Charity organisations rely heavily on their relationships with donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries to achieve their missions.
A Charity CRM system can help them manage these relationships more effectively, and this beginner’s guide will provide an overview of what a Charity CRM is and how to get started with implementing one.
What does a CRM system do?
A CRM meaning a customer relationship management, system is where a non-profit organisation can store all its data in one place, rather than keeping it in separate files, spreadsheets, and systems.
This can include everything from a charity’s data on supporters and volunteers, donations, fundraising campaigns and events, and even grant applications, to information brought in from elsewhere such as event management systems, online giving platforms, and payment processors.
In uniting all of this in one easily accessible database, the right CRM system can help charities make better, more informed decisions, paving the way to improving communications with supporters, volunteers, or other teams within the organisation, as well as better fundraising campaigns, event management, and more.
What are the benefits for a charity of using a CRM system?
Accessibility: Bringing everything together makes it quicker and easier to find the information you need to communicate relevantly and effectively with supporters.
- Compliance – Keeping all supporter data, forms and declarations in one place and easily accessible is a major advantage for ensuring data protection law compliance – as well as for claiming Gift Aid.
- Consistency – One central database makes it a lot easier to ensure you don’t have lots of slightly different records for the same supporter – again important for complying with data protection legislation, as well as relationship building.
- Teamwork – It also fosters better collaboration between teams, which again, will only serve to improve everything you do. One key area this helps with is to ensure that, regardless of which team is using the data within your organisation, every communication to supporters has the same voice, rather than sounding different depending on which team it comes from.
- Integration – As an organisation adds to its service offering, a CRM system performs a valuable role in bringing all those data sources together, improving operational efficiency.
- Reporting – Most also have standard reporting inbuilt, helpfully keeping you informed on the likes of new donors and income acquired, and some go further with more intelligent reporting, helping you to contact supporters at key times, such as the anniversary of their first donation.
What should we consider when making our choice?
Firstly what do you need it for and what challenges do you want it to solve? Some focus on fundraising, while others have the capacity for wider functionality.
Will it integrate with existing software? You’ll likely need a scalable system to add new functionality. For fundraising, consider if it can:
•Track relationships between donors and over time
•Map your fundraising lifecycle
•Have collaboration notes
•Suggest donors prioritise contacting
•Report donations to specific programmes
•Integrate with payment providers
Other considerations:
•Who will manage the system? Needs a dedicated person.
•Find an implementation partner for setup.
•Calculate total costs over 5 years, not just initial cost.
•Entry-level or charity-specific solutions are available to get started.
With the right CRM, charities can build better relationships with supporters, increase fundraising, save time, enhance data-driven decisions and improve efficiency. Choosing a system that meets your needs and budget requires careful consideration. But the benefits of having a single, accessible supporter database and tool for collaboration are huge. The key is finding one that helps your charity work in a more focused, impactful way.
Infoodle church management software
Infoodle church management software is a cloud-based CRM designed to help churches and other religious organizations streamline their administrative tasks and focus more on their mission.
With Infoodle, customers can easily manage their congregation’s information, communication, and events all in one place. By providing intuitive tools and automating routine tasks, Infoodle enables its customers to spend less time on administration and more time fulfilling their purpose.
Whether it’s managing volunteers, organizing events, or tracking donations, Infoodle offers a comprehensive solution to help churches run smoothly and efficiently.