When you consider the most valuable aspect of your nonprofit organization, what comes to mind? You probably immediately think about the organization's big-picture objectives and mission statements, what they mean to you personally, and how achieving them can positively impact others in various ways.

Of course, you know that to achieve these objectives, you are heavily reliant on all of those supporting your nonprofit, your "constituents" in which you place your trust, confidence, and respect to help you build and sustain your organization's forward momentum. Depending on your organization, these constituents can be made up of donors, funders, volunteers, board members, staff, and other organizations or individuals who help support your nonprofit's financial and operational needs.

But establishing and maintaining these critical relationships requires keen attention and follow-through, both of which are easy to lose sight of as your nonprofit grows, as does your list of active constituents. This is where the value of CRM comes into play.

What is A CRM SysteM?

The acronym CRM can mean different things for nonprofit and for-profit organizations. While CRM stands for Customer Relationship Manager in traditional business spaces, the term refers to Constituent Relationship Management in nonprofit organizations.

A Constituent Relationship Management system or solution is a tool that nonprofit organizations can use to track, monitor, and improve engagements with all their relevant contacts. This is achieved by providing an on-premise or cloud-based database solution for collecting and storing your constituent information, streamlining targeted and personalized communications, optimizing fundraising capabilities, and automating various workflows and processes.

Should Your Nonprofit Invest in A CRM?

Whether or not you choose to invest in a CRM tool is entirely up to you, the size of your nonprofit, and the organization's goals when it comes to scale and sustainability. However, for many nonprofits, CRMs have become less of an option and more necessary, especially when improving engagement, maximizing fundraising efforts, and improving organizational efficiencies.

Maintaining relevant and impactful relationships should be one of your primary goals when growing your nonprofit. While keeping yourself organized through email clients, social media platforms, and digital calendars might get you to a certain point with this initiative, new opportunities will quickly dissolve without using the right tools and systems.

CRM solutions allow you to manage all of your constituent relationships in one unified platform, eliminating manual and repetitive processes while being able to focus on establishing closer relationships with supporters.

How to Choose the Right Nonprofit CRM

If you've been considering investing in a CRM platform for your nonprofit, it's important to note that there is no shortage of options to choose from that range in all types of sizes, feature sets, and price points.

Companies like Salesforce, DotDrives, Bloomerang, Neon CRM, and Little Green Light are only a few of the many CRM companies with a strong reputation for helping nonprofits improve their donor management and constituent engagement strategies. But while these and other similar solutions may look like they're the best option for your organization, there are some important considerations you should make when choosing the right CRM for your nonprofit.

Profile Tracking

Most CRM platforms will have some type of relationship-tracking functionality. However, you'll want to ensure that the system you choose allows you to create custom profiles and fields relevant to your constituent types. While having the ability to store basic information on board members, donors, funders, clients, etc., is necessary, the platform you choose should be flexible enough to be customized to your nonprofit's unique relationship profiles.

Donation Management

An invaluable feature of certain nonprofit CRM systems is the ability to simplify the donor management process. This includes proactive outreach campaigns, auto-generated donation tax receipts, document generation and storage capabilities, and other relevant features useful for managing close relationships with current and potential donors or funders.

Event Planning and Coordination

Certain CRM platforms have given organizations the ability to plan and execute fundraising events and other critical nonprofit functions. Having all of your constituents managed in one place is more efficient when sending invitations, managing RSVPs, and scheduling follow-ups.

Reporting and Analytics

Part of improving your strategic planning process has to do with extracting relevant data from your relationship history and creating actionable insights that can help you make informed decisions for your nonprofit. You want to find a CRM platform that can provide you with these deep insights through transparent donor reports, donation trends, and transaction and payment tracking.

Simplicity

An often overlooked feature is how simple the CRM is to use. If you get a souped-up platform at your fingertips but you’re only using 5% of the functionality, you and your team are less likely to actually use it. Make sure your CRM makes often-used functions simple and straightforward to use and get value from.

Automation

One great feature of many CRM systems is the ability to automate many daily workflows and processes through useful native integrations. Every CRM differs, so find the one that streamlines as many third-party services and solutions as possible, giving you the ability to use one source of truth when driving communications with your constituents.

Affordability

Of course, we couldn't talk about how to find the CRM platform that's right for you without talking about cost. As with all tools and technology, CRM solutions can vary considerably in affordability; find one that offers you a sustainable pricing model.

Pricing models for CRM platforms can be formatted and tiered in several ways, including by user count, the number of emails sent per month, required database size, or the level of integration you're needing. Again, it's vital that you consider your organization's needs now and in the future and choose a platform that you're able to get the highest return on investment.

Setting Yourself Up For Success

While finding the right CRM tool is important, sourcing the right onboarding partners that can help you get the most value out of it is vital.

CRM platforms can be an invaluable tool for any nonprofit, especially as you begin to grow your number of constituents and focus on creating more automation in your day-to-day routine. However, remember that CRM tools are simply that — "tools." In order to get the most value from these solutions, invest the necessary time and effort into adequate training and customization.

Finding the right CRM solution for your nonprofit, and teaming up with the right partners who can help you extract the most value out of the solution, will maximize constituent relationships and create a sustainable path for your nonprofit's success.

We just launched our online strategic planning course called START! START provides organizations with a practical strategic plan that they can successfully achieve. Learn more about how START can transform your organization.