All associations, whatever their size, are faced with common problems: the management, sometimes conflicting, of employees and volunteers; sensitizing new donors and maintaining the link with existing donors; the creation of communication and fundraising campaigns.
The list may seem long, but often all it takes is a little creativity to deal with these problems in innovative ways.
For example, smaller associations often organize themselves in their own way in order to evolve and adapt to the challenges they encounter. They sometimes store their donors' contact details in Outlook, track donations in Excel, or launch their email campaigns in MailChimp. But if these apps are not integrated with each other, data management becomes a real nightmare.
And when the association grows, these too manual processes become difficult to ensure. Volunteers who leave often take with them the knowledge and skills needed to understand the systems in place, and newcomers sometimes struggle to adapt and locate the information they need.
For all these reasons, and regardless of the size of
your association, it is never too early to implement a customer relationship
management (CRM) system.
What can a CRM do for an association?
The good news is that there are CRMs for every budget and skill set. You don't need to be the head of a Fortune 500 company to take advantage of a system that brings together your contact details, donation details, marketing data and all fundraising reports in a single platform. and fund management. This article takes a look at the benefits and features of the best CRM software based on budgets and needs.
A CRM system can help you to:
Win time
Ever tried to calculate how long it will take you to train a new recruit or volunteer? To prepare and launch an emailing? To determine and segment a demographic group to target in order to communicate more effectively?
CRM software can simplify all these tasks for you. Donors and volunteers can enter their contact information directly into an online form, and that data is then automatically added to your database and then segmented by defined demographic groups to send the right message to the right recipient.
Automating your email marketing is a great way to
simplify the management of your campaigns. Do you want to inform your
volunteers of an upcoming training? No problem. Invite your major donors to a
special event? Consider it done. No more long manual searches through long lists
of names which not only take a long time, but which are inevitably imperfect
and risk seeing certain essential contributors missing.
Improve your relationships with your donors (and
attract new ones)
Donors always end up getting tired. When an association regularly asks for its contribution from the same person, it risks reducing the retention rate and even permanently discouraging it. Contributor management is an art and includes making your message prevail among all others.
With an appropriate CRM system, you can personalize your communications based on the target audience. It is a way to segment your donors in order to create specific campaigns, adapted to a defined audience according to precise characteristics such as previous donations, age, geographical area, etc.
This allows you to align your message with the
priorities of a group, instead of constantly bombarding your entire database
with emails that do not concern them. Depending on whether a recipient has been
giving for years or just starting to care about your cause, you have access to
the stats you need to build a strong relationship.
Simplify your daily operations
To become a leader in the nonprofit sector, you have to take on a variety of roles. CRM software can automate many manual tasks, such as creating email campaigns or transferring data from one app to another.
A suitable CRM offers the necessary functionalities to simplify work methodologies and relationships between all your teams. You can, for example, use it to customize email templates for electronic newsletters, landing pages or other communication tools.
Plus, a CRM can integrate all your other productivity
tools, like Zoom, Calendly, DocuSign, Qu ickbooks or Microsoft Office 365 or
Google Workspace. In this way, your CRM application communicates with the rest
of your systems, and you can, for example, launch a Zoom call or request the
signature of a document directly from your interface.
How to choose a CRM suitable for the non-profit
sector?
Most nonprofits are often forced to be guided by price. But how do you find a CRM that offers the features you want without charging you for lots of unnecessary frills?
There is no number one CRM, the important thing is to find a CRM that suits you. Take the time to think about your daily tasks: organizing events, managing volunteers, communication and fundraising activities, awareness campaigns, managing online donations and social networks... You really think you will find a single CRM that do all that?
And you're right ! Let’s start by listing what you are
looking for (applicable to all associations, regardless of their size or the
cause they defend):
Personalization features — your CRM should think like you
This type of functionality allows you to optimize your
communication efforts, by always sending the right message, to the right
audience and at the right time. You can also use it to make your association
stand out with personalized campaigns and landing pages, with ready-to-use yet
easy-to-modify templates.
Marketing automation — to simplify your campaigns and maximize results
Automating your marketing is key to keeping in touch
with donors, volunteers, and the general public. It's not just about sending
automated responses via email and social media, but rather preparing a
communication flow to engage all your stakeholders. And it's also a way to
identify the most effective initiatives, eliminate those that are useless, and
improve your processes in order to meet (or exceed!) your objectives.
Centralized data management — to better understand your patrons
Simplify your daily work by bringing together in a
single interface all the data concerning your donors, your volunteers, your
sponsors, your grants... Centralized data management allows you to have an overview
of all of each relationship. You can then reconnect, through new campaigns or
by directly contacting a volunteer or donor you no longer hear from.
Real-time statistics — to prepare financial or progress reports
Closely track every benefactor or grant opportunity
and immediately access your campaign data and results. Real-time statistics
allow you to quickly identify your most effective campaigns in order to
reproduce only the strategies that work.
Easy-to-learn interface — for fast, efficient results
To enable your team to manage projects and priorities
well, a new application or technology must be intuitive and easy to learn. When
a new member joins your team, they need to be able to quickly learn how to use
your systems.
Integration with other applications — to save time every day
As already mentioned above, your CRM must easily
integrate your other software and utilities, such as Microsoft Outlook or
Gmail. This is also valid for online payment or donation management
applications, which are closely linked to your communication campaigns. This is
a way to limit errors and not waste your time switching from one app to
another. A good integration between your software allows you to connect all
your apps and ensure that all your data is up to date.
Scalable subscriptions — your software will always be up to snuff
It is essential for an association not to pay for
features that it does not need. Hence the importance of scalable rates, adapted
to your needs from the start. You may need a basic plan, or a more
comprehensive subscription that includes marketing automation. Either way, it's
important to find a CRM solution that can adapt to your changing needs.
Act! meets all the needs of non-profit associations
Act! is committed to giving all associations access to the appropriate features to help them connect with their audience and succeed in their action. Find out how a simple, yet effective customer relationship management solution can help you champion your cause, with communication and data tracking tools focused on donor and volunteer outreach, and features aimed at simplify donations and collections or even obtaining grants.
Act! is easy to customize, offers a mobile version,
and includes integration with many apps to adapt to the way you work. We are
committed to meeting your most unique needs, regardless of your budget or the
size of your organization.