When your organization started — with noble intentions and a small donor pool — an Excel spreadsheet was probably the perfect place to manage your data. Now, however, those spreadsheets are overworked and busting at the seams. It’s time to invest in nonprofit CRM software and enjoy its many benefits. But blindly rushing into a purchase isn’t wise. That’s why we put together a list of the main nonprofit CRM features to look for.
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The right nonprofit customer relationship management (CRM) system revolutionizes the way your organization works.
Think about the upgrade like switching from a flip phone to a smartphone. Both work as phones, but the flip phone’s abilities basically end at making and receiving calls. They work for the time being, but upgrading to a smartphone lets you check your bank statements, text your spouse and tinker with your fantasy football lineup.
You’ll feel the same way about your nonprofit CRM. It makes you more efficient and provides a wider range of capabilities.
In this article, we’ll explore 11 essential nonprofit CRM software features and outline the best solutions. Let’s jump in!
Article Roadmap
- Key Features
- Other Considerations
- Best Nonprofit CRM Software
- Next Steps
The 11 Key Features
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems play a crucial role in the nonprofit sector by helping organizations manage interactions with donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders. Here are the 11 key nonprofit CRM features:
1. Donor Profiles
In an ideal world, nonprofits would instantly have any relevant donor information they need. While that’s not possible, technology helps.
Traditionally, nonprofits gather donor information as they build relationships. Organizations can even perform wealth screenings to fill in any gaps in data. However, that information is useless if it isn’t properly stored, frequently updated and easily accessible to the people who need it.
That’s where your CRM enters the equation. It allows you to fully manage the information about each of your supporters. Here are a few examples:
- Basic Information: Store personal details for all your donors and quickly make updates when items like mailing addresses change.
- Custom Fields: Input extra information for a complete picture of your donors and keep tabs on the specifics that are the most important for your organization.
- Giving Records: Easily view each donor’s giving history, including the type (donations, event registrations, pledges, etc.) and whether the giving occurred online or offline.
- Groups: Track which groups donors are part of and update as necessary.
Benefits of Donor Profiles
With your donor management technology, your staff will have no problem:
- Tracking all constituent data you receive
- Keeping tabs on fundraising via organizational calendars
- Monitoring tasks assigned to team members
- Recording and tracking interactions with donors
- Universally accessing donor data
Dashboard View of a Donor Profile. Source
It’s easy to build a relationship with a donor and forget to track it. Individual fundraising team members know key donor information, but if they aren’t available, another staff member will need to take the reins.
If you have a CRM managing donor data, there’s no need to worry about a new fundraiser taking on the role. Valuable details and notes have already been downloaded from the previous fundraiser’s brain and are waiting in the donor database.
2. Donor Relationship Management
Convincing someone to hand over money to your nonprofit isn’t a spring picnic. Trust is a critical factor in financial decisions. Nurture trust and cultivate relationships with donors by tracking interactions and scheduling tasks to follow up.
Donor relationship management should enable:
- Viewing past communication
- Automating fundraising receipts
- Creating and scheduling tasks
- Thanking donors
- Sending follow-ups and personalized emails
- Nurturing a sustainer program
Track and Schedule Interactions with Donors. Source
Benefits of Donor Relationship Management
Scrolling through multiple spreadsheets and files to access past donations and interactions is so 2008. With a little help from your donor relationship module, you can access past communications and donor activity to personalize and automate communication.
Another perk is better visibility into the stage donors are at in the giving cycle so you can set up applicable tasks to push them over the line.
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3. Reporting Capabilities
Your CRM not only keeps track of any donor details that you directly input, but it also seamlessly records and organizes data that gets funneled in from your various campaigns, emails and donation pages, as well as any other sources you need to monitor.
Modern business intelligence tools display data in visual, easy-to-digest ways via dashboards and reports. Often, the system will have options for configuring the layout based on which metrics you care about the most.
