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How Your CRM Can Improve Daily Operations and Tasks

How Your CRM Can Improve Daily Operations and Tasks

The following is a guest post from DNL OmniMedia.

Starting a nonprofit requires establishing your mission, determining your organization’s structure, ensuring you have the necessary resources to operate, and filing important legal compliances. You will also need to determine what your daily operations will be and what tools you need to facilitate them.

Introduction

For many nonprofits, technology is essential for creating an efficient and organized workflow. Specifically, nonprofits benefit from investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. CRMs are used by both for- and nonprofit organizations, and they provide charitable organizations with the ability to manage their philanthropic programs, fundraising efforts, and other internal operations. 

While nonprofits can function without a CRM, organizations looking to scale up, improve their efficiency, and keep multiple ongoing projects organized should seriously consider investing in one. 

To help your organization understand this core piece of nonprofit technology and its importance, this guide will walk through three core ways a CRM can transform your operations for the better.

Automate Routine Tasks

Managing a nonprofit requires handling many routine, repetitive tasks that are time-consuming but necessary. For example, this includes sending donation receipts, creating volunteer shifts, and migrating data from one platform to another.

Your CRM can significantly speed up or outright automate several of these types of tasks. Try using your CRM to:

  • Send messages. Your CRM’s messaging tools should allow you to create and save message templates, letting you quickly send personalized messages to all of your supporters. You can also set up automatic messages to trigger in response to various actions a supporter might take. This might include thank-you emails for donating or a welcome message for signing up for your newsletter.
  • Create alerts. For tasks that do need a human touch, use your CRM to create automatic alerts. These alerts may be for basic schedule management, such as reminders to check in with specific team members before a deadline. Alerts can also be triggered in response to situations that require immediate attention. For example, if a supporter fills out a satisfaction survey and indicates they had a negative experience, your CRM would alert the team member responsible for donor retention so they can take action quickly.
  • Recordkeeping. Nonprofit recordkeeping is essential for managing your finances and ensuring you are able to properly report to state and federal agencies. Your CRM can help you organize your internal records by keeping them stored in one centralized location and making automatic updates, such as systemizing your bookkeeping system. 

Certain CRMs with AI capabilities can offer even more automation. For example, some CRMs can analyze donor profiles and make recommendations for when to reach out to the donor and how much to request in your next fundraising ask. For even small organizations, these capabilities can speed up your workflow and allow your team to refocus on tasks that require a human touch.

Improve Project Management

Your CRM shapes how your team manages and completes their daily tasks. Some CRMs, such as the Salesforce CRM and Blackbaud CRM, allow nonprofits to fully customize their system. This allows them to build unique workflows and project management processes, which can be especially useful for nonprofits with multiple branches or remote employees.

Use your CRM to:

  • Create and assign tasks. Create digital records for various projects at your nonprofit. These might include assigning your staff case files for individual constituents or breaking up a larger project into individual components. An accessible digital record also allows you to identify who at your nonprofit is responsible for any given assignment quickly, improving accountability.
  • Build a project calendar. Nonprofits have to manage multiple projects at a time, and your CRM can help you build a schedule to ensure your deadlines are met. For example, you may need to apply for a grant, complete your Form 990, and prepare for your upcoming summer fundraising season all before May 15th. Your CRM can help allocate time for each of these projects and visualize your daily workload.
  • Track long-term projects. CRMs provide a consistent source of truth for your nonprofit, which is necessary for long-term projects. For example, a capital campaign is a major undertaking that spans multiple months and will likely require most of your team to lend a hand at some point. With your CRM, you can break down your capital campaign into individual, manageable steps while still keeping track of the bigger picture.

A streamlined project management system ensures your nonprofit is organized, and all of your staff understand their day-to-day responsibilities. If you have unique task management processes you need to account for, consider investing in a customizable CRM.

Manage Your Data

Nonprofits gather an extensive amount of data about their donors, programs, and internal finances. Your CRM provides a centralized hub for you to store all of this information, preventing data silos and ensuring relevant data can be found with ease. 

CRMs provide the following data management features: 

  • Create reports and analytics. Nearly all CRMs provide reports and analytics tools, allowing you to get a quick overview of your nonprofit via a dashboard view and dive deep into specifics by creating reports. Many CRMs provide templates for common types of reports in addition to filters that allow you to design customized reports. 
  • Integrate multiple solutions into one system. If your nonprofit currently uses multiple separate nonprofit management tools, you are already aware of how data can become siloed in different systems. Integrate all of your software into one centralized platform to compile your data and compare information collected by various tools.
  • Manage data long-term. As mentioned, tracking long-term projects is essential for nonprofits, particularly if you experience a significant turnover rate. Use your CRM to maintain consistent records. This might include documenting your relationship with a legacy donor for over a decade, monitoring developments in your community to measure your impact, and maintaining records of every Form 990 you’ve filed for transparency.
  • Establish procedures to create consistent data flow. Along with integrating your system, establish practices for inputting data into your CRM. This might include putting restrictions on the information supporters can enter through front-end forms to reduce receiving unclear or useless data, as well as standardizing data entry practices for both your team and external contractors who use your CRM.

If you need assistance cleaning up your data, consider partnering with a nonprofit consultant. While your team can oversee your data clean-up, hiring an external partner to handle ongoing maintenance can be more cost-effective than bringing on a new employee. If you choose to work with a contractor, keep careful records of their services so you can properly report it on required compliance forms. 

Conclusion

Time is one of your nonprofit’s most valuable assets, and your CRM can free up your team through automation, improved project management, and more consistent data management. Assess your nonprofit’s current technological needs, and begin searching for a system with the customizability needed for your operations.

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