9 CRM Essentials to Cook Up Success
Above and beyond the ability to track donor and donation data, there are 9 key ways your CRM needs to work for you.
While nonprofits everywhere would likely rejoice if there were, there is no one secret sauce to fundraising. Every organization uses a different recipe to achieve its fundraising goals. What comes out beautifully in one kitchen can be a disaster in another.
Yet even as organizations individualize their processes and plans, like in the kitchen, there are certain common tools of the trade. As every kitchen has a refrigerator and a stove, so too must every nonprofit have a donor database or Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system. You can’t cook up success without one.
Thread does a lot of work helping our partners to choose and/or use their CRMs effectively. In this work, we’ve come to see that above and beyond recording donor and donation data, there are nine essentials a properly working CRM possesses. These essentials are what separate a true CRM from an Excel spreadsheet, and they are critical to creating fundraising recipes that keep your donor community coming back for more.
#1: The ability to record notes on relationships, not just gifts.
Fundraising is relational work, not transactional. While you absolutely need to know the details of the gifts you receive, it’s equally important, if not more so, to know the details of the relationship that produced that gift.
#2: The ability to schedule future tasks.
A working CRM doesn’t just record what already happened. It records what needs to happen next. Using your CRM to plan and manage future work is the sophistication you need to aim for.
#3: The ability to integrate with other software or to provide multiple functions internally.
If your CRM can’t integrate with your online donation processor and email marketing software, or it doesn’t cover those functions internally, then it’s a CRM dinosaur.
#4: The ability to be cloud-based.
Long gone are the days where your CRM software is local only to your computer. If your CRM isn’t cloud-based, it’s time to get your head out of the sand.
#5: The ability to allow for multiple users in the organization with different permission levels.
Not all CRM users in your organization use the system the same or have the same information access needs. Do not compromise on a system that can’t differentiate user permissions.
#6: The ability to provide some sort of support package.
It’s a guarantee that at some point you will have questions about how to do something or configure something in your CRM. Your CRM should offer some sort of support package so that you can get your questions answered.
#7: The ability to create custom forms for data intake.
It’s an obvious thing to say, but there is more than one type of data. Your CRM should have the ability to create different intake forms for different types of data.
#8: The ability to secure data both internally and externally.
Data security and privacy is a major and serious concern for donors. Your CRM needs to have top-notch data privacy and protection capabilities so that your donors’ personal information is well safeguarded.
#9: The ability to provide a balance of free and paid training for end users.
Using a CRM is an exercise in lifelong learning. Great systems are those that give you options about how to learn, be that through free forums and blogs, or via paid trainings. If your system only permits one type of learning, that’s a red flag.
If you want more explanation on any of these essentials, or help figuring out how to choose and/or use your CRM, let us know! We can help define your use case, understand and vet your choices, and make a final selection that sets you up for long-term success. Drop us a line at hello@threadstrategies.com to start the conversation about cooking up a CRM feast for your nonprofit.