How can a CRM system help non-profits?

When it comes to making money, non-profits aren’t any different from corporate companies. They, too, have to develop, nurture, and maintain relationships with their donors, just like a company has to with their leads and customers. If you don’t be proactive, you will lose them, and your funds will run dry.

People don’t donate to non-profits actively as their priority; everyone’s busy taking care of other preferences. Therefore, retaining active donors and converting them into large-scale supporters, while being highly important, is far more difficult for non-profits than it is for for-profit companies. 

A 2018 study reported that since 2008, donor retention rates have not gone above 50%. It is where non-profits can borrow the strengths of a CRM System to communicate better with and retain their donors.

How can CRM help non-profits?

Non-profits can use CRM to develop, enhance, and sustain long-term donor relations.  The strengths of a CRM System can use in various ways to digitize a non-profit’s operations and organize its donor relations efforts. 

In this section, we will break down exactly how.

1. CRM for data reporting

Non-profits also need to rely on data to focus their fundraising efforts. Stats that can source from the CRM for this purpose can be as follows:

• The spread of donations across the fiscal year
• Donor demographics
• Peak donation periods
• Fundraising email activity

Many more types of reports can be generated from the CRM by a not-for-profit organization. 

2. CRM for email marketing

Email is one of the primary channels of donor communication for non-profits. There are so many uses of email – newsletter updates, event invites, fundraising email campaigns, and so on. A CRM system can help automate and enhance how email used in a non-profit organization.

With a CRM system, a non-profit can 

• Simplify and customize mass email campaigns
• track email activity to identify people who are most likely to donate more
• send emails at the right time in the donor conversion cycle by monitoring donor interest through email activity tracking.
• improve the donor conversion rate by taking advantage of email automation systems to send optimized multimedia emails at an optimal time of the day

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3. CRM for targeted donor emails

Email marketing can do tons of wonder for non-profits. By segmenting donors, according to their income level, they can send fundraising emails based on their donation capacity. It means campaigns with higher donation requirements can forward to those who can donate more and vice versa.

By segmenting donors according to their geographic location, non-profits can send fundraising email campaigns in their local languages. These emails will have significantly enhanced relevancy for the receivers and will appeal to them without much resistance.

Many other fields can use to send targeted email campaigns based on the operating model of the non-profit.

4. CRM for automated donor nurturing

Non-profit fundraising isn’t any different from sales. It’s all about the relationship with the client/donor. Revenue through sales/donations can come if you don’t neglect the links and spend time nurturing them.

To nurture donor relationships, you have to ensure timely follow-ups and never miss those follow-ups. 

With automated, personalized, scheduled email responses, a CRM system takes much of the communication pressure away from the non-profits.  

5. CRM for tracking multiple events

If your non-profit has ever organized fundraising events, you know how tricky it is to send advertisements, track registrations, and issue tickets.

With email marketing, you can send email ads for several events at once. You can also segment the advertisements according to your email lists. If you have your email template and design ready, it should not take you more than an hour to set their advertising up using an efficient and reliable CRM.

Similarly, tracking registrations and issuing tickets should be simplified tasks if you have smart integrations with your CRM.

6. CRM strategy to know your donors more closely

Companies can bunch together common attributes of their potential customers into a single “customer persona.” It helps the company understand who their potential customers are and where to find them. It brings the company closer to the customers and makes the sale/conversion much smoother.

Non-profits could use the same strategy to create a “Donor Persona.” This profile will answer questions of the following type about the typical donor:

• How well they interact with your online assets?
• What other non-profits/causes are they already donating?
• Which type of events do they tend to attend frequently?

Once you know all these details about a donor, an almost accurate picture come to mind. It makes marketing your campaign to them quite efficient.

CRM is essential for non-profits 

Reach their fundraising goals, and non-profits must integrate CRM into their operations. With a CRM in place, a lot of their goals can meet as their donor relations improve.