Nonprofit CRMs: 11 Essential Tips

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Nonprofit CRMs: 11 Essential Tips

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Top Tips
Nonprofit CRMs: The Basics
Nonprofit CRM Benefits
Purchasing a Nonprofit CRM
Maintaining Your Nonprofit CRM

Nonprofit CRMs: The Basics

Tip 1:

Understand the Basics of Nonprofit CRM

What is CRM Software?

CRM software was built to help nonprofits better organize their constituent data and facilitate their operations. The most general type of nonprofit software, CRMs provide organizations with a central place for tracking all aspects of their constituent relationships and managing their efforts so they can better inform their campaigns and communications.

What Are CRM Systems?

A CRM system is a combination of software working in conjunction with the purpose of meeting all organizational needs. These systems are built off of CRM software, which supports integrations with other types of nonprofit fundraising platforms to provide organizations with a more comprehensive feature set housed under one roof.

Why Do Nonprofits Use CRMs?

CRMs afford nonprofits a number of major benefits. Not only do they make data management a more organized process, but they also help nonprofits leverage that data more effectively to build long term donor relationships. Not to mention, they include a number of secondary tools that can make various nonprofit efforts more successful!

BONUS: Download our top CRM selection tips to find the perfect software!

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Tip 2:

Discover What CRMs Can Track

Types of Constituents

Nonprofits can use CRMs to track data and help manage relationship-building for all types of constituents.

If a constituent is pertinent to serving your mission, then he or she goes in the system!

Here we’ve listed out some of the most common constituent groups that nonprofits use their CRMs to track, but they can certainly vary based on the needs of your organization and how you engage with your supporters.

Donors

Program Participants

Staff

Members

Volunteers

Service Recipients

Board Members

Partners

Constituent Information

Powerful nonprofit CRMs allow organizations to track any information about their constituents that could help them approach their donors more personally.

One of the biggest benefits of CRMs is that all information sources are centralized, allowing them to communicate with each other to give nonprofits a more comprehensive view of their donors and their fundraising.

Here we’ve listed out just a few of the major information sources your CRM can help you record and analyze.

Donations

Basic Constituent Details

Online Engagement

Volunteer Hours

Custom fields and notes

Records of communications

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Tip 3:

Enter All Constituent Data

Personal Details

Biographical Information
Obviously, you’ll want to store basic details, like your constituents’ names, genders, birth dates, and other demographics.
Contact Information
In order to successfully get in touch with your constituents, you should have their email and physical addresses, phone numbers, and social media pages on file.
Relationships
Tracking your constituents’ relationships—including familial, professional, personal, and other types of connections—allows you to see how your base is connected and can help you personalize your outreach.
Communication and Frequency
Recording how often you’ve contacted a constituent and through which channels can help your organization better keep track of your communications strategy.
Interests
Knowing a little something about your supporters’ interests can help your organization target them with relevant and engaging content and opportunities.
Custom Fields and Notes
Adding custom fields to your constituent profiles will enable your organization to track the unique constituent information that’s important to your work. You can also create notes to remind yourself of past interactions you’ve had with donors.

Philanthropic Details

Average Gift Size and Gift Frequency
Tracking average gift size and gift frequency can help your organization determine constituents’ giving capacities and preferences to make targeted appeals.
Preferred Giving Channel
Knowing your supporters’ giving channel preferences can help you approach them through the channels that are most likely to engage them.
Previous Charitable Giving
Tracking your supporters’ overall charitable giving history (not just that to your organization) can help you determine giving capacity and philanthropic affinity to spot opportunities for upgrading.
Affinities
Which causes and projects have your constituents found most interesting? By tracking affinities you can keep approaching them with appealing opportunities.
Event Attendance
Some donors prefer engaging with organizations at in-person events. Record event attendance, so you can keep up with these donors, too!
Volunteer Work and Other Nonprofit Involvement
Some supporters would rather donate their time, skill, or another type of contribution. To learn about all of your supporters, track volunteer work, membership, online engagement, advocacy, and other types of involvement.

