Food banks address one of the most basic needs of our communities. Food insecurity and hunger permeate every aspect of an individual’s life, and more than 53 million Americans are served by nonprofits dedicated to filling hungry stomachs.
But it’s not always easy for the food bank teams to get from wanting to help all the way to fully stocked shelves. Between limited budgets and funding to volunteer shortages, demand fluctuations, food supply challenges, and regulatory compliance, there’s a never-ending list of worries keeping nonprofit execs up at night.
While we at CharityEngine can’t solve many of those challenges, we have been working with food banks for many years and can promise that technology will help you find and manage donors and significantly impact your fundraising.
In this article, we will lean on our experience with these industry clients to share the software features our food bank clients most appreciate. This isn’t a CharityEngine commercial in the form of an article; it is a checklist of features you might want to consider for your current or future fundraising software. If you want to talk to us or one of our many food bank clients, we’re happy to help. At the end of the day, we want all food banks to be successful, whether we’re the right fit or there’s a better solution for you.
In that spirit, we have spent time comparing different vendors, so any nonprofit has a good list to start. We will begin this article with a high-level look at the strengths of companies we suggest you contact, and then we will share the specific features of our software that food bank clients love.
Six Top Providers! Fundraising Software Vendors to Consider
We've got five to talk about and then we'll throw our own name into the hat. When you're ready to shop for fundraising software, here's a short list to get you started. These are all excellent options, depending on what you want. Perhaps you don't want a bank-owned conglomerate that can sunset your platform suddenly. Maybe you like the idea of native tools, resulting in centralized data rather than silos. Do you want a robust database built to serve enterprise clients? This list offers a little of everything!
1. Bloomerang has the most straightforward user interface we've seen! It's really well suited for smaller nonprofits that aren't technologically advanced. They have great support options and a self-guided tour. Because it's best for smaller nonprofits, it has limited functionality, difficulty with integrations, and limited out-of-the-box reports.
2. Bonterra is the bank-owned conglomerate we mentioned (the rebrand that happened after Salsa, EveryAction, and Network for Good were acquired), offering extensive features for food banks. It's a massive shop! Because of its makeup, customer service doesn't get high marks, and a platform like Salsa can quickly be sunset and its users transitioned to a new platform.
3. Virtuous offers features we really like (and even offer ourselves): automated A/B testing of emails, out-of-the-box automation workflows, and personalized ask amounts based on wealth data. However, it is costly, support is limited, and it lacks native functionality like automated sequences based on responses, advocacy, and events. If those features aren't what you need, definitely put Virtuous on your list.
4. Blackbaud serves food banks and offers a huge database built for enterprise nonprofits. It's got industry longevity, and the comprehensive database allows for high-level tracking, analysis, and pipeline movement. That said, it's known as being outdated and cumbersome. If you're not worried about siloed data or limited support and just want a database, Blackbaud is a solid option.
5. DonorPerfect is an excellent choice for food banks that do not require a robust system. It offers solid donor management functionality, is easy to learn, affordable, and is known for excellent customer service. So what does it lack? The big issue is that it lacks native email functionality, meaning you must log into Constant Contact to send emails. There are limited customization options and some core tools, like prospect research and advocacy, aren't part of the native platform.
6. CharityEngine is our favorite entry on the list! We are privately owned and not going anywhere, so we are a stable choice for the future. More importantly, all core fundraising modules are native to our platform. Data from all sources - email, events, direct mail, and even payment processing - are available to you in real time. You have a holistic view of donors, organizations, and campaigns, with all that data right at your fingertips. What if you have specific third-party systems you need connected to CharityEngine? No problem. We've got robust APIs for that.
That's a taste of why nonprofits like Wounded Warrior Project and Easterseals choose CharityEngine. But what about our food bank clients? What features of our software do they most appreciate? Let's take a look.
CharityEngine Helps Food Banks Help Others
Let’s look at some of the technology features that have the greatest impact. Good tech can help you with managing donors, collecting in-kind donations, and personalizing outreach to improve fundraising outcomes.
Take a look at this list of valuable features. If you’re happy with your fundraising software, check to ensure these features are available. If you’re shopping, stick these at the top of your wish list.
