How to Choose the Right Nonprofit CRM

How to Choose the Right Nonprofit CRM

September 28, 2022

As a nonprofit, technology is more important than ever to drive your mission forward. A CRM system is essential to bringing all your organization's processes together. The perfect CRM will have the following capabilities: Constituent management (for donors, volunteers, or clients), fundraising activity planning and execution, volunteer and client intake process, and comprehensive reports show outcomes and actionable insights. Many options are available, so it can be tough to decide which Nonprofit CRM is best for your organization. Here are three things to keep in mind when making your choice:

1. Data-Driven Engagement & Insights for Growth

A nonprofit CRM can be a valuable tool for organizing constituent data, keeping it secure, and leveraging it to engage constituents effectively. By customizing the data you collect and creating rich profiles for donors, volunteers, and clients, you can more effectively engage them based on their interests and preferences.

An ideal nonprofit CRM will help you increase data quality and provide robust reporting and analytics tools to build and strengthen relationships with donors, volunteers, and clients. It will also help your organization grow while protecting your data with strong security features.

2. Customizable, Easy to use & Easy to Maintain

A good Nonprofit CRM should be highly customizable, adapting to your organization’s needs and processes. It shouldn't require you to change your processes to use the system. Look for a solution that is built to be flexible and can be customized without too much time or money.

It should be cloud-based, easy to use, and intuitive. It should also be easy to manage, so you don't need to hire extra staff or consultants just to manage the system. The time and resources you save with a flexible, easy-to-use platform can be invested in your mission and growth instead.

3. Integration

Integration is critical for nonprofits. Different systems often lead to high costs, inefficiency, and data loss. A good CRM will have integrated capabilities to carry out:

  • Fundraising: To create fundraisers, in-person or virtual events, auctions, and peer-to-peer fundraising easily.
  • Outreach & Email: Segment your audience and create marketing campaigns that attract and engage your Donors & Volunteers. For your Clients/Beneficiaries, it should help you send personalized messages, service reminders, and feedback surveys.
  • Client/Human Services & Program Management: Automate your intake, services tracking, and outcomes reporting and streamline your program workflows.

Many CRMs on the market offer some of the key capabilities mentioned above, but LiveImpact nonprofit CRM differentiates by offering all of these under a single platform that is easy to use, customizable and affordable for all nonprofits.