Tip 4:

Create a CRM System

Online Giving Software

Organizations generally use their CRMs to build customized donation pages so that they can collect donations online and over mobile. By integrating this type of software with their CRM, they can automatically collect data on their supporters’ giving habits in their constituent profiles.

Event Planning Software

Nonprofits use event planning software to help them plan and execute fundraising events of all shapes and sizes. By integrating these platforms with their CRMs, all data on event attendees and event engagement can be analyzed in conjunction with other constituent data sources.

Peer-to-Peer or Crowdfunding Software

To run more specialized fundraising campaigns, like peer-to-peer or crowdfunding, nonprofits need software to address those needs. Combining their nonprofit CRMs with their peer-to-peer or crowdfunding software makes data collection on lots of new supporters a more seamless process.

Communications Software

Nonprofits often integrate their CRMs with communications software that includes email marketing, social media, and other features to help their outreach run seamlessly. All outreach is done right from the platform, so data about constituents’ communication habits are tracked in their profiles.

Advocacy Software

Oftentimes, nonprofits need features to help them raise awareness of their causes and enact political change. That’s what advocacy software is for! Integrating advocacy and nonprofit CRM software allows organizations to view fundraising, advocacy, and stewardship all in one place.

Comprehensive Fundraising Software

Comprehensive fundraising software refers to CRMs with a wider feature set. This software usually includes donor management, online fundraising, event planning, and communications features, but it varies by platform. Essentially, comprehensive nonprofit software can help you do it all!

To learn more about all types of fundraising software, check out this guide!

The Benefits of Using Nonprofit CRM Software

Tip 5:

Improve Your Efforts

Donor Stewardship

Because they’re able to track all pertinent constituent data in the same system, nonprofit CRMs afford organizations deeper insights into their donors. All data sources can talk to each other to give you the bigger picture.

By consulting your CRM, your organization will be able to build more targeted and appealing outreach strategies. Personalized outreach leads to more engagement, resulting in more enduring and valuable constituent relationships.

Campaign Creation

Campaign creation is crucial to any fundraising effort. With the assistance of a CRM, your nonprofit will be able to run a fundraising campaign from start to finish—from organizing staff efforts to making personalized appeals and beyond.

All efforts are housed under the same roof, allowing your organization to receive a more holistic view of your campaign. When you can see how your strategies are working in conjunction with each other, your fundraising will be more successful.

Event Management

CRM event management modules alleviate much of the stress of event planning. With your software, you can create event tickets, generate registration forms, manage guest lists, organize event volunteers, and so much more.

Not only does CRM event management provide you with a central place for overseeing your event; it also communicates with your other data sources to help you see how your events fit into your overall fundraising strategies.

Information Access

Nonprofit CRMs are designed to make life easier for nonprofits. If all staff members can access donor data via your CRM, you’ll streamline the fundraising process.

In other words, nonprofit CRMs centralize organizational data, making it universally accessible across staff. When staff are able to see their roles within the greater efforts of the organization and draw off of a complete set of data, you’ll achieve better fundraising and smoother internal operations.

Better Timing

Fundraising is an art form. It takes tact and intuition to know when it’s the appropriate time to make another appeal, offer another engagement opportunity, or follow-up with a prospect. CRMs can help manage scheduling and take some of the guesswork out of the process.

Your database provides you with a comprehensive overview of your donor outreach and your donors’ interaction history with your organization. Since you have all of the knowledge at your fingertips, you’ll always know when to follow up. You can even automate tasks and schedule reminders, so you’ll never miss the perfect opportunity!

More Effective Development Plans

Nonprofit CRMs make development officers’ jobs a whole lot easier! Especially if you integrate it with a wealth screening and prospect research service, your software can give you powerful insights to help you pinpoint prospects in your base.

Since you’ll have a wide set of data to draw off of, you can create more informed and personalized development plans to more effectively cultivate your prospects. Using a CRM, you should be able to upgrade more supporters and cultivate more major donors to build a base that’s more valuable all around.

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Tip 6:

Perform Better with CRM Data Reporting

How Can CRMs Improve Data Reporting?

See how these reports can help your nonprofit.

