Today, we will discuss the benefits of using a charity CRM to manage everything from donations to membership plans and subscriptions. Larger charities and organisations have moved online, leaving smaller charities behind.
We understand that smaller charities have smaller shoestring budgets and opt for simple donor management systems. However, as charities grow, the needs change. Moving to a charity CRM could help to elevate your charity to the next level.
The digital age has done wonders for the charity sector in raising funds and awareness. Charities have shifted from traditional means of raising funds to new tech solutions via digital channels such as email marketing. However, it can be scary, so Memba aims to make creating a membership website and managing your members easier!
Let's dive in and see how a charity CRM could be more accessible than you thought.
A CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.
CRM is a one-stop shop to house your relationships in one place. A CRM gathers all of your users' interactions across your whole website in one place. It aims to centralise all your data to help improve customer experience, retention and satisfaction.
CRM helps your business, charity, or trade association focus on growing and creating profit. It allows you to focus on what is important, while the CRM management software focuses on everything else.
CRM are the future for charities. Studies found that 43% of organisations with a CRM said their income increased year over year. The pandemic highlighted the urgency of moving to a digital form to track data.
A charity CRM manages your relationships with your donors and can also analyse activity, create single client views and centralise data. It allows charities to become more strategic by having real-time intelligence reporting to help aid decisions.
A massive factor of charity CRM is that it saves time. For example, tracking every email on your email list and every person attending an event can take a lot of time and effort. In addition, things can be misplaced or spread over different spreadsheets, systems and even paper copies. You can track all of this on a charity CRM in one place.
Additionally, 89% of consumers report they are more likely to make another purchase after a positive experience.
Simply put, charity CRMs help you store everything in one place. Gone are the days of losing valuable information or switching between 3 different spreadsheets.
Now we know what a CRM is, let's look at the benefits of using a CRM for charities. A lot of the benefits of using a CRM become apparent when using it. You can sign up for a 60-day free trial if you want to try it out yourself.
In the meantime, we have condensed all the benefits into the sections below.
Charity CRMs will be an absolute game changer regarding how your charity interacts with your supporters. Your supporters should get as well-delivered customer service from nonprofit organisations during fundraising campaigns as they do from private organisations.
Charities are keen to let supporters know what is happening, but most need to utilise their digital tools so they aren't leaving clear gaps in their communication. With a CRM in place, charities can become better communicators for volunteers and supporters to create more meaningful relationships. This enables mutual gain.
One key thing to note here is that communication with charity audiences is much more personal than in the business world. It has an emotional aspect that can be hard to convey in a digital environment. Therefore a benefit of using a charity CRM is that it helps build insight to ensure communication with supporters is still personal.
It is important to add that CRMs are not only useful for charities but also for the user. Simplifying your website by linking it to your CRM makes the customer experience more enjoyable and easy to navigate. Get in touch if you want to learn more about connecting your website to your CRM.
Charity CRM software helps strengthen your communication with your supporters, showing you understand them. By understanding your customers, you gain their confidence which could lead to larger donations in the future.
Project management can take a considerable amount of time for any business - whether you're a small charity or a large one, you need something that is easily accessible and results in time saved. This is one of the reasons we have developed leading CRM systems for charities.
One of the biggest benefits of using a charity CRM is how everything is in one place. It takes the stress away from searching through endless spreadsheets and different systems. You no longer need to have separate systems to manage all of your data.
A unified central CRM allows you to access information quickly. Not only that, it helps you to find it easily (we know how hard that can be when saved in different places).
This benefit is not only to help you and your team out but to minimise miscommunication and inaccurate information going out for your supporters and team. You only need to remember one login to give you access to everything you need.
It also helps you to improve your decision-making. For example, if you are spending time switching between spreadsheets, it can take up precious time. Therefore, introducing a CRM helps your employees to make more informed decisions as all the information is in one place.
Charity CRM offers events planning software. Combining your event management into your CRM allows you to add any details you would like. In addition, it helps to simplify what can seem like a mammoth task by giving you control.
Memba’s CRM provides an option to add Google analytics which helps to instantly track member engagement. On top of that it helps you to create online or in-person events, allowing you to set the time, date, location and send the invites all in one place.
CRM’s simplify the process by categorising and storing the data in one place. You can then analyse the data provided, see which generates the most money, and where you can improve.
Simply put, CRM eliminates all of the timely tasks to help you focus on the key task.
So, we have looked at how charity CRM can help you see all your data. Well, CRMs can also help to create reports on pretty much anything that has been tracked. Here are some typical reporting functions:
Charities can use these reports to plan better for the future. For example, viewing your income streams more accurately will offer you more control over future activities. In addition, it measures your success with accurate data that would otherwise take weeks to collect.
Another benefit of using a charity CRM is assisting with compliance. As impressive as it is that CRMs give you access to these reports that gather important data. However, access to data, declarations, and personal information is a security risk.
We understand that moving to a new tech solution can be terrifying regarding sensitive information. However, a CRM helps you to secure this information safely. It ticks all compliance boxes and protects both your supporters and business.
From a GDPR perspective, your supporters can have confidence that their data is held safely, something no shared spreadsheet can guarantee.
It is a win-win. You are adhering to compliance and security while also having easy access to manage the data. It can be deleted on request and still complies with GDPR.
Ultimately, a charity CRM saves you time!
The current world is fast-paced, and it can be hard to catch a breath. A CRM helps to free up time doing tedious admin tasks to concentrate on what really matters. Personalising a service for your supporters by nurturing strong relationships.
Using the data and insights to learn about your members. Their special interests, preferences (such as dietary requirements) , event attendance, if they are attending upcoming fundraising events etc. Understanding their interaction with you can help create a personalised service.
Having more time allows you to go that extra mile and focus on what really matters.
