Why Nonprofits Should Use A CRM? [7 Reasons]

Imagine a nonprofit organization, dedicated to a worthy cause, fueled by passionate individuals striving to make a difference in the world.

Their mission is noble, and their goals are ambitious, but they face a common challenge: how to effectively manage their relationships, engage donors, and maximize their impact.

Enter the world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into the reasons why nonprofits should embrace CRM and eventually tell you about some best nonprofit CRMs you can use.

Let’s begin.

What Is A CRM for Nonprofits?

A CRM is not just a software tool. It’s a strategic approach to creating valuable experiences for your customers and prospects.

It’s a way of understanding who they are, what they need, and how you can help them achieve their goals. A CRM for non profits helps you connect the dots between your data, your content, and your actions.

It helps you deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time, on the right channel.

A CRM is how you build trust, loyalty, and advocacy for your brand.

Why Should Nonprofits Care?

CRM for non profit is an invaluable asset.

It helps them understand their constituents, improve communication and engagement, streamline operations, drive donor retention and acquisition, measure impact, and make strategic decisions.

By adopting CRM practices, nonprofits can build meaningful relationships, increase their effectiveness, and achieve their goals.

7 Reasons Why Nonprofits Should Use A CRM!

Let’s look at some of the reasons to use a CRM for non profits.

1/ Streamlined Donor Management

Donor management is one of the most painful challenges for any nonprofit.

From tracking a donor’s activities to retaining it after they give is easier said than done.

Chirasree Bose from Donorbox says,

“One of the worst fundraising challenges nonprofits have to face is ineffective donor management. As a result, their donor communications and relationships suffer, eventually ending up in loads of lost donors. It is essential for nonprofits to integrate fundraising with a good CRM tool and keep track of all donor activities.”

A nonprofit organization collects tons of donor data. Managing, refining, and processing all of it gets complicated if you’re not using the right suite of tools.

• All your donor data in one place: Using a CRM for non profit, you can keep all your nonprofit data in one place. This way, you don’t need to open multiple tabs on your browser to access different data. You can do it all in a single tab.
• Better communication and engagement with donors: If you use a CRM for non profit, you’ll be able to talk to your donors through personalized emails, SMS, calls, etc. On top of that, the CRM collects all the relevant data about every record which can help you personalize your conversations which brings us to the next point.
• Personalized donor communication: A CRM for non profit gives you all your donor data at your fingertips, helping you know your donors inside out. This helps you personalize your communications for better results.

2/ Integration and Automation

A CRM cannot perform all actions on its own. So, to power it up with additional features, you can connect it with an integration.

• Seamless integration with other systems: The best nonprofit CRMs support a range of integration. For example, MakeWebBetter has created an integration called Automated Coupons that lets users create and share personalized discount codes with HubSpot CRM automatically.
• Automation of routine tasks and workflows: At a nonprofit organization, you perform redundant tasks each day like sending welcome/thank you emails, taking following, and delivering donation invoices. Using a CRM for non profits, you can automate all of it to offload your team’s burden.

3/ Enhanced Fundraising Efforts

By using a CRM for nonprofits, you can empower your fundraising while making it effortless.

Precisely speaking, a CRM helps you at:

• Donor segmentation for better targeting: Using a Nonprofit CRM software, you can create lists to segment your donors as per their behavior. For example, you can enroll all your donors who didn’t give in the last 1 year in a list called “Sleeping donors”. Adding all your donors to a list like that will help you plan a better marketing campaign that will encourage them to give again.
• Automation of repetitive donation tasks: As a nonprofit, there are tons of tasks you need to work on. But not all of them require manual intervention. In such cases, you can use a CRM for nonprofits to automate those tasks. For example, you can automate sending a thank you email to your donors once they make a successful donation.
• In-depth tracking of your donation campaigns: A CRM gives you a complete report of your nonprofit campaigns allowing you to track every nitty gritty of your efforts. This helps you better understand what your donation efforts are resulting in.

4/ Effective Volunteer Management

85% of volunteers donate to the nonprofits they volunteer for. Simply put, there are millions of people who volunteer and eventually donate. Managing their data gets difficult if you don’t have the right suite of tools. But with the best nonprofit CRM software, this becomes easier.

But using a CRM can help you at different levels like:

• Centralized volunteer database: With a CRM for nonprofits, you can store all your volunteer information at a centralized location. This makes it easy to view, track, and act on it the way you want.
• Streamlined communication with volunteers: You can create your emails and schedule them to automate your communications with your volunteers using nonprofit CRM software.

5/ Improved Donation Metrics

A nonprofit CRM arms you with tools to let you improve as well as track your organization’s metrics. This helps you figure out the good, bad and the ugly of your nonprofit.

