CRM

7 Jan 2016

Stephen Mally ADMA, Australian Direct Marketing Association, Best practices, Charities, Charity, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Database, Deceased, Deceased registry, Deduping, Deduplication, Fundraising, FundraisingForce, Non-Profit organisation, Nonprofit, TABR, The Australian Bereavement Register

Mailing to deceased? Your non profit organisation lacks best practices

There is nothing worse than sending a deceased person mail. First, it stirs up emotions when a loved one receives a letter addressed to a person who has since passed. Second, it sends a message that your non-profit organisation lacks best practices. I recently posted, on LinkedIn, about the number of charities not taking the extra steps to remove deceased from their CRM/database – reactively or proactively. The post received a high number of comments. Perhaps it was a little too close to home for some.

This past month, I visited some people in the US in the state of Florida. The husband of the couple visited was the executor for an estate. Let’s call the deceased Mrs Bloggs. Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years. Yet, the household continues to receive charity mail in her name. Again, Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years.

What’s even worse is this household has notified the charities of her death. The couple have returned notices in the response envelopes with the response coupons. In some cases, charities have been notified 2-3 times. These same charities, and others, continue to mail to Mrs Bloggs.

The charities are risking offending the survivors, as well as their reputation through poor processes, wasted materials, and postage.

US charities have an even bigger advantage over Australian charities in that the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) exists, which is national register of deaths. When someone passes away in the US, it is a requirement the death is reported to the US government. The end result means all deaths are documented on the SSDI. US charities have access to this list to screen their database through a variety of suppliers.

In Australia, the Australian government does not yet have anything compared to the SSDI. Yet, Conexum has The Australian Bereavement Register (TABR), which is a strong product and increasing in capabilities each year. Additionally, suppliers will match your database against the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) list of deceased individuals. This list is developed via notifications sent to ADMA. Any person may document a death via the ADMA website or we may call or write ADMA direct.

Charities have a responsibility to do the following:

Reactive documentation:

Document notifications of death in their constituent relationship management (CRM)/database. When charities are notified of deaths from survivors:
- Document date of notification, method of notification, and date of death.
Notify list brokers of deaths. Pass information to list brokers when charities are notified of deceased parties on various lists rented or received via exchange.
- Notification to list brokers should include date charity notified by next of kin, method of notification, and date of death.

Proactive documentation:

Screen your non profit organisation’s CRM/database using SSDI, for US charities, or TABR, for Australian charities.
- Screen at least one time per year. Better yet, screen prior to all major mailings.
  - Screen your CRM/database, plus any lists rented for acquisition purposes.

Acquisition Preparation

You would never rent thousands of names without deduping them against your database to ensure you were not marketing to existing donors. Take it a step further. Whenever your organisation rents or exchanges names via a list broker, ensure you de-duplicate all known deceased from your CRM/database. Save your organisation the embarrassment of mailing to known deceased people despite the fact the lists may be dirty from a broker or from a charity. Then, report deceased back to the broker to save your colleagues from embarrassment, as well.

Those of us who work for charities have been on the receiving end of the calls when people are upset because we have erroneously mailed to their deceased loved ones. If everyone takes an active role, in the New Year, in terms of deceased processing, we can vastly improve processes and ensure we decrease the number of times deceased persons are marketed.

Need help with your deceased processes? FundraisingForce assists charities globally to improve deceased processes and others. Contact us today.

5 Jan 2016

Stephen Mally CRM, CRM readiness, CRM search, CRM search infrastructure, CRM suppliers, Database, Fundraising, FundraisingForce, Nonprofit CRM

CRM search infrastructure lacking in your nonprofit?

The customer relationship management (CRM) system or, as some call it “the database system”, is a non profit organisation’s most important asset.

FundraisingForce receive at least one phone call a week from non profit organisations seeking assistance with a data base search and many are planning to launch a search now that we are in the new year.

Complaining about the CRM/database is the one thing, which every non profit organisation has in common. Charities often say things such as:

…it is too clunky
…it does not meet our needs
…we’ve outgrown the system
…no one uses it
…if the database could only do x, y or z
…I wish our organisation owned x product
…I used x product at my previous job and it was great
…I’m going to contact X supplier immediately and see if we can’t get a demo and start to talk about pricing

Put the brakes on.

Do not contact any suppliers until you have CRM search infrastructure in order.

CRM search infrastructure, includes:

Organisation CRM readiness. Study whether your organisation is ready for a sophisticated CRM. Do you have the following in place:
1. Financial backing of organisation leadership? Do leadership have realistic expectations of project costs?
2. Organisation resourcing to implement a chosen CRM. Remember, the organisation is required to staff the project in the same manner as the supplier.
3. How will your organisation deal with staff turnover? Staff turnover can become detrimental to a CRM implementation. If your organisation has vacant key positions, perhaps waiting until those positions are filled is the right strategy.
Documented, detailed requirements across the entire business. Ensure you focus on the detail rather than “high level” requirements. The more you understand your business requirements, the better suppliers will understand them.
Market research, including a list of suppliers and associated products available in our market.
Time allocation for a comprehensive CRM search. A CRM search takes time, even if you contract with an external consultant to coordinate the search for your organisation. Be certain you understand the time commitment required of your team.
CRM search coordinator. Whether you resource the oversight of the CRM search with an internal resource or a consultant, be sure you identify “who is in charge”. This pint of contact is critical for your organisation and the various CRM suppliers. Empower this person with the responsibility and the authority.