Reports let you analyze any data you need, including:
- Transactions, such as donations and funds
- Events, such as a list of attendees or the total amount of money raised
- Messages to your donor base, showing you how each campaign has performed
Benefits of Reporting
Instead of deciphering rows and rows of numbers in Excel, you can generate reports quickly and easily, using whatever key performance indicators (KPIs) you choose.
Track KPIs via the Dashboard. Source
More importantly, since you can track all of your donor data in the platform, you get the advantage of deep insights into your donors no matter the source of information.
You’ll be able to better personalize and target your outreach to increase the number of loyal donors and improve fundraising results!
4. Donation Management
The typical nonprofit CRM system will have tools or a dedicated module for handling the activities surrounding donations.
One of the main elements is web forms that allow donors to give. Often, you have the option to customize the look and feel of your forms with your organization’s logo, branding colors and other elements.
These forms offer a secure way for people to send money while acting as a receptacle for each donor’s information. When someone puts in their name, email and other personal details that you include on the form (yep, you can customize that, too), it’s automatically stored in your CRM.
Create Custom Donation Web Forms. Source
Benefits of Donation Management
If you want the ability to receive donations online, this feature makes it possible. You have an easy, accessible way for individuals to donate.
And since the system captures their information at the same time, you don’t need to handle manual data entry. You get more time for other tasks and don’t have to worry about the human errors that plague inputting data by hand.
The CRM stores the records of each donor, letting you quickly see who’s made donations, how many they’ve made and how much they give each time. Hello, streamlined fundraising!
And with tracking features, you’ll always have a clear picture of donations at any given point. This insight enables you to plan strategically and identify opportunities that will help your organization reach its fundraising goals.
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5. Automation
Automation might bring to mind an assembly plant, where high-tech robots churn out products like clockwork. The concept is actually similar, except in this case, CRM tools act as the robots and the products are the equivalent of your list of tasks.
You can build automated workflows so everyday tasks like data entry become less cumbersome. Email automation is one of the most beneficial aspects of your CRM.
Benefits of Automation
Doing things manually takes valuable time away from efforts you can spend elsewhere. Would you rather keep track of all your data by hand or prepare for your next fundraising event?
The beauty of a nonprofit CRM is that it removes a lot of the work for you and your team. Everything becomes more streamlined. Once time-consuming tasks happen in a fraction of the time.
For example, instead of sending a separate email to every person who’s registered for an upcoming event, you can write a single email, customize elements like the recipient’s name and send it out to everyone with a few clicks.
Email automation is also helpful for sending “Thank You” follow-ups after supporters give gifts, pledge money or register for events.
6. Event Planning
Event management software is a popular component in most nonprofit CRMs. It includes all the tools you need to put on a successful event, whether that’s tracking who’s attending, setting up different pricing options, processing payments or anything else.
Manage Events via the Dashboard. Source
Here are a few specific things you can do with event management features:
- Enable donors to register online
- Design event tickets
- Manage reservations
- Generate reports for analysis regarding event registration and finances
Benefits of Event Planning Tools
Fundraising events are a great addition to any fundraising agenda. Every type of nonprofit, from the smallest to the largest, can take advantage of event fundraisers to help maximize fundraising and steward your donors.
Events can make just the right splash in your annual campaign calendar, but they take skill and dedication to execute. A CRM can help with the planning and implementation side of things during your next event, freeing you and your staff to ensure everything runs smoothly.
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7. Fundraising Tools
Reducing your donors’ cognitive load should be fundraising 101. Increased online giving means providing users with easy, efficient payment tools – or risk losing donors to bad UX. In reality, this translates to:
- Setting up online fundraising campaigns
- Creating and adding payment pages to your website
- Enabling recurring billing
- Streamlining batch entry and settlement processes
Create Batch Gift Entries. Source
Benefits of Fundraising Tools
Fundraising tools make life easier for your donors and your staff. Streamline payment processing with recurring billing and batch entry, improve accessibility with payment pages and boost visibility with online fundraising campaigns.
