Constituent Relationship Management

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Invest in your non-profit’s constituent relationship management (CRM) solution

FundraisingForce receives a telephone call or web enquiry every 7 days asking for assistance with a non-profit’s CRM. The caller typically suggests one of two issues: 1) the CRM is the issue; or 2) the database administrator is the issue.

While issue #1 or #2 certainly might be true, there typically is a third issue: the non-profit organisation failed to make an annual investment in the CRM.

Investments Needed

Non-profit organisations often times fail to invest in the CRM and to budget for this investment on an annual basis. Organisation’s certainly budget for licensing costs, but the investment usually ends right there. Instead, your organisation needs to invest in the following:

  1. Data health.
    • Performing data cleansing on your CRM on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis is a prudent investment.
    • Train and encourage staff to CEE every record.
    • Establish data hygiene queries and reports in your CRM and handle the issues at the end of each week or month.
    • Hire data experts to perform national change of address (NCOA) on your file on a routine, or at least annual, basis.
  2. Solution upgrades.
    • The CRM you bought is not the CRM in existence today.
    • Suppliers invest in research and development.
    • New technology and functionality is added to your CRM routinely – sometimes quarterly, sometimes annually.
    • If your organisation does not accept the upgrades from the supplier, you are missing out.
  3. Business processes.
    • Develop business processes for your team.
    • Review business processes at least one time per year to ensure they are the most robust and efficient possible.
    • When business changes, ensure the business process is documented and up to date.
    • Train on new business processes.
  4. Training.
    • Train your staff, retrain your staff and retrain them, again.
    • Offer training at Go Live.
    • Offer training for new hires as part of their on boarding process.
    • Offer refresher trainings.
    • Offer morning teas or brown bag luncheons focused on one business process at least one time per month.
  5. System Administrator.
    • Hire and fully train a system administrator.
    • Hire the best of the best.
    • Invest in the system administrator allowing them to maximise their professional development.

It’s easy to blame the software or blame the database administrator on your issues. And, while not every software is perfect and not every staff person is a rock star, think of your new CRM the same as a new homeowner. Anyone who has purchased a new home knows the home will require maintenance each and every year. The roof will not need to be changed for 10-15 years and the air conditioning will last 10-15 years, as well. But, the house will require painting, patching, and other maintenance on a routine basis. The house does not care for itself and neither does your non-profit’S CRM.

For more information, contact us.

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The right fundraising software? Should the focus be on data hygiene?

I receive a call each week from a non-profit organisation asking for help in finding the “right fundraising software” for the organisation. The charity wants to find software that will deliver across the organisation. For some organisations, FundraisingForce conducts constituent relationship management (CRM) searches to find the right fit. Perhaps the conversation should first start with discussions about data hygiene.

Conversations can be had about the requirements of the organisation in order to find the right fit. But, put aside the software for a second and think about the practices that exist (or are likely absent) across the organisation.

Too few in the charity space focus on the detail in a single supporter record (or across records) in the database/CRM. We are too busy worrying whether the software we own does this task or that task. We are too busy completing transactions and tasks (i.e. booking a donation, getting the tax appeal out) that we do not take the time, while in possession of a supporter record, to do what I have called CEE a record.

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  • C – When in possession of a supporter’s record, no matter who you are in the organisation, Confirm the contact details with the supporter or Confirm the record is complete when you simply open a record to view information.
  • E – Edit anything in the record the supporter tells you or you view as incorrect.
  • E – Enhance anything in the record you see missing. Mobile phone numbers and email addresses are missing from about 70% of most charities supporter records.

Do the above day to day, hour by hour.

Monthly Data Cleansing

Once you have the day-to-day practices in place, you must focus on the masses. First, at the close of each month, someone on your team must troll the data base to look for known issues – incomplete records – addresses missing a post code, addresses missing a suburb, state, titles missing, etc. Make this one person’s job.

Cleaning up the house once a month makes it a lot easier for major clean-ups.

Annual Data Cleansing

Your organisation needs to perform Data Hygiene at least once per year before a big mailing or event.

Data Hygiene is the practice of cleansing the data, using a service provider who will access the Australia Post National Change of Address, NCOA, file on your organisation’s behalf. The service will also use other data sources and may enhance the data to offer you dates of birth, phone numbers or other enhanced information valuable for major gift and bequest efforts.

Why do annual Data Hygiene? I have over 300 charities in my direct marketing mystery shopping study. I have lived in three apartments during the time the study has been underway. Some charities are mailing me at my address 3 apartments ago. I only receive the mail because I continue to renew my mail redirection service with Australia Post. Most Australians only renew their mail redirection once at best, if at all.

Of the 300 charities in the study, only 3 have found me at my correct address.

What do the other 297 charities do when a person does not file a mail redirection service? What do the other 297 charities do when a person does not continue to renew the mail redirection?

Why don’t charities conduct an annual Data Hygiene process? They put it in the “too hard” bucket. They put it in the “too expensive” bucket.

Too Hard

It is “too hard” if you do not understand the process. If you tried it once and it was “too hard”, find a supplier in the market to conduct the process and document it for you once. We can then transfer the knowledge to you to make it easy and allow you to be self-sufficient each time thereafter.

Expensive

I don’t buy this argument. It is very expensive to acquire a new donor. Sure Data Hygiene costs NFPs. But, it is less expensive to run a data hygiene process than it is to acquire a new donor. It is less expensive to do the Data Hygiene process annually than it is to continue to mail pieces, which do not reach their intended recipients.

