10 things to consider when choosing the best CRM for non-profits

You've done your research, and you know that your non-profit organization could benefit enormously from a CRM for non-profits. Although it's called CRM (Customer Relationship Management) you know that, in your case, it will be a donor management system. It will also enable you to manage your relationships with your volunteers, partners and potential donors.

Why choose a CRM solution for your non-profit?

Although CRMs are most often used by companies that want to make profits and increase their business, there are many nonprofit CRM solutions.

CRM is a very useful tool for any organization. And in your case, it can help you accomplish a number of things, such as:

• Marketing and communications support
• Helping you organize your data
• Analyzing your data
• Report generation
• Transparency of your organization to increase efficiency

The two types of CRM for non-profits

Non-profits have a variety of missions, but one thing they have in common is the need to manage their relationships well, whether with donors, customers or partners.

There are two main categories of CRM for NGOs: CRM for managing donations and donor data, and CRM for managing customer relations.

CRM for donations and donor management

The main objective of a nonprofit CRM software for donations and donor management is to maximize donations and build donor loyalty.

Donor management tools have become indispensable in streamlining donation workflows. Managing your donor database becomes effortless with the correct nonprofit CRM, allowing you to automate much of the communication and tracking that comes with ongoing donor relationships. This aspect becomes even more critical as nonprofits expand, and manual tracking becomes impractical.

This type of CRM focuses on optimizing fundraising campaigns, facilitating the management of individual and recurring donations, and enabling personalized interactions with each donor.

Donor tracking

Each donor has a unique journey, and this type of CRM makes it possible to track donation history, understand each donor's preferences (e.g. one-off or recurring donation, average amount), and anticipate future communication needs.

Many donor management tools offer automated tracking features, helping organizations keep tabs on a donor's engagement history, including past interactions and the results of fundraising appeals. With proper donor tracking, nonprofits can better tailor their communication strategies to different donor segments, ensuring that all messaging is aligned with each donor's preferences and previous engagement levels.

Segmentation and personalization

This CRM enables you to segment your donor base according to specific criteria (donation amount, frequency, types of campaigns to which they respond, etc.) to personalize communications and thus improve engagement.

One key feature to look for in a donor management system is its ability to segment donors not just based on demographics, but also by behaviour and engagement level. For example, using your donor database, you could identify lapsed donors and then create specific, personalized campaigns aimed at re-engaging them. Similarly, major donors can be treated with tailored strategies that reflect their higher contributions and potential.

Campaign automation

One of the strengths of this type of CRM is its ability to automate e-mailing, follow-up or thank-you campaigns, enabling you to maintain a constant link with donors without burdening your teams.

Automation in donor management goes beyond simply sending thank-you notes or receipts. With the right nonprofit CRM, you can automate entire fundraising workflows—from the initial engagement email to follow-up donation requests and milestone updates. These tools ensure that every step of the donor journey is accounted for, making your donor engagement strategy far more robust.

Performance analysis

Thanks to reporting and analysis tools, the CRM enables you to identify the best-performing campaigns, the periods most conducive to donations, and the most loyal donors.

Leveraging donor analytics can provide insight into your most effective fundraising channels. Many nonprofit CRMs offer detailed dashboards that track engagement metrics, donor retention rates, and average donation size. This kind of granular data allows your organization to adjust strategies on the fly, focusing on methods that yield the best return on investment.

CRM for relationship management

Non-profits that use this type of CRM aim to improve the tracking and management of interactions with all stakeholders, such as associations that help integrate immigrants or support the homeless.

This type of nonprofit CRM software enables organizations to track every interaction with their beneficiaries and ensure that each case receives the attention it needs.

Customer file management

This CRM enables you to keep detailed track of each beneficiary or customer, recording their personal details, specific needs, requests and every stage of their follow-up.

Interaction tracking

You can easily record all interactions with your customers, whether appointments, consultations or interviews. This gives you an overview of the relationship with each beneficiary, guaranteeing rigorous follow-up of each case.

The right nonprofit CRM software will simplify interaction tracking, ensuring that no important contact information or communication history is lost. It offers a seamless interface for tracking calls, emails, in-person visits, or social media interactions, making your organization more responsive to the needs of its beneficiaries.

Collaboration and information sharing

If several people are managing a case, this CRM makes it easy to share information between them, ensuring that everyone is up-to-date on the status of a client or beneficiary.

Personalized services

Each person has specific needs, and a CRM oriented towards customer relationship management makes it possible to offer a personalized service to each beneficiary. This makes it possible to tailor support to specific needs, and improve the quality of services rendered.

Personalizing services for donors, beneficiaries, or volunteers has never been easier than with a donor management system that understands the complexity of stakeholder relationships in the nonprofit world.

Scenarios where nonprofits can make use of CRM solutions

There may be two main types of CRM software for non-profits, but their usage is varied. Based on your goals, missions and NGO, you will use your CRM system differently, to maximize your productivity, save time and be efficient. Below are some examples on how you can use a CRM software in managing your non-profits.

Improving Donor Retention and Engagement

An environmental nonprofit noticed declining donor retention and used a CRM to track donor engagement. They segmented donors and personalized their outreach by highlighting volunteer opportunities and events.

Automated thank-you emails and follow-ups were also introduced to strengthen connections. This personalized approach led to an increase in donor retention within six months.

By engaging donors based on their preferences and tracking behaviour, the organization successfully re-engaged lapsed donors and built stronger relationships, leading to improved retention and ongoing support.

Streamlining Event Planning and Fundraising

A healthcare nonprofit struggled to manage their annual fundraising gala manually. After implementing a CRM, they automated ticketing, seating, and donation tracking, improving event organization. Attendee communication was personalized based on donor preferences, while real-time donation tracking helped target high-potential donors during the event.

