by Karen Rosen
Yes.
(In a way.)
Almost every nonprofit CRM will provide database functionality, enabling a nonprofit to store detailed information about donors, volunteers, and other supporters. You will be able to process and track online and offline donations and run basic reports to identify trends and giving patterns. All should allow for integrations, allowing you to build a tech stack that includes the functionality your nonprofit needs.
But after that basic functionality, there are big differences in the many excellent options for nonprofit CRMs. And this is where we will tell you that no, not all nonprofit CRMs are the same.
Good technology is available for every nonprofit. Functionality ranges, but so do the results they promise, the stability they offer, and the ease with which they’re implemented, updated, and used.
In this article, we will examine five key focus areas for nonprofits shopping for new technology. If you’re happy with your current system, it’s probably checking all these boxes. If you’re not, we can promise there are some options that you’ll like.
5 Key Differences Between Nonprofit CRMs
The perfect fundraising platform for your nonprofit likely doesn’t offer the most features. Rather, it’s the one that best supports your efforts and mission and the one that most enables you to build strong relationships with your donors. Finding a platform that can scale as you grow is important, and choosing a vendor that will remain a steady partner can help you weather challenges and celebrate successes.
Here are five considerations when you're looking for a nonprofit CRM, or evaluating the one you have:
1. Ownership
When you think of having a long-term CRM partner, you want stability in technology, staff, expectations, cost, and requirements. I was at an industry conference recently and heard one of the speakers present about the consolidation of the nonprofit CRM industry. It’s increasing, and data backs him up. Bonterra, Network for Good, and DonorPerfect are all examples of companies that private equity companies have purchased. Others, like Salesforce and Blackbaud, are publicly traded.
In some ways, these large companies have an advantage. They can rapidly acquire firms offering specific fundraising tools, ensuring clients can opt into many different platforms and have the tech they need. They have many clients, and most have a good track record of client success.
What’s the downside? These large companies don’t maintain a primary focus on your nonprofit success; they are in the business they’re in to make money. As many unhappy Salsa customers know, you can be pushed off one platform and onto another. You won’t likely stay with the same team or point of contact, and many customers are vying for the same support staff. This can cause tech chaos and disorganization!
2. Customization and Flexibility
Many CRMs allow extensive customization, allowing nonprofits to tailor the technology to meet their specific needs. Others are more rigid and require nonprofits to work within established guidelines.
A few types of customization might make sense for your nonprofit. For example, custom forms are popular with CharityEngine’s clients. Editing the template to include your brand, customizing forms for non-payment functions like volunteer and event registration, and choosing payment tiers tied to your mission are all proven ways to increase conversions. We’ve got a free donation form optimization checklist if you want to see how your forms stack up.
Choosing which dashboards to display and selecting the data and reports that are most relevant to your nonprofit is another excellent use of customization. If, for example, your nonprofit has a large sustainer program, you’re going to want to check on the health of those donors and keep tabs on how much monthly revenue you’re retaining.
If you consider your CRM the engine of a finely tuned fundraising machine, you might decide that customization and the flexibility to sync the tech with your brand and needs are important factors.
3. Integration Capabilities
This is a tricky one. Should you go for an all-in-one fundraising platform, or should you go for a system that integrates with Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Eventbrite, etc., giving you lots of features?
The ability to integrate with other tools and platforms varies as much as the number of integrations the platform already has. Many CRMs have integrations to achieve functionality but are limited in their ability to integrate with additional platforms, which is a problem if you need a school- or healthcare-specific software program integrated with your CRM. Ensuring the CRM fits within your required tech ecosystem is a critical consideration.
However, having core fundraising tools native to the system is a unique advantage. Why? It all comes down to data. At CharityEngine, our tools are native to our system, meaning that regardless of how a donor interacts with your nonprofit—mail, email, SMS, volunteering, online, phone—the data is in the system, in real time. You get a real-time view of every donor, any time.
But what about those industry-specific platforms you need? This is a key point: even a comprehensive system with native tools must have robust APIs allowing extensive integrations.
A system like CharityEngine can be used on its own for everything from engagement tools to payment processing, but it can also be used as the core technology of a sophisticated tech stack. Whether or not you like core functionality provided by integrations is a personal choice, but you can get the best of both worlds.
4. User Experience and Interface
The ease with which an interface is learned and used can vary greatly from system to system. Some nonprofit CRMs pride themselves on a simple, clean interface that users love, and there is value in that. Others are complicated and offer advanced functionality but require an IT team to manage.
If there is a perfect medium, it will be the system that works for your team. Are you generally tech- and data-savvy, or do you want a simpler user interface? How steep of a learning curve can you handle? Marry your resources and capabilities with the functionality you need to find the perfect system.
At CharityEngine, this one hits close to home. Our platform has powered some of the largest charities in the U.S., but we still knew the UI could be more seamless. We recently unveiled a UI makeover that our clients love! When the software is easy to use, it’s easier to integrate into your operations and much more valuable for your nonprofit.
5. Support and Training
Sometimes, CRM shoppers stop short and forget to consider what type of support will be offered. The level of client support, training, and resources can be very different. It all begins with onboarding: what does that look like? Is your instance customized, and does the team teach you how to use the tools to extract the data?
After comprehensive onboarding, see what kind of training they offer. CharityEngine offers the CharityEngine Academy for new clients. They can walk through videos and take note of questions, which are then routed to a dedicated Client Success team. If there are more questions or issues, you go to our equivalent of a help desk. You can access an online help center at any time, and you can always log tickets and questions. This kind of multifaceted training and support is what you’ll want.
The first consideration is how your team likes to access training and support. If you can find a CRM vendor that offers that—be it online at your own pace or on the phone with a team member—you’ve likely found a great match.
Find the Nonprofit CRM That’s Just Right
CharityEngine isn’t the perfect CRM for every nonprofit, and we know that. Our goal is to encourage all nonprofits to understand how vast their options are and prioritize key needs. The goal shouldn’t be to find the most or least expensive option or the one with the most native or integrated features. The goal is to find the system and vendor that makes it easy for you to support your mission, engage your constituents, and raise money for your cause.
Take the time to assess your needs, evaluate options, and choose the CRM that will help you maximize your impact. Understanding key differences, like the examples provided, will help you make the more strategic and appropriate choice, even if it’s staying with the system you’ve got.
If you want to explore CharityEngine, drop us a note. We’re not perfect for every nonprofit, but we might be perfect for yours!
