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3 Key Tools Every Nonprofit Needs In Its Tech Toolbox

February 26, 2024 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Caitlin McClain at Redpath Consulting Group

A notable 74% of nonprofits believe that digital transformation is essential to their organization’s growth, but finding the right technology to fuel that transformation can be an overwhelming process.

If you haven’t already, you’ll likely run across a wide range of specialized tools in your search for the right software solutions for your nonprofit. While these tools can certainly be helpful for everything from virtual event planning to marketing, they’re not all essential, especially for smaller nonprofits just looking to meet their basic needs.

In this guide, we’ll help you narrow your search by breaking down the three types of software that are most important for any nonprofit. With these three tools in your toolbox, you’ll be well-equipped to handle day-to-day operations and increase your organization’s capacity for growth.

1. A CRM

Nonprofits are fueled by relationships with supporters and community members. Cultivating these relationships can improve fundraising results, further your cause, and expand your reach to new audiences. Naturally, this means that the single most important tool your organization needs is a constituent relationship management (CRM) solution.

CRM software should be the bedrock of your technology stack. This tool provides you with a comprehensive database to house everything you know about your relationships, letting you track donations, interactions, and personal details all in one place.

Whether you choose a well-known, customizable solution like Salesforce for Nonprofits or a more basic system, your CRM should enable you to:

Track all of your important relationships. From donors to volunteers to business sponsors, you should be able to create profiles in your CRM for everyone your nonprofit interacts with. Here, you can record their contact information, donation and engagement history, notes about your relationship, and more.

Learn how supporters engage with your nonprofit. By tracking all of a supporter’s interactions in one place, you can gain insights that help you understand them better and tailor your communications accordingly. For instance, you might learn that one donor only attends fundraising auctions and invite them to register early for your next auction.

Report on important fundraising metrics. CRMs with reporting features help you easily calculate and track fundraising metrics like donor retention rate, cost per dollar raised, and your organization’s average gift size.

Keep in mind that not all CRMs are created equal. Some are more robust than others, giving you a more holistic view of donors that helps you craft communications that speak to their unique interests and relationships with your nonprofit. However, if you’re a small nonprofit just getting started, you might benefit more from a more straightforward, affordable CRM.

To help you choose and implement the best CRM solution for your unique needs, consider working with a nonprofit technology consultant who can walk you through your options. They’ll take your history and goals into consideration and ultimately help you navigate the implementation process with ease.

2. Marketing Automation Tools

Once you have a place to track your nonprofit’s relationships and learn about supporters’ habits, you can start putting your data into action with marketing automation tools. Whether you want to automate emails, texts, or other messages, these tools can save your team time and enhance the personalization of your communications to help you connect with supporters.

For instance, Redpath’s guide to Salesforce Marketing Cloud explains that this email automation tool includes features like nonprofit-specific email templates, an intuitive email journey builder, a simple setup process, and data extensions.

With these features, organizations can easily create and customize automated email streams for different purposes, such as welcoming new donors or following up with attendees after a fundraising event. These email streams are triggered by a donor’s actions so your staff don’t have to lift a finger after setting them up.

This might look like:

A man named Jeff donates to your nonprofit for the first time on your online donation page.
This action triggers your automated welcome email series for new donors, and Jeff immediately receives an email welcoming him to your nonprofit’s community.
Over the course of a month, Jeff automatically receives strategically timed emails introducing him to all the most important facets of your organization.

To make the most of marketing automation, look for a tool that integrates with your CRM. This way, your automation tool can pull data from your CRM’s donor profiles to make your automated messages more personal and relevant to each supporter.

3. Fundraising Software

Invest in software that helps your organization streamline fundraising processes and boost your campaigns’ success.

Fundraising software comes in many different forms—from payment processors to peer-to-peer fundraising platforms to virtual event software. To understand which fundraising tools you need, explore your CRM’s features first and determine which needs are already met. For instance, your CRM might come with built-in donation processing and fundraising campaign management features.

Then, examine your fundraising goals to determine what other tools would be helpful. If you plan to run a lot of fundraising events, for example, you might consider investing in an online auction platform or a peer-to-peer fundraising tool that will help you host more successful events.

Beyond event- or campaign-specific fundraising tools, your nonprofit can also benefit from more general fundraising solutions like matching gift software. According to re:Charity’s matching gifts guide, these tools help organizations drive corporate matches to completion and earn more fundraising revenue from both donors and businesses long-term.