8. Calendar and Alerts
You might have 99 problems, but staying on the same page with campaigns and communication won’t be one. Create and access a universal calendar with important campaign and event dates and tasks that team members need to complete. Send reminders and alerts to team members to complete human touchpoint tasks.
Benefits of Calendars and Alerts
Happy employees equal happy employers. A calendar on your dashboard keeps everyone accountable, improves collaboration and minimizes the chances of missing important dates.
Additionally, foster relationships with potential and current donors by sending reminders for email follow-ups, key events (like birthdays or anniversaries) and tasks with a human touch (like calls and handwritten thank you notes).
9. Mobile Access
You and your team are on the go a lot, hosting events, attending fundraisers and more. Having mobile access to your CRM will ensure you can always view and update the information you need, no matter where you are.
An internet-accessible device allows you to add contacts and notes to profiles, communicate with team members and search for past activity, so you don’t miss a beat.
View donor profiles remotely. Source
Benefits of Mobile Access
It’s a little redundant because it’s in the name, but the greatest perk of mobile access is, in fact, accessibility.
Here are a few other benefits you’ll enjoy:
- Boost insights into donors while in the field
- Minimize chances of forgetting to update donor information
- Streamline contact management
- Improve collaboration
10. List Segmentation
List segmentation allows you to divide your supporters into different groups. It’s a common feature in most CRMs and gives you a huge amount of flexibility.
One word of advice: your list segmentation will only be as powerful as the information stored in your CRM database. The more data you can compile for each profile, the better.
Here are a few ways you could group donors:
- Events they’ve attended
- Causes or projects they’re interested or involved in
- Their historical giving amounts
- Personal info such as age or location
Group Constituents Using Common Attributes. Source
Once you have the data, there’s really no limit on how you segment your list. It’s really up to you and should be according to your goals. For example, suppose 67 people have previously donated to a project that helps underprivileged children in Africa receive an education. In that case, it makes sense to put them into a list that sends news and gives them opportunities to donate to similar projects.
In addition, you don’t have to worry about limiting which groups you put supporters into. They can belong to multiple segmented lists based on their profile information.
Benefits of List Segmentation
As your donor pool grows, list segmentation will become a valuable part of your strategy.
You know as well as anyone that your donors aren’t all cut from the same cloth. They have different interests, motivations, favorite causes and so on. For that reason, you need to be able to tailor your campaigns and communications based on those unique factors.
Put yourself in the shoes of your supporters. If your passion was funding projects to bring sanitation to developing nations, and you always receive the latest updates, information about new funding opportunities and notifications, you’d feel more connected and invested, right? List segmentation lets you reach your donors with that same level of personalization.
The more customized and specific you can make your communications, the better chance you’ll have of retaining your donors.
Another benefit is the time you’ll save. The software does the heavy lifting for you. Once you set your criteria, it’ll pull in all the profiles that match those rules, which means you don’t have to pick through your entire list by hand when sending out communications.
11. Integrations
Integrations are a big deal in the software world. If you’re not familiar with the concept, integration is the process of combining two separate systems that otherwise aren’t able to “talk” to each other.
In essence, integration allows data to move from one place to another, like cars traveling on the Interstate between cities. Integration is useful because it gives users a connected environment of systems rather than one where each application is isolated.
Common methods for accomplishing integrations include API (application programming interface), middleware and iPaaS technology.
Nonprofit CRM software starts with a lot of capability, but adding integrations takes the system to the next level.
The specific integrations offered will vary by vendor, but here are a few examples:
- QuickBooks, for managing your finances and accounting
- Eventbrite, for offering tickets online and building events
- Double the Donation, for getting the most out of your fundraising
- Donor Search, for easily researching prospects
Benefits of Integrations
You might wonder why you need integrations if you already use some of the tools I mentioned above. The reason is simple: it’ll make your life easier.
