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When Considering A New Nonprofit CRM… (Yes, another one of those posts)

I know we all hear about CRM and how your organization should have one, however, let me pose a question to you what are you taking into consideration when making this decision?

Three Points To Consider:

  1. What specific goals should your CRM accomplish for you?

    1. Increase productivity in administrative tasks.
    2. Improve donor retention.
    3. Streamline the volunteer registration process.
    4. Automate business processes.
    5. Integrate with your marketing system.
    6. Improve event management.
    7. Provide mobile access.
    8. Provide informative and decision supporting reporting.

  2. What specific functionality should your CRM provide?

    1. Online payment processing
    2. Integrate with current systems: email, direct mail, website, finance, marketing, etc
    3. Customization of the system by internal staff (no programming/code needed).
    4. Unlimited records (why would you be punished financially for adding more potential donors to your CRM?).
    5. Integration with other software products.

  3. Support, Security, and Resources

    1. Know the details of the security in place to protect your data and the information of those who support you.
    2. Understand that free and paid resources available to your organizations.  View their social media and determine if they are providing value in those areas.  If your anything like me you’re crazy busy and it can be a challenge to find time to go find resources.  If I follow the organization providing our CRM I want to have resources simply showing up in my feed for me to consume just like I consume other content.  Can I go watch YouTube Videos at any time to figure out a problem, and not a 45-minute video, like a 3-4 minute video so I can get the task I have to address completed.
    3. Support portal is key and this resource should be open to the public.  I should not have to log in and remember my password or create an account.  Plus as a software company, you want that open for great SEO opportunities.  I would assume there would be a number of specific and unique questions from users.  Not just the normal Help file that every software application has.  Like I bet someone has had the same problem I am having and I want to go find that Knowledgebase Article.
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