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What Features Should A Nonprofit Donor CRM Have

Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges and making a difference in people's lives. To achieve their missions, they rely heavily on donations, awards and grants, events, and volunteer contributions. However, managing the operations of a nonprofit can be challenging, especially for large international nonprofits. That's where a donor CRM comes in.
January 14, 2023
Nonprofit CRM

A donor CRM, short for customer relationship management, is a software solution that helps nonprofits manage their donor relationships, from tracking donations to engaging with volunteers. However, not all CRMs are created equal, and nonprofits need to be careful when choosing a CRM that fits their needs.

So what are the essential features a nonprofit donor CRM should have?

The Essentials

The three essential elements of a CRM for nonprofit use are fundraising, constituent management, and data management and analytics. This helps nonprofits streamline the daily essential operations and to keep track of revenue, donors, and data all in one place while maintaining donor relationships and finding new donors.

Fundraising

A successful CRM for nonprofit use has the ability to compile and manage data to effectively increase fundraising activities and revenue.

Robust donation tracking

Donations are the core of a nonprofit organization, and tracking them is critical. MISSION CRM provides comprehensive tracking for donations, enabling nonprofits to monitor fundraising activities, donor trends, and their overall impact all in one place. MISSION CRM helps you make data-driven decisions that enhance your donor engagement and increases revenue.

Gift Processing

The ability to process donations and gifts in an efficient and timely manner is important to maintaining donor relationships and increasing your revenue. MISSION CRM allows you to process gifts from international sources through secure transactions. Whether one-time or recurring gift-giving, MISSION CRM has the ability to process and manage gifts seamlessly.

Constituent Management

Managing donors, volunteers and members are all important for a successful nonprofit, however, the daily management of relationships can be time-consuming. Having a CRM that works to streamline your communication needs is important for nonprofits.

Donor Management

MISSION CRM makes communication easier by providing a holistic view of donors, volunteers and members. This allows you to leverage the data to communicate with your donors to increase your fundraising and revenue potential. Harnessing this data helps you segment and steward donors with the automated assignment of gift-giving levels and even helps you identify where your potential donors are. This data helps you create more involvement and increase your donations through data-driven decisions.

Automated communication and outreach tools

Nonprofits need to engage donors regularly, and automated communication tools can make this process seamless. MISSION CRM offers automated receipting and acknowledgements and is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing so you can seamlessly communicate to increase engagement and donor retention. Having a seamless solution for donor engagement keeps donors happy, helps develop a lifetime relationship with your donors, and ensures the best donor service from your staff.

Volunteer management

Volunteers are the backbone of many nonprofit organizations, and managing them effectively is essential for the best volunteer experience. Volunteers are a valuable resource for nonprofits, and a great donor CRM can help you manage them effectively. MISSION CRM is proud to implement Microsoft’s Volunteer Management and Engagement products which enable an organization to recruit, train, and retain volunteers. Moreover, not only do volunteers give their time and energy in support of your mission, but research also indicates they are more likely to become advocates and donors. When combined with the MISSION CRM system, your organization can now have a full, 360-degree view of your volunteers and supporters in one place.

Data Management & Analytics

Compiling large and important data sets for nonprofit use in an efficient and timely manner is a key feature of CRMs for nonprofit use.

Configurable dashboards and real-time reporting

Every nonprofit has unique metrics and reporting needs, and a CRM that can be configured to reflect this is essential. Achieve a holistic view of your development and fundraising efforts with our suite of pre-built Power BI reports which track key metrics in real-time so you can make data-driven decisions.

Secure data management

Nonprofit organizations manage sensitive data such as donor information, financial records, and volunteer data. Security is crucial, and nonprofits need a CRM that can provide robust data management features. MISSION CRM is a managed solution built upon the Dynamics 365 CRM platform, which is hosted by Microsoft. This approach ensures nonprofits receive the best-in-class enterprise-scale infrastructure, security and uptime from Microsoft.

When you’re on your digital transformation journey, take time to think about the essential features a nonprofit donor CRM should provide. With MISSION CRM, nonprofit organizations can efficiently manage their donor relationships and focus on rising to meet their mission. Using MISSION CRM allows you to make data-driven decisions that help with your fundraising potential and constituent management.