Ensuring you have the proper infrastructure in place before you hit the CRM search accelerator is critical. Searches fail because of a lack of organisation readiness, improper resourcing, poor documentation, or unrealistic expectations. Your ability to negotiate with CRM suppliers is dramatically impacted by not having your act together.

17 Nov 2015

Stephen Mally Bar code, Bar Coding, Christmas, Christmas appeal, CRM, Mystery shopping, Mystery shopping study, Non-profit, Non-Profit Database, Scanning, tax appeal, Workflow

Best practice use of bar coding and scanning

Does your non-profit organisation use bar coding to scan response devices for the tax or Christmas appeals?

I give to hundreds of charities a year – partly for the FundraisingForce mystery shopping study and others for personal reasons. Very few of the organisations supported through the mystery shopping study or on my own use bar codes on response devices.

Endeavour Foundation utilise bar coding on their lottery mailings.

Bar codes are generated by the organisation’s CRM and often times contain components the organisation wishes to track, including supporter number, campaign, designation, appeal, segment, package and other important metrics. Some organisations use bar codes for ease of data entry for acquisition campaigns. In this case, the CRM recognises who the person is, and the associated workflow creates a new supporter record in the CRM, and records the other components at the same time. Imagine the time savings for your supporter services team. Time which can be spent ensuring the donor receives a receipt within the required 48 hour time frame and time which can be spent on other matters.

Your non-profit organisation may already have the tools to create the bar code and a CRM which will consume the bar code. A little time invested in establishing the workflows in your CRM to manage the process described may pay multiple dividends in the long run. This time of year, time is money. Actioning this process will be a nice year-end gift to your supporter services team and…to your donors.

27 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, CRM, Database, Fundraising Institute Australia, FundraisingForce, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers

Finding the perfect CRM for your non-profit

Fundraising Institute Australia conducts webinars as a member benefit. Yesterday I had the opportunity to present this month’s webinar. My presentation, titled Finding the Perfect CRM for your Non-Profit, highlighted there is no perfect CRM for non-profits and offered participants the FundraisingForce Ten Point CRM Search Process:

Requirements gathering – Most organisations cannot fully describe their requirements. In order to be able to articulate your requirements to suppliers, you must first define them in-house and document those requirements. Part of requirements gathering is to also take a full inventory of your data, which is to be converted to the new CRM.
Market research – Understand the market and the various products available to you. Prepare a list of those suppliers you may want to invite to your process, including the products those suppliers represent or hold. After conducting market research, you will match your requirements with suppliers and products in the market. Not every supplier will receive an invite to your process based on the matchback you will do.
Request for Proposals – Create a well-written and though request for proposals (RFP). In the RFP be sure to identify the various aspects you would like the supplier to elaborate on, including things like: financial stability of the supplier, bench strength of the supplier, support and customer service models, and how the supplier proposes to meet the most important of your requirements.
Invitations – Send invitations to the suppliers. In the invitation, be clear about your process, deadlines and any boundaries you have set for suppliers.
Response meetings – Be open to conducting response meetings with suppliers. In these meetings, answer questions suppliers may have about your requirements.
Proposals – Receive proposals by the stated deadlines. Adhere to the deadlines. If you extend a deadline for one supplier, extend it for all. Compare proposals against one another using a ratings system.
Demonstrations – Conduct demonstrations with a team of individuals from your organisation who are key decision makers. Develop a rating chart for your team to use to evaluate the systems seen.
Negotiations – Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Remember the list price is not the best price.
Selection – Select the best of the lot based on the strength of the proposals, the demonstrations, and negotiations.
Business plan – Write a business plan which you will deliver to senior leadership and to the board. Be sure to describe the process you have followed, your due diligence, and highlight your selection, reasons for your selection, as well as the true costs of ownership. In the business plan you also want to state the return on investment (ROI).

This ten point CRM search process may seem overwhelming, even daunting. The market can be confusing. You do not have to go at it alone. FundraisingForce and other consultancies offer assistance to charities seeking to run a thorough CRM selection process.

4 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charity, CRM, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers, Professional development, Webinar

Stephen Mally presents upcoming Webinars

Stephen Mally CFRE, Director of FundraisingForce, will be presenting two upcoming Webinars – the first focused on mystery shopping in the NFP sector and the second on finding the “perfect” CRM for your non-profit organisation.

19 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Secrets to NFP Mystery Shopper

In this Webinar, Mally will discuss the background of the study and convince you mystery shopping is critical to the Asia-Pacific NFP sector. Mally will also share the latest findings and offer you tips to:

Apply the latest findings.
Develop key performance metrics for your organisation.
Enhance customer service across your organisation.
Work toward a more donor-centric organisation.
Get involved in mystery shopping.

This self-funded study is a terrific service to the sector. Mally offers rich information for every organisation to put to good use.