• Better Lifetime Value & Donor Retention: You can use a CRM to engage donors and deliver more personalized content. By doing this, you can increase your donors lifetime value and increase chances of retaining them.
• Improved conversions of your donors: 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized. By using CRM for nonprofits, you can create personalized content that appeals to your customers and increases conversions.

6/ Financial Management & Invoicing

You can also simplify your financial management and invoicing processes using nonprofit CRM software. Here’s how a CRM does that:

• Payment integrations: A CRM comes with multiple integrations that help you perform additional activities with the platform. For example, if you want to collect donations with PayPal, you can use a payment gateway integration just like MakeWebBetter has created a PayPal integration with HubSpot CRM called FormPay.
• Automated invoicing and follow ups: You can create workflows in your nonprofit CRM software to deliver invoices after your donors make payments. Also, you can send follow up emails to your donors to remind them about their dues or donations.

7/ Data Analytics and Reporting

Tracking data gives you the right insights for better decision making.

And a CRM gives you complete control over how you want to create and present your nonprofit data. This gives you better insight into how you want to track and organize your data.

• Insightful reports for wise decision making: You can create detailed reports to track meaningful KPIs and performance for better decision making.
• Customized reporting and dashboards: You can create customized reports and dashboards to get a better view of your performance.

For example, MakeWebBetter has created a HubSpot app called FormPay that allows you to collect donations in HubSpot CRM with any payment gateway.

The app comes with a detailed dashboard for transactions, revenue, and order reporting. And if you need more granular data, you can create your custom reports in HubSpot CRM.

What is The Best CRM for Nonprofits?

There is no one-fits-all solution. But some of the best CRM for nonprofits are:

Monday.com

Monday.com is a flexible and user-friendly platform that specializes in remote collaboration and project management. It has a pre-built template and support for nonprofits, as well as special discounts for qualifying organizations.

HubSpot

HubSpot offers a CRM with a range of marketing, sales, and service tools. It helps you store and track your donor data, create personalized engagement plans, automate email marketing, and integrate with popular software like MailChimp, Eventbrite, WooCommerce, and Stripe. HubSpot also offers discounts for eligible nonprofits making it the best nonprofit CRM software.

Bloomerang

Bloomerang is a platform that focuses on donor retention and engagement. It helps you track donor interactions, preferences, and loyalty. Also, it offers email marketing tools, online giving pages and forms, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools. It is also one of the best nonprofit CRM software you can use.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

Salesforce’s nonprofit cloud leverages the power of Salesforce to help you manage your entire mission. It helps you create personalized engagement plans, track donor movements, generate new groups of potential donors, and manage gifts and donations.

CiviCRM

CiviCRM is an open-source platform that is highly customizable and scalable. It helps you manage your contacts, memberships, events, contributions, mailings, campaigns, and reports. It also integrates with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Backdrop. This is an underrated but one of the best nonprofit CRM to use.

Is It Worth Investing in A CRM for Nonprofits?

The age-old question: Well, let me tell you a tale of insights and possibilities.

Assume you’re a nonprofit, striving to make a difference in the world, armed with a passionate team and a noble cause. But alas, you find yourself juggling a myriad of tasks: managing donors, engaging volunteers, tracking fundraising efforts, and nurturing relationships with supporters. It’s a delicate dance, one that requires efficiency, coordination, and a touch of magic.

Enter the CRM for nonprofits. It’s more than just a database; it’s a gateway to deeper connections, strategic insights, and streamlined operations.

With a CRM, you can say goodbye to scattered spreadsheets and crumpled notes. Instead, you’ll have a centralized hub where you can store and organize critical information about your donors, volunteers, and partners.

Above all, its ability to enhance your relationships is praiseworthy. You can track interactions, document conversations, and foster a sense of genuine connection. It’s the stuff that builds loyalty, trust, and a community that will stand by your side through thick and thin.

And let’s not forget the power of data-driven decision-making. A CRM empowers you to analyze trends, measure the impact of your initiatives, and fine-tune your strategies.

You can identify your most valuable supporters, understand which campaigns yield the best results, and optimize your fundraising efforts.

Final Words

In this blog, we have discussed why nonprofits should use CRM by addressing its benefits.

A CRM can help nonprofits streamline their workflows, improve their communication, increase their fundraising, and enhance their impact. By adopting a CRM system, nonprofits can save time and resources, gain valuable insights, and sharpen their strategies for better outcomes.

If you’re a nonprofit leader looking to enhance your organization’s performance and reach your mission and goals, we encourage you to explore the best nonprofit CRMs suitable for your needs and budget.

A CRM can be a transformative tool for your nonprofit, enabling you to make a bigger difference in the world. Don’t miss this opportunity to take your nonprofit to the next level with a CRM.