Comprehensive Database with Native Tools: No More Data Silos
Consider the many data points triggered by your donors. Did they call and ask a question? Submit an online donation? Drop off a few bags of canned goods? Attend an event? Win an auction item, or bid really high but come in second place?
What if you had a single system that collected all these data points and displayed them in real time? No syncing, no uploading, no delays. Just always-on information on any interaction a supporter has with your nonprofit.
CharityEngine breaks through data silos and offers native fundraising tools, meaning the data is all contained in your CRM. You can access more than 90 out-of-the-box fundraising reports or customize your own to slice and dice your data however you want.
Comprehensive dashboards, which can also be customized, display your data in real time. It’s easy to identify trends to leverage or outliers to watch! This always-on data, displayed however it will help, elevates donor management to a new level and informs your campaigns with precision.
Custom Donation Forms
Food banks receive all kinds of gifts, from in-kind donations to monthly pledges. It’s important that you can customize donation forms to manage the types of donations you receive. With CharityEngine, you get optimized forms right out of the box. With one-click giving, one-line address entry, multiple payment options (including virtual wallets), and an easy toggle to make a one-time gift a monthly gift, your conversions will increase.
Another helpful feature for food banks is the ability to track soft credits. Not only can you credit multiple constituents for the same gift, but you can also control how the soft credit amount figures into reports and giving totals.
Major Gifts
One of our food bank clients, Food Bank for the Heartland, particularly appreciates major gift technology. They commented,
“Managing our major gifts program through CharityEngine has allowed our gift officers to track opportunities, pledges, and payments, reporting all in real time.”
Having technology designed to help you manage major gifts takes the mundane recordkeeping and tracking and automates it. It also keeps data together and makes reporting and analytics easy.
Advanced Payment Processing
Advanced sounds like an odd descriptor for payment processing, but bear with us for a second. Like every other feature, payment processing is native to our system, and no other vendor can say that. You will save money because there aren’t middlemen taking a cut.
We are SOC 2-certified and PCI-certified, but we also offer patent-pending fraud protection. This fraud protection stops bad actors from getting to the payment processor 99% of the time.
If you’re a food bank with monthly donors, or sustainers, this is a game changer: every other payment processor will tell you that 15% of your donations will be lost due to passive churn, or credit card declines. They will say there’s nothing that can be done to retain that money.
CharityEngine clients don’t retain only 85% of their sustainer revenue. They retain 98% of their monthly revenue, because CharityEngine is the only payment processor serving nonprofits that has specialized technology to retain money lost to passive churn. You read that right: only CharityEngine increases sustainer collection so you keep 98% of the dollars raised.
Email Automation
Nonprofit teams are busy people, and even the most basic technology can automate many of your daily tasks. With email automation, you can schedule a series of emails triggered by actions. A welcome series can launch immediately after a first donation is made. A lapsed donor series can be sent to reignite supporters who have faded.
But there’s more you can do. Try custom sending options, email validation tools, A/B testing, custom tracking URLs, and advanced analytics to be certain your emails are hitting the mark. Use “if/then” logic to personalize emails and fundraise smarter.
A note of caution: Don’t assume all nonprofit CRMs offer email automation. Ask!
Multichannel Campaigns to Reach All Supporters
Because all fundraising tools are native to the system, you can run multichannel campaigns. Incorporate email, direct mail, phone, SMS/text, or even go a little crazy with radio and Direct Response TV. Mail a postcard with a QR code that leads to your online form.
The Red Cross has raised millions of dollars by texting supporters and tying a response text to an automatic donation. While the average nonprofit won’t ever do that, it demonstrates the power of creative fundraising through different channels. You provide the ideas; we have the tools.
Social Media Integration
Finally, food banks can use social media integration to find new supporters, engage current supporters, spread awareness of your mission, and raise more money. Regular posting can help you engage with the community and rally support for events, such as peer-to-peer fun runs or walks.
Any time you amplify your voice, you’re reaching a broader audience and increasing support for your work.
CharityEngine is a Partner to Food Banks
We can tell you about features you need, and we can list competitors you can check out. We urge all nonprofits to ask the tough questions and keep looking until you find satisfactory answers.
We can even write articles sharing features of our own technology that other food banks find valuable. But the very best way for you to give CharityEngine a once-over is to book a demo. A 30-minute call is a start to revolutionizing your donor management and greatly increasing your fundraising.