Let’s take QuickBooks as an example. If you already have QuickBooks but don’t integrate it with your CRM, you’ll have to move all your CRM info, like invoices, payments, sales receipts, etc. into your accounting software by hand.
With integration, that transfer happens automatically. You’ll need to configure the setup so the systems can talk to each other without running into issues, but once you’ve done that, the systems will be linked. From there, it only takes a few clicks to sync your data.
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Other Features To Consider
As a bonus, here are some other helpful nonprofit CRM features you should be on the watch for:
- Scalability: Your CRM solution should have the ability to grow alongside your organization. Look for systems that allow you to add extra profiles and expand functionality to include tools you may need down the road.
- Volunteer Management: Volunteers play a vital role in your organization. You need tools to manage them effectively. Useful elements include features for tracking their time, putting together online volunteer forms and assigning them activities.
- Usability: The best nonprofit CRM in the world won’t do you any good if it’s not user-friendly. Make sure the solution you pick is intuitive and easy to use for everyone.
Best Nonprofit CRM Software
Now that you know what features to look for, we’ll give you the 411 on the best nonprofit CRM software out there.
Note: This list is based on popularity and user sentiment.
SignUpGenius
SignUpGenius is a cloud-based solution designed to streamline the daily operations of nonprofits with sign-up forms. It allows nonprofits to create custom forms to manage fundraisers, donation lists, donation collection and volunteer coordination. A mobile app enables users to send messages, access sign-ups, view reports and manage contacts remotely.
View Reports and Stats for Forms.
SignUpGenius Overview
| User Sentiment Score | 92% |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Company Size | S M L |
| Starting Price | $0, free version available |
Pros and Cons From User Reviews
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Company Size Suitability: S M L
Little Green Light
Little Green Light is an all-in-one, web-based system that simplifies nonprofit operations with data management, integrations and donor management. It provides a user-friendly UX, centralized donor profiles, personalized and customized forms and emails and in-depth reporting and analysis.
Other notable features include fundraising and volunteer management, constituent management and acknowledgments and receipts.
View Goals and Tasks in List and Calendar Formats.
Little Green Light Overview
| User Sentiment Score | 93% |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud and On Premis |
| Company Size | S M L |
| Starting Price | $45 |
Pros and Cons From User Reviews
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Company Size Suitability: S M L
Bloomerang
Bloomerang is a suite solution created primarily for nonprofit organizations to optimize donor relationships, events and fundraising. It focuses on donor engagement and retention through analytics and dashboards, an engagement meter, an interactive timeline, trend reports, regular data updates (NCOA, birth year, etc.), standard reports and affinity scorecards.
Additional capabilities include email marketing, social listening, grant tracking and volunteer management.
Generate Emails Using Templates or From Scratch.
SignUpGenius Overview
| User Sentiment Score | 94% |
| Free Trial | Still gathering data |
| Deployment | Cloud and On Premis |
| Company Size | S |
| Starting Price | $99 |
Pros and Cons From User Reviews
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Company Size Suitability: S M L
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Next Steps
The trick to succeeding with nonprofit CRM software is learning what it can do and how to use it effectively. By implementing software that contains the tools we’ve discussed, you’ll be well on your way to empowering your organization to do even more good.
That said, finding software isn’t easy. As a nonprofit, you need to spend time cultivating donor relationships, fundraising and a host of other critical activities, not sweating the details of your CRM search.
Our mission is to make that process less stressful and time-consuming. Get our free CRM comparison report to see key information about vendors that will help you navigate the market and find the solution that’s best for your organization. You can also include your top requirements to speed up your search.
Investing in a nonprofit CRM will make your organization more efficient. Let your CRM take care of the busy work so you and your staff are free to do the work that needs a human touch.
What nonprofit CRM features are most important to you? Let us know in the comments!
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