Are you looking for ways to revolutionize your fundraising? Is your donor management system not keeping up with your organization?
MISSION CRM met with the nonprofit technology experts at Heller Consulting, to discuss how nonprofits can improve their fundraising efforts and overcome the challenges they face with Raiser’s Edge.
Older fundraising products like Raiser’s Edge have failed to keep up with the growing needs of global nonprofits. Here we’ll discuss the common challenges we hear from nonprofits, how Microsoft’s productivity tools benefit nonprofits and how MISSION CRM integrates with Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofits to create a platform specifically to help accelerate the momentum of nonprofits.
Why Are Nonprofits Using Raiser’s Edge?
Raiser’s Edge established itself as a fundraising product for nonprofits in 1981. At the time they had a leading solution for nonprofit fundraising. Since then, the needs of nonprofits have evolved but Raiser’s Edge has not kept up. The 40+ years Raiser’s Edge has spent in the market has made them a familiar name among nonprofits and made some hesitant to switch despite not getting everything they need out of Raiser’s Edge.
What Are The Common Challenges with Raiser’s Edge?
At MISSION CRM, we often hear from nonprofit organizations who are thinking about moving from Raiser’s Edge and seeking options for a new home for their donor management, fundraising and marketing.
The common challenges Raiser’s Edge users face:
- Lack of innovation
- Lack of customization options
- Concerns regarding security
- Limited functionality
- Lack of integration and interoperability
“It hasn’t kept up with more modern and diversified ways of fundraising.” – Jett Winders, Director of Sales, Heller Consulting
These challenges are leading nonprofit organizations to seek out opportunities for new solutions.
Microsoft for Nonprofit: Products Versus Platform
As a nonprofit organization, you need tools that empower you to make the right decisions, strive for your goals and find solutions to your problems.
The legacy of Microsoft as a leading technology company and their investment in the nonprofit space has made Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit a leading platform which Heller Consulting recommends their clients consider when thinking about changing their nonprofit CRM and fundraising solutions.
The significant difference between Raiser’s Edge and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit is the idea of product versus platform. A product is a fixed tool that comes with limited customization options and does not integrate well with other products. Whereas a platform is an ecosystem which houses all the different products that are built to function together seamlessly and unifies your data in one place.
Raiser’s Edge is a product that helps nonprofit organizations process gifts, however, it is fixed and does not integrate well with the other tools your organization needs.
MISSION CRM is a donor management and fundraising product, built on Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit which is a platform. The Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit brings an array of products together designed for nonprofits including Microsoft’s Volunteer Management and Volunteer Engagement and MISSION CRM, alongside modern workplace products such as Teams, Outlook and SharePoint.
Where Does MISSION CRM Come In?
Our team has worked hard to learn from the challenges of the past in other ecosystems including Raiser’s Edge and Salesforce. This is why MISSION CRM decided to build the product on the Common Data Model for Nonprofit – the common language which speaks nonprofit and makes it interoperable with any other product either inside or outside the Microsoft platform.
“What really inspired the beginning of MISSION CRM was to build a better product on the world’s best technology platform.” – Tommy Spann, Director of Business Development, MISSION CRM
Microsoft has recently recognized our work to revolutionize volunteer management, fundraising, financials and reporting for nonprofits. This highlights that being built on Microsoft gives MISSION CRM’s users all the benefits of Microsoft’s products, in one platform without complicating or taking anything away from your data. This means you can spend more time fundraising and accelerating your mission rather than wrangling data together from different sources.
What Does MISSION CRM Do Differently?
We give you the power to make data-driven decisions for your nonprofit. With MISSION CRM we deliver a to deliver a real-time and unified view of donors, fundraising and financials in one place. Instead of trying to manually piece data from disparate systems together – MISSION CRM connects the dots for you so you can see all of the touchpoints and transactions from donors and understand how to attract, retain and grow them.
With MISSION CRM you can find a home for all your mission-critical operations on the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit platform. You can use Microsoft’s Volunteer Management and Engagement products, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing and any other built on or integrate with the platform to bring your data into one place, so you can distill insights and make data-driven decisions for your organization.
To take control of your data and start making decisions to accelerate your momentum toward your goals, contact us to begin the process.