool for tracking donations and donor information. It can also help staff members keep track of volunteers and volunteer hours. By keeping this important data organized and accessible, a CRM can help nonprofits run more efficiently and effectively. 

An ideal CRM for nonprofits will have features that help you manage your donations, keep track of your donors, and streamline your fundraising efforts. They will also be easy to use and affordable. There are many CRMs on the market, but the best CRMs for nonprofits is Salesforce.

CRM software does help nonprofits cultivate new donors, and improve fundraising efforts and grant management. But this is not the end of the story; nonprofits can do much more with CRM.

But, first and foremost, let us look at why do you require a CRM for nonprofits.

Why do Nonprofits Need a CRM?

If you’re running a nonprofit organization, you know that keeping track of your donors and volunteers is essential. A CRM (customer relationship management) system can help you do just that. With a CRM, you can store contact information, track donations and volunteering hours, and even send out automated thank-yous. Having a CRM will help you keep organized and efficient, so you can focus on other aspects of running your nonprofit.

Nonprofits can benefit tremendously by introducing CRM software in their operations. As most nonprofits already realize that donor retention can be quite a challenge.  The right CRM can make a world of difference in more than ways. CRM services came as a direct result of emerging trends like Cloud computing technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and service models such as Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). 

The increasing demand for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions across various industries is driven by the need for improving digital operations, automating processes to deliver faster and more efficient responses to customers, and improving services to create better experiences. 

Here is a look at some numbers; 

• A Grandview research report stated that “The global customer relationship management market size was valued at USD 52.4 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.3% from 2022 to 2030.” 

While businesses always look for ways to provide better services and improve their operations- implementation of CRM software is one way to do it. It helps non-profits save on time, and get them connected to members as well as elevates your fundraising drive.  

CRMs are very useful for non-profits because they can help with marketing, communications, data organization, report generation, transparency, efficiency, and so much more. 

As you have done your homework, you know your non-profit organization can greatly benefit from the use of a CRM for nonprofits. While it is a Customer Relationship Management tool, it is mainly going to be a useful tool to improve the donor relationship management system. Leaders in Nonprofits realize how donor retention can prove to be a struggle- while the numbers continue to fluctuate, the average donor retention rate is at 45%. At the same time, The KPI of donor acquisition costs can vary between nonprofits as well, but many say leveraging existing donors is more effective than acquiring new ones. With the help of the right CRM tool, it can enable your non-profit to effectively manage relationships with partners, potential donors, and volunteers.  

But this leaves us with the million-dollar question

How Are You Going to Choose the Right CRM For Your Nonprofit? 

Though there are a lot of options for CRM software available in the market, it can get really difficult to invest in the one which is best suited for your nonprofit. In the following article, we have narrowed down 8 essential tips to help you pick the right CRM for your non-profit.   

What is CRM and How Does it Work? 

CRM stands for customer relationship management system. It is a software application used in businesses to manage as well as track customer-related data and interactions. CRM software is particularly handy when it comes to keeping track of any information related to the customer like queries, history, interactions, and even data related to promotions and sales. 

CRM systems usually have features for managing customer accounts, contact information, sales opportunities, tasks and deadlines, quotes and invoices, marketing campaigns, and social media. There are also features offered by many CRMs that give data-driven insights into how they are performing in terms of customer satisfaction.   

All businesses can use CRMs, but small- to medium-sized businesses have a particular need for it because they want to stay organized and efficient when dealing with their clients.  

Let us now move on to learn what all you need to consider while choosing a CRM for your business operations. 

 8 Tips to Choose the Right CRM for Your Nonprofit  

Should be Able to Make the Most of Your Data  

CRM software needs to be your single source of truth for all the data related to donors. Consider investing in a CRM that gives you one centralized data repository and helps you structure your data as you input it so that no important information gets lost or overlooked. Automation of data entry with the help of CRM can save you time and reduce the possibility of errors. 

A CRM with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) is useful in analyzing and extracting meaningful insights from your data. Data from donor profiles can be visualized in relation to campaign success, money raised, donor engagement, expenses, and many other factors. 

Your CRM software should enable you to generate reports based on the data available. Based on these reports you can present results to your donors, or board members. Providing such data-oriented results will enhance your credibility in decision making which is backed by sound data.  

CRM that Boosts Communication and Transparency 

Your CRM should ensure features that make communications and marketing easier and faster for non-profits. It should enable you to connect with your partners and donors. At the same time, it should be able to track your every interaction with the donor so everyone involved in CRM can have access to it. 

