How Software Can Help Streamline Nonprofit Operations

As a nonprofit professional, you likely often look for ways to grow your organization’s fundraising capacity while keeping your operations as simple and budget-friendly as possible. Although you may hesitate at the idea of making an up-front investment, using robust nonprofit software solutions can help you streamline your operations and save administrative time.

Are you interested in upgrading your current nonprofit software solutions or adding new tools to your toolkit? Understanding how nonprofit software can improve your organization’s operations can help you verify that you’re making the most of your new or existing tools.

In this post, we’ll look at how nonprofit software allows you to:

1. Simplify and maximize your fundraising efforts.
2. Centralize your supporter communications.
3. Improve your internal operations.
4. Save time when running reports.

As you read through this article, first ask yourself if your nonprofit has access to the software solutions discussed, then consider whether your nonprofit is using the features of each platform to the fullest.

If you identify gaps in your software toolkit, write down a list of solutions you may need and make time to research and purchase the ones that make the most sense for your organization’s needs and budget.

1. Simplify and maximize your fundraising efforts.

There’s a lot to keep track of when it comes to hosting fundraising campaigns, from planning the campaign and promoting it to tracking fundraising progress. Fundraising software solutions bring all of these operations together in one system, helping you stay organized and raise more funds.

Here are a few examples of ways you can use fundraising software tools to help your fundraising campaigns succeed:

• Store donor information in your CRM. Your CRM, otherwise known as your donor management software, is a powerful tool to track donor information, discover hidden fundraising opportunities within your current donor pool, and gain new insights into your fundraising progress. You can track all interactions your donors have with your organization, from opening campaign emails to attending your events. You can also use this system to create donor segments based on supporters’ shared characteristics. This allows you to develop more personalized outreach communications with supporters.

• Process donations with online fundraising tools. Digital fundraising platforms allow you to process a variety of donation types, including one-time donations, recurring contributions, planned gifts, and more. Plus, when your online fundraising platform fully integrates with your donor management software, you can easily transfer data between the two solutions. For example, after supporters donate using your online donation platform, their information will be automatically saved in their donor profile in your database. You can then reference this information for future fundraising and marketing campaigns.

• Solicit donations from donors who work at companies that have matching gift programs. Corporate giving programs, such as matching gifts programs, often go overlooked as lucrative fundraising opportunities. When you invest in a matching gift database that integrates with your online fundraising system, you can identify and connect with matching gift-eligible donors during the donation process. According to 360MatchPro’s guide to matching gift databases, your matching gift software can automatically capture donors’ employment information based on their email domains and send automated messages reminding them to apply for their matching gift. 

Perhaps you’ve determined that your organization could benefit from new or additional fundraising platforms, but you’re hesitant to invest in a new system because of the up-front and monthly or annual fees. When deciding how to move forward, weigh potential fundraising growth with your organization’s budget restrictions to see which solution will produce the highest return on your investment (ROI).

As you weigh the options, it’s tempting to choose free fundraising software solutions, assuming they’ll have the highest ROI. But those might not be the best solutions to use over time.

Bloomerang’s guide to free fundraising software points out that free solutions tend to be less robust than paid options and often come with unexpected start-up fees and fees for necessary add-ons that can quickly add up. That’s why it’s almost always worth it to invest in dedicated donor management software and online fundraising platforms from the start—even if they’re not free software solutions. Research solutions built specifically for nonprofits that fit your organization’s budget and align with your needs.

2. Centralize your supporter communications.

Actively stewarding your donors, corporate partners, grant funders, volunteers, and other supporters is critical for maintaining their support and engagement and increasing your revenue over time.

Marketing software tools and platforms allow you to centralize your communication records in one place, which makes it easier to reach your intended audiences. These tools include your:

• Email marketing platform
• Social media scheduling platform
• Website content management system (CMS)

When your marketing solutions, such as your email marketing platform, integrate with your CRM, you can use donor information to personalize your outreach messages with supporters’ names. You can also easily leverage the donor segments you’ve created to send tailored marketing messages to each group, increasing engagement with your online campaigns. The more personal you make your communications, the more donors will feel valued and the more likely they are to give again.

3. Improve your internal operations.

Internally, your nonprofit may need to track time, manage payroll, plan staff and volunteer schedules, and handle other logistical concerns. Software solutions can help you with:

• Board management. Your nonprofit’s board oversees your organization’s strategies at the highest level. To ensure your organization is on the right track, your board has to meet regularly, create lines of open communication, and develop new strategies for your nonprofit to help reach your goals. Board management software can help centralize all board activities in one accessible platform. Your board members can check when the next meeting is, share documents and reports, and review minutes from previous meetings. Board software is especially useful when your board operates remotely, as it keeps everyone on the same page even if they’re not working in the same room or the same city.

• Staff management. Staff management software can include platforms that help you with logging timesheets, submitting time-off requests, and managing projects. Software tools make it easy for employees to carry out their daily responsibilities because they can access the tools from their devices to see what they need to do and what their deadlines are.

• Volunteer management. Volunteer management software can be incredibly useful for nonprofits that offer volunteer programs, especially those that rely heavily on volunteers for managing day-to-day operations. Volunteer management software gives nonprofits access to detailed volunteer profiles, shift scheduling tools, volunteer hour-tracking tools, communication features, and other features that streamline the volunteer process. Volunteer management solutions help nonprofits avoid scheduling issues, creating a smoother experience for volunteers.

When you organize and streamline your nonprofit’s internal operations using different software solutions, you’ll spend less time worrying about logistics and more time working toward your mission.

4. Save time when running reports.

Tracking fundraising and marketing metrics and running reports based on that data helps your nonprofit understand how well you’re progressing toward your goals. Without powerful software tools, reporting can become time-consuming, potentially requiring staff members to manually upload data into a multi-page spreadsheet.

When your organization uses software tools to manage reports, you can streamline the process and save your staff time. Here are a couple of different ways software can help you keep track of your data more efficiently:

• Use your CRM to run donor reports. Your nonprofit CRM allows you to keep donor data organized for future campaigns. Top-of-the-line CRMs allow you to use built-in report templates, run trend and comparison reports to assess donor engagement over time, and schedule recurring reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

• Easily process marketing data. Track email and social media engagement using your online marketing platform. Quickly assess different aspects of your marketing strategy to readjust your approach as necessary. For example, you can compare open rates for different email campaigns and determine which types of emails receive the most engagement.

These software tools allow you to identify and correct missteps before they become major issues. This saves you time and funding that you might otherwise spend on ineffective fundraising or marketing strategies.

Nonprofit software can help you raise more funds, connect with more supporters, and manage internal processes more efficiently. In your search for new software tools, focus on finding the solutions that work best for your nonprofit’s unique needs and goals. Any new tools you invest in should be easy to use and offer the features you need to carry out your strategies effectively.