To Donors, Board Members, Partners, and Other Stakeholders

Donors, board members, and other key stakeholders can be hesitant to provide funding if they feel like their funds aren’t being allocated properly. CRMs can help nonprofits build trust by providing comprehensive and up-to-date financial reporting.

Since all transactions occur in one place, nonprofits can easily generate reports and share them with their stakeholders to demonstrate how funds have been used.

To The Government

Nonprofits need to report their organizational finances to the government to initially secure their status as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. While your organization doesn’t need to renew your status after it’s been approved, you will still need to send the IRS a report each year that lays out your annual revenue and activities to stay up and running.

Nonprofit CRMs make the reporting process easier, since all fundraising transactions are housed in the same platform and tracked in real-time.

What Kinds of Reports Can You Generate with a CRM?

Financial Transactions

From standard donations to gifts in-kind to event registrations and more, your organization can run reports on all of the money that’s coming in and out of your organization, so you can create more transparency with your supporters and monitor your fiscal health.

Event Metrics

Run a wide variety of reports on your events to better evaluate your event fundraising strategies. You can run reports on attendees, event outreach, contributions, and so much more to gain deeper insights into which aspects of your event were successful and which could be improved.

Campaign Responses

With your CRM, you can generate reports on all outreach channels you manage through the platform, including email, direct mail, social media, and more. Figure out which channels your donors respond most warmly to and which spur them to take action to hone your communications strategies.

Other Custom Needs

Luckily, you can use your CRM to report on nearly anything! If you’re working with a robust platform and using it to manage data on a certain effort, then chances are, you can run a report. Think about which reports would be most valuable, and then turn to your CRM to help you keep improving.

Purchasing Nonprofit CRM Software

Tip 7:

Identify the Right CRM for Your Organization

Step 1: Start by Strategizing

Before you can begin narrowing down your options, your organization should form a clear idea of what you need from a CRM. Consider your nonprofit’s budget, ultimate goals, and wish list of features when starting the shopping process.

Step 2: Get Input from Future Users

Getting feedback from your staff and the various people whose roles the CRM will affect is crucial to decision-making. Speak with your fundraisers, your researchers, and your marketers to find out what they need from your software.

Step 3: Determine Number of Users

This step is somewhat related to the previous one. Not all CRMs offer universal team access; in fact, many are priced by number of users. Decide who on your team needs access, and make sure the CRM you select provides enough seats.

Step 4: Count Constituents

Just as with number of users, the number of constituents a CRM can house often influences software price. Take a headcount of your constituents and make sure you’re buying a platform that fits your needs, leaving some room for growth.

Step 5: Consider Setup

CRMs have a broad range of set-up requirements, from integrations to data migration. Your organization’s time and tech expertise will need to be assessed in conjunction with the installation difficulty of the CRMs you’re evaluating.

Step 6: Research Integrations

Built-in features come with your CRM, whereas integrations bring in an outside tool. You’ll either want to find a CRM that has all necessary built-ins or ensure that the CRM you’re purchasing supports integrations with the platforms you need.

To learn more about the CRM buying process, check out this buyer’s guide!

Tip 8:

Compare the Top CRMs

Fundly

Fundly CRM offers nonprofits an incredibly comprehensive solution for managing nearly all of their fundraising needs, from data management to communications to event planning and more.

Our solution is highly customizable, supporting a range of add-ons and additional features that your nonprofit can mix and match to find the perfect solution for you.

360MatchPro

360MatchPro provides robust nonprofit matching gift software that’s perfectly suited to the needs of growing nonprofits. They offer tracking, automated outreach, and email domain screening.

Not to mention, Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro is easily integrated across your fundraising and communication strategies so all your software can be unified and cohesive.

Salsa Labs

Salsa Labs doesn’t only sell nonprofit CRM software; they offer a whole suite of fundraising software perfect for medium and large nonprofits, including advocacy, event-planning, and communications capabilities.

With Salsa, your nonprofit can take care of all of efforts under one roof to provide you with well-rounded insights into your performance.

CharityEngine

While many organizations purchase and integrate different solutions together to create a complete software ecosystem, CharityEngine provides this full toolset from the get-go.