This feature is particularly useful when or if there is a change of team for any reason and you or your existing team members will not have any trouble tracking any aspect of the engagement history with the donor. This will easily help you to catch up where you left off, saving you the trouble of locating that piece of data. 

Select a CRM that provides you with customizable templates for promoting your brand. Additionally, a CRM should offer communication methods other than emails, such as texting, phone calls, and other methods of reaching out to your donors. The ability to schedule communications in advance is also a must, as is being able to schedule follow-ups, setting reminders, and follow-up with automated thank you notes.  

Enhances Your Non-profit’s Productivity 

The best CRMs allow the automation of repetitive, manual tasks that otherwise take up too much time. A research report stated that “sales reps saw their productivity increase by 26.4% when adding social networking and mobile access to CRM applications.”  

You can save time as the CRM handles tasks such as sending emails, triggering SMS alerts, scheduling activities, updating fields, etc. Other tasks that CRM can help you like for instance creating a new case when a mail comes in from the donor, sending email notifications related to the campaign, and creating a profile for the donor based on data in an Excel spreadsheet as well as sending emails summarizing the latest activities tracked in the CRM. The time spent on these types of tasks would be better spent on something that a software program cannot do.    

Provide Support to Your Non-profit Actions 

CRMs can assist you with event planning and management that are critical to your fundraising campaigns, such as initial planning and budgeting, promotion and publication, attendee registration, webinar broadcasting, lead generation, and ROI evaluation. This functionality also applies to physical as well as online events. It is important to go for CRM software that offers seamless registration processes, guest logistics, venue and attendance management, an integration for surveying customers and passes for attendees to particular sessions at the event as well as a website dedicated to the event. 

 Identify Users of Your CRM 

To decide which CRM for non-profits to invest in, consider how many people in your organization will be using the CRM in the course of their duties, and which features they will use.  

It is helpful to determine this factor beforehand because many CRM solutions are priced on the basis of the number of users every month. And the price changes based on whether you have the whole suite of CRM solutions, just one, or several CRM applications. CRM can be used by the core group of people in your organization or it could even be everyone. It’s important to have a clear idea of who actually needs CRM to work as a team that is transparent and supportive, and what each person wants from it. Finding out this information will impact your choice of CRM. 

It should be given due importance to make your people in the team feel at ease and ensure that no vital information will be lost or shared as they own all the data related to client interaction. Making your sales team a part of the CRM selection process will help them feel less apprehensive of the new system and allow easy buy-in to the process.   

Cloud-based CRM 

CRMs can be deployed in two ways. A corporate network allows you to control every aspect of implementation, including maintenance, which limits your flexibility and capacity to change or adapt to changing conditions.  

The other mode of deployment and the best way is through a cloud-based CRM. By using a cloud-based CRM, you will be able to separate the software from your hardware, access the data from multiple devices, and continue to stay up to date with all the latest software advancements as the software evolves.  

Integrations and Extensions for Non-profit 

It is essential to look for CRMs that include integrations and extensions that bring together data and people include to optimize the business operations of your non-profit. For this reason, it is crucial that it is able to integrate with your ERP software and with your office communication tools. 

The ability of your CRM to connect with other applications will ensure a seamless introduction process and further lead to a frictionless adoption by your organization.   

An Easily Accessible Mobile Interface 

The future is fitted into our palms. And businesses need to stay on top in terms of performance and delivery. In today’s reality, every cloud-based SaaS company ensures its software is designed in a way that is compatible with our devices. The flexibility of mobile CRM has allowed more nomadic operations allowing businesses to run from wherever they are. 

This has enabled access to the workspace at any time and from any place – on the go! Ensure that your CRM has a mobile interface so that your employees can continue working wherever they are. With a tool like mobile CRM, your team can perform tasks as well as take pivotal decisions from any corner of the world.  

Bottom Line 

CRMs are increasingly adopted by businesses in order to respond to the ever-increasing requirements of the digital economy.  In a report by Capterra that “65% of businesses adopt a CRM within their first five years.”  

A good CRM helps your business with a centralized platform to effectively manage your non-profit’s sales process, and contacts, conduct marketing as well as provide customer support. It will allow the automation of tasks in the very basics of tasks to streamline processes and costs which further helps in improving the workflow and better ROI. 

Additionally, CRM helps in providing Analytics to determine the performance of your business operations and provide data-driven insights for a more efficient decision-making process. 

 The above article was aimed at providing you with 8 guiding tips to help you choose the right CRM software solution for your business. But if you are still having doubts, feel free to get in touch with our experts at Webuters. Our solutions are backed by professionals with years of experience in the industry and will help you invest in the right kind of CRM tool for your business. 

Why wait any longer? Contact us today to leverage our expert solutions.