Once you have these essentials and your team feels confident incorporating them into their day-to-day tasks, you can consider other types of nonprofit software to invest in as your nonprofit grows. Note any gaps in your technology now so you know what direction to take in the future when you’re ready to expand your tech stack.

Caitlin McClain, Director of Marketing at Redpath

Caitlin leads the brand, creative and overall go-to-market strategy for Redpath. Offering over 10 years of experience in omni-channel and B2B marketing, she has a history of successfully implementing marketing plans and leveraging campaign analytics to drive revenue. She has a passion in communications and is skilled in empowering cross-functional teams to promote positive company culture and attain collective goals.

Caitlin has a Bachelors in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. When Caitlin is not at work, you can find her reading a good book, sipping on some chai tea, or enjoying activities with her family such as going on walks, boating, and traveling.

Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Steps to Set Up Donation Payment Processing

May 25, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Peggah Azarvash of iATS Payments

You’ve made an excellent fundraising appeal to your target group of potential donors. They’re heading to the link on your marketing content to get to your donation page. You’ve done everything right up to this point. The only thing left is for your team to process the payment and accept their donation. But that’s crucial–both for your nonprofit and for the satisfaction of the donor.

According to Double the Donation’s giving statistics, online giving grew by 12.1% over 2020. As more supporters give online, depending on a donation payment processor has become more popular and integral. The processor you choose manages your online transactions, and every nonprofit professional should understand how their payment software affects your fundraising goals.

There is no time like the present to upgrade your own online payment process and increase donation completion! Here are the steps you can take to get the most out of your payment processing system:

Explore how your payment processing platform works for you
Understand how your payment processor fits into the donation journey
Integrate your existing data with your new payment processing system

1. Explore how your payment processing platform works for you

First, let’s review some vocabulary. A payment provider manages your organization’s payment processor software. The provider oversees transactions between your organization and its supporters.

But not all processors are made the same. You can choose a more general one like PayPal, but it might not have the specific features that nonprofits depend on.

You’ll want a provider that ensures accurate donor data, manages recurring gifts, and secures data received. Some other considerations you have to remember when it comes to your payment processor include:

Dedication to fundraising. Again, payment processing is fundamental to your online fundraising efforts. Without this to facilitate your transactions, you will miss out on donations.

Data security and fraud prevention. The payment processor you choose, its gateway, and its ACH network should all be secure. After all, they handle your donors’ sensitive financial information. If you experience a data breach, it will harm your nonprofit’s reputation. It’s worth it to invest in a processor with high-security options.

Easy integration with your tech stack. The payment processor you invest in should integrate well with your nonprofit’s tech stack. For example, if you have Salesforce apps like these, you’ll have an accurate transfer of donor data between your payment processor, donation software, and CRM.

User experience. iATS Payments’ donation page guide reports that design and ease can make or break a donor’s experience with your organization when donating online. You don’t want to send users away from your site or prolong the giving process if it doesn’t have to be!

Recognizing your options. If you’re a new organization, looking into your options is important. Many platforms have various fees so it’s important to do your research. This Charity Engine software guide recommends a full review of all costs before you buy.

2. Understand how your payment processor fits into your donation journey

To understand how your processor works in your donation process, take some time to map the donation journey. From appeal to landing on your donation page, make sure you use the best practices to make it easy. Here’s how it should go:

A supporter makes a donation on your online page. Your appeal worked, and your donor makes a payment through your online donation tool. Your processor will save sensitive personal and financial information to your CRM. It’s important that the data is accurate because it’s used for future outreach. You’ll want to address donors by name and send thank you notes to build your relationship.
The gift is transferred through the payment gateway. From here, the payment is sent to a third-party processor or aggregator. Here, the payment is either approved or denied. The payment can be rejected if it appears fraudulent or cannot be completed. In most cases, donations are received by the processor if approved.
Your payment processor completes a transfer request through the ACH network. This is how your software charges your donors for their payment. If they’re paying with debit, it goes through as an ACH debit payment from their bank account. If they paid with a credit card, the ACH payment request is transferred to the donor’s card provider.
Your organization receives the payment. When this process is complete, the funds land in your merchant account. Your merchant account, provided by the payment provider, is cashed out into your main bank account. This is where the perks of a dedicated payment processor come into play; you’ll receive your funds more quickly when that is the case.