Unless you practice good Data Hygiene, the work done in terms of event fundraising, donor acquisition fundraising, and other areas do not matter.

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New Year’s Resolution – one stewardship contact a week

Hand writing "Thank You!" on white sheet of paper.

Donor care or stewardship calls, notes, or Emails are amongst the easiest contacts to complete. So simple, yet we often get bogged down in our day to day activity and we forget how easy it is to simply call someone, write a quick note, or Email.

  • Thinking of you.
  • Thank you for your support.
  • Your financial support changed the lives of the people we serve.
  • I hope you have a terrific week!
  • Happy Birthday!
  • Congratulations!

Whatever the occasion, or simply to let someone know you are thinking of them, take a moment and reach out to one person today – a donor, volunteer, prospective donor or volunteer, a client, or a colleague.

Make it your New Year’s resolution to reach out to one person a week simply to check in with them. Remember to document this contact in your customer relationship management (CRM) system or database just the way you would a meeting or other move.

Remember, your contact with donors and volunteers should not just be about funding or a need for a shift to be filled. Take time to let someone know they mean something to your nonprofit or charitable organisation.

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Finding the ‘perfect’ database for a non-profit

content‘Tis the season for non-profit organisations searching for the ‘perfect’ database.

There are countless organisations in Asia-Pacific searching for a new constituent relationship management (CRM) or Supporter Relationship Management (SRM) solution. All of these non-profit organisations are attempting to find the right fit, which will accelerate their organisations productivity.

Available Product

There are about 8 CRM/SRM key products or platforms in the Australian marketplace. Those products or platforms have many things in common, but there are some key differences across the systems as well. Additionally, a single supplier may have a variety of solutions to offer non-profit organisations.

Do your research before you approach these companies.

It’s About the Relationship

Non-profit organisations thrive on relationships staff create with donors, volunteers, and others. When a non-profit selects a new CRM/SRM, the suppliers are often very focused on the relationship. Ask current customers whether the relationship continued after the point of sale. Has the supplier continued to develop the relationship 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5+ years down the road or do they only contact customers when there is a sale to be had?

Remember, a relationships with a the CRM/SRM supplier goes beyond customer support. The relationship is about customer service.

Business Requirements

Are you really confident of your non-profit organisation’s business requirements? Are you able to articulate those business requirements to the market? Being able to communicate the requirements of each department in your organisation is essential in order to allow suppliers the opportunity to determine the best fit within their own product set.

While there are many products in the Australian market and they have many attributes in common, there are some key differences in the systems as well. It troubles me when I hear an organisation is signing a contract with a supplier simply because the supplier was “very nice” and “very professional” in the sales process. It further troubles me when an organisation is signing a contract with a supplier without having done their due diligence and conducted a search beyond that one supplier.

Dump your current CRM/SRM?

Moving away from your organisation’s current CRM/SRM may very well be the right decision, but it is not always a wise decision for every organisation. First you need to identify reasons you are looking to move away from the CRM/SRM. What are the reasons you feel the current system does not meet your organisation’s needs? Often times those reasons are not about functionality, but about internal factors such as business processes, training, and change management. No matter what CRM/SRM you adopt, your organisation may face the same internal issues again unless these issues are addressed.

Does the perfect non-profit CRM or SRM really exist? The answer is not a yes. But, it is also not a no. The answer to that question depends on whether your organisation runs a thorough process to search for the CRM/SRM, which is the best fit for your organisation based on the following:

  • Size of your organisation.
  • Business requirements identified for your organisation.
  • Future growth plans and strategies.

The Process

FundraisingForce is working with three non-profit organisations presently searching for systems. FundraisingForce suggests the following process when searching for the right CRM/SRM fit:

  • Examine the current CRM/SRM to determine its strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to examine what impact your organisation has had on the determined weaknesses. Sometimes this is the most difficult task to own.
  • Conduct a requirements gathering exercise and confirm the requirements with subject matter experts (SMEs) to be sure of accuracy.
  • Write a request for proposals document asking suppliers to respond to specific areas of interest to your organisation. You will seek information about functionality of the product, information about the supplier, and responses to questions. All of these will study the supplier’s strengths, weaknesses, stability and other critical factors.
  • Conduct a meeting with suppliers to review your process documents and to be available to answer any questions.
  • Create an internal selection committee.
  • Review proposals and answers to your requirements documentation.
  • Conduct demonstrations by suppliers about proposed product lines. Include an expanded audience (beyond your selection committee) to gain buy-in from staff across the organisation.
  • Check references offered by suppliers. Also, check references not provided by suppliers. You would not hire a candidate for a position simply based on what the references they provide say about their past. Simply calling the references a supplier puts forward is limiting.
  • Negotiate price. Whatever price the supplier puts forward is not the price that will be agreed to in the end. The fact is the supplier will want to know more information about your organisation, your business requirements, and other factors before the supplier is able to quote a more exact price. Remember price is only one piece of the overall process. Be sure to think through costs you will incur internally, as well, such as staffing and other variables.

Selecting a CRM/SRM may well be the biggest decision and the largest investment your organisation makes. Investing in the process and ensuring your organisation makes the right decision is critical. Once you select the CRM/SRM, the fun part starts – the implementation! I will write more about the implementation in a future post.

Does all of the above seem a bit daunting? Hiring experts, like FundraisingForce, who have worked on the supplier side to help you to navigate the process.