Click this link to register.

26 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Finding the Perfect CRM for your non-profit

Does the perfect non-profit Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) or Supporter Relationship Management (SRM) system 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.

Stephen has conducted numerous CRM/SRM searches for Australian organisations. Stephen will focus on a 10-point process organisations should follow when conducting a search for a new CRM.

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.

Click this link to register.

22 Jul 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Donor retention, Donor stewardship, NFP, Non-profit

Three steps to better data hygiene

This last week I was fortunate to be part of a talented panel of speakers talking about data at the Australian Event Manager’s Forum. This Forum meets once a quarter to talk about case studies and issues relating to the NFP sector and to event management.

I shared with 60 people in attendance the fact 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 not only in the event space, but across the organisation. For some organisations, FundraisingForce conducts constituent relationship management (CRM) searches to find the right fit.

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 in the database. 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.

Change of Focus – Day to Day/Hour by Hour Data Cleansing

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.

19 May 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Donor care, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit

A stack of mail in the United States

I have not lived with my parents since 1983. I last lived with them in the US state of Wisconsin before I went away to university. My parents now live in New Mexico and have since ~1987. I visit them twice a year since moving to Australia – usually in May and December.

Each time I have visited them over the last 7 years, my mother has told me that I have “mail waiting” for me. It started with a piece or two, but it amounted to more that 20 pieces of mail this month.

The interesting part of the May mail stack is there were only two pieces of mail from charity. Those pieces came from a conservation group and they were premium packs – address labels! If I want to, I could send lots of letters out with my parents return address! The remainder of the mail was for mobile phone offers (3 pieces), catalogues for clothing (3 pieces), replacement windows (3 pieces), life insurance (5 pieces), and blank cheques from my United Airlines credit card encouraging me to transfer balances from other cards (6 pieces).

You might suggest 20 pieces of mail in ~4 months is not a lot. You are right. Nonetheless, 20 pieces at an address I never lived, in a state I have only spent short holidays in, is quite puzzling.

14 May 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Donor retention, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit

The Joys of Moving

I am moving house. Where am I moving? I do not know.

Sounds unsettling? It is!

I have simply not had time to find a new home and I needed to vacate my current place due to a pending sale of the unit. The removalists showed on Saturday, packed my belongings, and loaded them onto a truck…to storage.

But, there is so much more to a move. Because I do not know where I am moving to, I had to complete a Mail Hold Service with Australia Post. When I determine where I am moving to, I will complete a Mail Redirection. As you know from my previous posts and articles in F&P Magazine, no charity I support has performed data hygiene since my last move and I know this because Australia Post continues to forward my mail sent to my former Sydney address. It will be interesting to see if charities find me now!

26 Mar 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, CRM, Data cleansing, Donor care, Donor stewardship, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Stewardship

Communication preferences tailored to supporter and organisation

Is the person who lives here on your list? I walk by this home a couple of times per weekend because the house is on the same street as my Brisbane apartment.

I chuckle each time I walk by the house. I am not making fun of the owner. It is within his or her right to post such a sign on their own property and on their letterbox. I simply wonder how many charities have this person on their database and I wonder if the person has ever alerted charities he/she wishes to be on a do not contact list, a do not solicit list, or some other alert.

When someone notifies you they do not wish to be contacted or wishes to opt out of certain communications, what action does your charity take? Do you mark the record “Do Not Contact”? Or, do you ask the supporter exactly what types of communications he or she does not wish to receive? Are you able to mark the supporter record to specify the exact types of communication rather than to code the record in your CRM to “Do Not Contact”, “Do Not Solicit”, “No Solicitations”, “No Mail”, “No Phone”, No Email”, “No SMS”? Would’t it be far better for you to be able use codes to document the supporter’s true communication preferences rather than blanket codes, which may prevent them to no receive communications they actually enjoyed? Codes such as:

Tax Appeal
Christmas Appeal
- The above examples allow your organisation to include all other supporters in all appeals and only include supporters marked “Tax Appeal” or “Christmas Appeal” if they have such a code in their record in the CRM.
Newsletter – Electronic
Newsletter – Post
- The above examples allow your organisation to include supporters with these codes when doing an email newsletter or when doing post newsletter, but to exclude them when doing one or the other if they have the opposite code in their record in the CRM.
No solicitation – phone
- The above example allows your organisation to exclude anyone with this code from a telemarketing campaign when their is a solicitation involved. If the campaign involved a thank you call or some other purpose, your organisation might include the supporter in the calling program.

Communication preferences are vital. Organisations over-engineer and other organisations under-engineer the tracking of this critical data. Doing so means your organisation is short-chaning the donor and your organisation. Don’t cheat your supporter out of communications he or she may value. And, don’t cut the supporter off from communications, which will cause you to ultimately lose the support of the donor as a result.

12 Mar 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, Constituent Relationship Management, CRM, Customer Service, Database, Fundraising, NFP, NGO, Non-profit, Non-Profit Database, Non-profit suppliers, SME, SRM, Subject Matter Expert, Supporter Relationship Management, Training

Finding the ‘perfect’ database for a non-profit

‘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.

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