By identifying your donor’s payment journey, you can see how having a dedicated donation payment processor is beneficial. When it’s integrated with your CRM, you can access your information easily, and you’ll receive your payment that much more quickly!

3. Integrate your existing data with your new payment processing system

When you choose your donation payment processor, there are steps your organization should take when setting up. Of course, this process can be different for each, but there are a few items to expect when setting up for the best results.

Understand how to prepare

Before you purchase your new payment processor, do your research on what setup is required from your team before you commit. For example, make sure that your new donation payment software can work well with your website and CRM. Then, check that your new processor can properly import and read existing data. Additionally, recognize your team’s skills and determine if you need help setting up your platform. If done on your own, you may risk serious mistakes that could cost you data.

Export your existing data

Once you’ve got a handle on how your donation processor works, start your data transfer process. You’ll do this by encrypting and exporting your existing transaction data from your old payment processor. If your chosen software has integration capabilities, you’ll get to skip this step, because it’s automated!

Optimize your donor profiles

Once the data is transferred, provide additional information to your new software provider. For example, talk about how recurring donations work for you. They’ll need to know the following:

Donors’ names
Previous gift amounts
Giving frequency
ID numbers

If your team practices good data hygiene, it’ll be easy to export this information.

Let your provider complete your data migration process

You will complete the transfer by double-checking the data from your old processor or CRM. They’ll ensure that data regarding recurring donations are synced without error. This way, your donor’s giving preferences and information are not lost in translation when switching.

Work with your processor’s support team

Smaller organizations may struggle with setting up their processor safely on their own. You must leave your lines of communication open to your donation software vendors. They’ll be able to provide one-on-one support throughout the process.

When your team takes steps to transfer your data and learn how your product works you’ll be good to go with fundraising online!

Peggah Azarvash is a passionate Sales Executive with 10 years’ experience providing payment solution support and guidance to nonprofits.

Fundraising Tuesday: Building Better Donor Communications Through Technology–3 Tips

May 18, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Steven Shattuck of Bloomerang

Communicating with your nonprofit’s donors is probably pretty high on your to-do list. After all, communicating with donors and retaining them for the long haul is essential for organizational growth.

It’s much more expensive to acquire new support and replenish lapsed donors than it is to retain your supporters already in your donor database. Bloomerang’s retention guide even explains how a mid-sized organization can make more than $10,000 additional funds simply by increasing their retention rate by 10%.

This guide also discusses the reasons that supporters lapse, according to a study by Adrian Sargeant. It boils down to the idea that better communication can help prevent a large percentage of lapsed support.

So how can you better communicate with your supporters to keep them around for the long term and help your organization grow? The answer is personalization and efficient use of technology.

In this guide we’ll cover three tech tips that you can use to optimize your communications:

Leverage Donor Segmentation in Your Database
Choose Multiple Communication Platforms
Automate Communications Where Appropriate

1. Leverage Donor Segmentation in Your Database

When was the last time you got a personal letter or email from a friend or colleague? Maybe your best friend knows how much you love cat videos, so she sent you the latest one with a note hoping that it’ll make your day. Or, maybe a colleague sent you a heartfelt thank-you for your work on a recent project. Perhaps it was even a constituent from within your nonprofit organization, explaining how much you impacted their lives.

All of these examples have one thing in common: They’re all incredibly personal. Your best friend used the knowledge she has about you to send the video, your colleague noted a recent action you took to help them, and your constituent discussed the direct impact of your actions. If they didn’t have this information, none of these parties could send as warm a note of appreciation.

Use your donor database to get more personal

In an ideal world, you would be able to send an individualized message to every supporter in your donor database. However, you’re hard-pressed for time as it is, so that’s just inefficient.

Instead, you should create segments in your donor database that will guide communications, ensuring they’re personalized while also allowing you to work efficiently. For instance, the most common ways to segment donors are by:

Recency. Separate donors who are brand new to the system from those who have been around for a while.

Frequency. Consider how often donors give to your organization. For example, monthly donors would be in a different segment from annual ones.

Type. How do these donors give to your organization? Do they give at events or online? Alternatively, are they volunteers who give their time?

Amount. Your team likely treats major donors and donors who contribute under $100 annually differently. Consider the in-betweens, too, to cover all your bases.

Reason. Ask donors why they give to your organization and create supporter segments based on similar answers.
Interest. You can reach donors with similar interests with a similar message. This analysis will help you craft the ideal communication messaging.