They offer donor management, fundraising tools, marketing automation, event management, advocacy tools, and more. Streamline data easier with a more connected (and less expensive) CharityEngine system.

View more top CRM solutions!

Get started with Fundly CRM!

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Tip 9:

Streamline the Data Migration Process

Clean Your Data Before the Switch

Make sure your data is lean, clean, and up-to-date, so you’re not transferring any obsolete or extraneous data. The less data you have to transfer, the faster the switch will go (for more data cleaning tips, click here).

Appoint a Project Manager

Data migration is complex and time consuming. Select a point-person to lead the migration charge so you can be sure you always have someone dedicated to overseeing the process and available to answer staff questions.

Keep All Departments Informed

Data migration can be a long process, and it has the potential to affect your internal operations. Keeping your staff informed about when and how they could be affected creates more transparency and gets everybody on the same page so that the transition runs more smoothly.

Enlist Outside Help

Many nonprofit CRM companies offer assistance with data migration. They’ll evaluate your data and the overall difficulty of the migration process, then step in to help if necessary. If your vendor doesn’t offer this service, you might want to consider hiring an outside adviser.

Prioritize Your Data

Oftentimes, you won’t need to take all of the data you have on file with you in the move. Rank your data according to how necessary it is to bring along, and only take what you need to speed up the process.

Migrate in Stages

To make the migration process more manageable, split up your data and migrate in stages, starting with the most crucial pieces of data. Transferring in stages will also make the migration process easier on your staff, as only certain pieces of information will be unavailable at various times.

Save a Back Up

Given that data migration can be such an involved process, errors are bound to occur at some point. Don’t lose any of your important data in the process! You should have a secure backup of your data in full in case any issues arise.

Customize Only If Needed

Chances are, all of your data isn’t going to fit in your new CRM’s pre-set fields. If a data point doesn’t have a clear home, decide if it’s still a must, and then customize a storage option. Customization isn’t always easy, so doing so requires thoughtful consideration of the time and finances required.

Determine How Many Years of Data to Migrate

To pare down your data, it’s helpful to set a limit on how many years of data you’ll migrate (this is usually a major step of data cleaning). The number will vary based on how far back your staff goes to pull data, but a good rule of thumb is to delete data that hasn’t been used in 2+ years.

Set a Timeline

Data migration can’t go on indefinitely. Establish a clear timeline, implement checkpoints to help manage the process, and set a specific end date to ensure the process is contained and efficient.

Maintaining Your Nonprofit CRM Software

Tip 10:

Maximize CRM Function

Take Advantage of Training

Nonprofit CRM vendors provide training options to help organizations learn the platform. Most vendors offer at least two options: pre-recorded training and live, customized training. Pre-recorded training is usually free, while customized training usually comes at a cost.

Your organization should definitely take advantage of your vendor’s free training options. However, you might also want to invest in customized training, too.

Customized training will be specific to your organization, so you’ll be able to go over the modules you’ll be using most and ask your vendor some questions.

Set Knowledge Goals

Your CRM is a highly complex and feature-rich piece of software. You and your staff couldn’t possibly learn everything there is to know about your software all at once, even if you are investing in customized training.

To ensure that you’re aware of your software’s full feature set and are able to utilize all of these features effectively, it’s important to set knowledge goals.

By setting knowledge goals, you’ll have a timeline in place for when staff should know certain modules. That way, there will be a continuous, conscious effort to learn your software.

Pay Attention to Updates

Vendors regularly introduce software updates to correct bugs and keep software compatible with ever-advancing technology.

To ensure your software is always functioning up to speed, look out for CRM updates from your vendor. You’ll want to update as soon as possible for your software to function as well as possible.

Set Aside a Maintenance Budget

If your CRM ever runs into technical difficulties, your organization will need to enlist the help of an IT consultant.

However, IT support can come at a cost. Set aside a maintenance budget in advance so that issues can be addressed in a timely manner. The longer your software is down, the more opportunities you could be missing out on!

Tip 11:

Properly Manage Your Data

Let Go of Lapsed Donor Data

It can be hard to leave things behind, especially when funds could be on the line! But just like you’ll realistically never re-wear your favorite shirt from high school, you’re unlikely to need data from a constituent that hasn’t been active for two or more years. They’ve demonstrated that they’re no longer interested in engaging with you, so let go of that data.

Get Rid of Duplicate Information

With multiple people entering data into your CRM, information duplication is bound to happen. Leaving duplicate entries could cause you to double up on tasks by accident. While many CRMs include automated de-duping features, you should still make it a point to dedicate some time to eliminating any doubles, just in case anything has been overlooked.

Properly Secure Your Donor Data

Keeping your donors’ sensitive data—whether it be payment or contact information—should be your top priority. Password breaches are becoming more and more prevalent, and it’s up to your organization to ensure that a hacker can’t gain access to your accounts. Therefore, your staff should be using strong passwords in their account credentials and avoid sharing their passwords with other employees.

Make Sure Contact Info Is Up-to-Date

You’ll have a difficult time getting in touch with your donors if you don’t have the correct contact information on file. Once a year, ask constituents to confirm their contact information and to provide you with updated info if anything has changed. And, of course, remember to delete all outdated data so you don’t accidentally use an old email or home address.

Have Specific Data Entry Procedures

Many of the data points you store could be entered in different ways (for example, will titles be formatted “Ms” or “Ms.”?). Type up a document outlining standardized data entry procedures. When staff are entering all data in the same way, your database will be cleaner, and it will be easier to search for information and teach new staff members the platform.

Create a backup of your donor data

As a nonprofit professional, you’re well aware of how important your donor data is to your fundraising efforts. That’s why you should be prepared when something unexpected occurs. By having a backup of all your donor data, you’ll be able to get back to fundraising without a hitch in the process. If your donor data is constantly changing, set up a weekly or monthly time to update your backup to the latest version.

Additional Resources

Check out this list of tips for free and low-cost nonprofit crm software.

Free and Low-cost Nonprofit CRM Software: 6 Terrific Tips

Looking for a nonprofit CRM solution that won’t break the bank?

Check out this curated list of the best free and low-cost nonprofit CRM solutions on the market from our friends at @Pay!

Learn more about affordable nonprofit CRM options!

Check out Fundly's ultimate fundraising event checklist.

The Ultimate Fundraising Event Checklist: 17 Actionable Steps

One of the ways a nonprofit CRM software can benefit your organization is by helping you to plan fundraising events.

Check out our step-by-step guide to putting on a great fundraising event!

Read our guide to planning a successful fundraising event!

Take a look at these 12 tips for hiring a fundraising consultant.

Hiring a Fundraising Consultant: 12 Essential Tips

Nonprofit CRMs are essential to meeting your fundraising goals, but sometimes you may require a little more outside help!

Take a look at this resource from Aly Sterling about fundraising consultants and when to bring one on board.

Study up on hiring a fundraising consultant!

Nonprofit CRMs: 11 Essential Tips

Nonprofit CRMs: The Basics

Understand the Basics of Nonprofit CRM

Discover What CRMs Can Track

Types of Constituents

Constituent Information

Enter All Constituent Data

Personal Details

Philanthropic Details

Create a CRM System

The Benefits of Using Nonprofit CRM Software

Improve Your Efforts

Perform Better with CRM Data Reporting

How Can CRMs Improve Data Reporting?

What Kinds of Reports Can You Generate with a CRM?

Purchasing Nonprofit CRM Software

Identify the Right CRM for Your Organization

Step 1: Start by Strategizing

Step 2: Get Input from Future Users

Step 3: Determine Number of Users

Step 4: Count Constituents

Step 5: Consider Setup

Step 6: Research Integrations

Compare the Top CRMs

Fundly

360MatchPro

Salsa Labs

CharityEngine

Get started with Fundly CRM!

Streamline the Data Migration Process

Maintaining Your Nonprofit CRM Software

Maximize CRM Function

Properly Manage Your Data

Additional Resources

Free and Low-cost Nonprofit CRM Software: 6 Terrific Tips

The Ultimate Fundraising Event Checklist: 17 Actionable Steps

Hiring a Fundraising Consultant: 12 Essential Tips

Crowdfunding Resources

Fundraising Resources:

Popular Resources