If you were to send the same newsletter, fundraising appeal, thank-you letters, and event invitations to everyone in your donor database, those supporters would not remain engaged for long. They’d be getting too much irrelevant information.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to our communications, leverage your donor database to create segments that will help tailor your message and personalize it according to what will best resonate with supporters.

2. Choose Multiple Communication Platforms

Too often, nonprofits take a binary approach to their communication plans. They may say, “It’s the digital age, so we’ve gone entirely digital” or “We’re resistant to new technology and have stuck to old-school methods.” While this may feel more manageable for busy nonprofit staff members, this strategy is actually harmful in the long run. Network for Good conducted a study noting that organizations that dropped to a single marketing channel from multiple ended up also dropping their retention rate by 31.32%.

Therefore, the best approach is to combine these methods and use a multi-channel approach to your communication strategy.

Consider the number of platforms you engage with every day. You check your email, social media accounts, mailbox, text messages, and probably even more. With so many platforms available, you can make an impact by communicating your message on a number of different channels, all of which will reach your supporters at varying levels of success. However, when they see your branding across these channels, your supporters are more likely to retain the message due to repetitive exposure.

Combine repetitive exposure with well-crafted messaging and your supporters are bound to engage more than if they only received one message on one platform. You might consider communication platforms such as:

- Email. Email is the bread and butter of a communication strategy. Plan out automated drip campaigns and solicitations in your email marketing solution, and be sure you can track the records of these interactions in your donor database.
- Direct mail. Do you get excited when you see you have mail in your mailbox (when it’s not a bill)? Your supporters do too! Hand-written or typed out messages sent through direct mail platforms help support your digital marketing strategies.
- Social media. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow you to give regular updates about your organization’s latest activities. Adjust your messaging to account for the platform you’re using and create groups on these platforms to create a sense of digital community.
- Your website. This is where your supporters go to learn more about your organization’s mission and often to give to your campaign page. Kanopi’s UX guide explains that “Good [User Experience}, especially on your nonprofit website, will lead to higher retention rates, higher engagement rates, and an overall lower cost for website development and support.” So be sure your site is easy to navigate, offers valuable information, and is well-designed overall.

Of course, you don’t want to take on more than you can handle all at once. Start by adding in one platform at a time so that you can give each one the attention it needs to become a valuable resource for your supporters. You might start by optimizing your website, then creating email drip campaigns, and finally writing several social media posts to engage supporters.

3. Automate Your Communications Where Appropriate

Automation is best used by organizations that have already created a marketing strategy that they’re using before ever automating their communications. Once you’re confident in your marketing strategy, you can start using automation to enhance it.

Until technology matches human intelligence, we still need fundraisers and marketing specialists to communicate impactfully with supporters.

There are a few worst-case scenarios you want to avoid in the automation process. For example, perhaps you create a drip stream of messages guiding supporters to give to your latest campaign. A new donor donates once and feels good, but before they even receive a thank-you message, they’re entered into the middle of a drip campaign and receive another donation solicitation. That supporter likely will feel like their first contribution wasn’t even acknowledged, much less appreciated.

Poor automation is even more detrimental than no automation, which is why you should optimize your strategy before automating everything you can. Share on X

Some of the optimization opportunities you’ll probably get started with include:

Automating the confirmation email for online donations. This won’t replace your additional “thank you” that you’ll personalize later, but it should convey appreciation and act as proof that you did receive the gift.
Automating social media posts. Writing many social media posts all at once is a very efficient way to craft these messages. Schedule these posts to go out at specific times, but be sure to check in on them to be sure they’re still relevant before they’re posted.
Automating data collection. When you invest in new fundraising solutions, look for integrations or use a tool like Zapier to automate the data collection process. For example, you might automatically save the information about new supporters in your CRM when they give their first donation using an integrated donation page.

Nonprofit software and tech infrastructures are an important part of nonprofit strategies. However, you should also remember that technology can never completely replace a personal fundraising message. By leveraging technology, your goal is to maximize your relationships with supporters rather than ask the computer to do all the work.

Steven Shattuck is Chief Engagement Officer at Bloomerang and Executive Director of Launch Cause.

A prolific writer and speaker, Steven is a contributor to “Fundraising Principles and Practice: Second Edition” and volunteers his time on the Project Work Group of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project and is an AFP Center for Fundraising Innovation (CFI) committee member.