Post-event, automated thank-yous and follow-ups streamlined donor relations. As a result, the nonprofit raised more in donations, strengthened relationships with key supporters, and significantly reduced administrative work, allowing them to focus on cultivating meaningful donor connections.

Personalized Donor Cultivation Strategy

An education nonprofit was struggling to build relationships with major donors. By using a CRM to track donor behaviour, they identified high-potential supporters and created tailored engagement strategies. Personalized communication, such as invitations to exclusive events and updates about specific programs, helped the organization strengthen relationships with these donors.

This approach resulted in several donors increasing their contributions, converting one-time contributors into long-term major supporters through targeted, personalized cultivation efforts that aligned with donor interests.

Managing Volunteer Relationships and Maximizing Impact

A disaster relief nonprofit found it challenging to manage a large volunteer base. After adopting a CRM with a volunteer management module, they could track volunteer skills, availability, and involvement history.

Automated communication and recognition, such as thank-you emails and certificates, boosted volunteer engagement. Volunteers felt more connected and appreciated, leading to increased retention and faster mobilization during disaster events.

The CRM allowed the organization to manage volunteer coordination efficiently, improving operational impact and ensuring that volunteers were consistently recognized for their efforts.

Expanding Outreach Through Data-Driven Campaigns

An arts nonprofit struggled to attract new donors. By using their CRM to analyze donor data, they created profiles of their most engaged supporters and targeted similar audiences through data-driven campaigns.

The nonprofit tested different outreach strategies, segmented potential donors, and used a mix of channels like email and social media.

This approach resulted in an increase in first-time donors, allowing the organization to grow its donor base significantly. Using CRM insights, the nonprofit optimized its marketing efforts, focusing resources on the most promising donor segments.

What to consider when choosing a CRM for non-profits?

Now that you know the two types of CRM for non-profits and how it can be used in different situations, let's take a look at the 10 aspects you should consider when choosing the best nonprofit CRM software.

1. The best CRM for non-profits maximizes the management and use of your data

Your CRM will be the only source of truth when it comes to your donor data. So be sure to invest in a CRM that offers you a centralized database and helps you manage and organize your data as you enter it.

This will ensure that no important information is lost or overlooked. Perhaps you'll want a CRM that acts as your donor management system and automates data entry to save you time and errors.

Your CRM should include some artificial intelligence to help you analyze and extract important points from your data. You should be able to visualize the relationships between different types of data in your donor profiles. You'll be able to correlate them with campaign success, funds raised, donor engagement, spending and more.

Your CRM should enable you to generate reports based on your data. You can then use them to present your results to your donors, partners or board members. They allow you to demonstrate that you've done the necessary research and testing, and that you're basing your decision on data.

2. The best CRM for non-profits improves communications and transparency

Your CRM for non-profits should also include marketing and communications features that make it easy to stay in touch with current and potential donors, volunteers and partners.

Choose a CRM that provides templates you can customize to promote your organization's brand. And a CRM that supports communications not only by e-mail, but also by all the channels your donors prefer, such as the telephone.

It's also important to be able to schedule your communications in advance, in addition to your automated follow-ups, reminders and thank-yous. It also helps build relationships with your organization's various stakeholders.

Your CRM should track every interaction you have with your donors. Every member of your team will be able to access their engagement history via CRM.

As your team changes, you won't have to worry about losing aspects of your donor relationship. Each member of your team will know exactly which communications have already taken place with a donor, and will be able to pick up where their colleague left off.

Investing in the right nonprofit CRM system will ensure that every communication is logged, reducing the risk of fragmented or missed interactions with donors.

3. A CRM for non-profits should boost your productivity

The best CRMs for non-profits automate certain repetitive manual tasks. These tasks take up a lot of your time, which could be better invested in something that software can't do. Save several hours a week with a CRM that handles tasks.

These can be, for example, sending e-mails, SMS notifications, scheduling activities or updating certain fields. Other examples of automation include:

• Automatically opening a file when you receive an e-mail from a donor
• Sending an e-mail notification when your support team opens or closes a folder
• Automatically sending SMS messages as part of a campaign
• Automatically identify potential donors who are most likely to become donors
• Create a donor profile from an Excel spreadsheet
• Send a weekly report by e-mail summarizing the various actions tracked in the CRM.

4. The best CRM for non-profits supports your non-profit activities

Your CRM can help you plan and manage the events that are crucial to your fundraising efforts and campaigns. Your CRM helps you from initial planning and budgeting to promotion. It can record attendance, broadcast a webinar and analyze your event, its ROI and lead generation. This applies to both virtual and face-to-face events.

Choose a CRM for non-profits that includes :

• Simplified event contact, registration and attendance management features
• Session tracking and speaker management
• Attendee passes for specific sessions
• Logistics and management of hotel reservations
• Venue management and room layout
• Customer survey integration
• Attendance history for each contact, including events and sessions attended
• An event website that you can put online

5. Know who will be using your non-profit CRM

When considering the different nonprofits CRMs you could invest in, think about all the people in your organization who will use it fully or in part.

Most CRM solutions have a price based on the number of users per month. This price also changes if you use the whole CRM suite, a single solution or several CRM applications.

Choosing the nonprofit CRM is also a matter of understanding how the system integrates into your team’s workflows and supports your donor management goals. If a CRM is too complex, it may result in a low adoption rate.

So it's a good idea to make your decision knowing exactly who will be using the CRM, so that you can work as a team in a seamless, unified way. You should also determine why each person needs to use the CRM.

For example, development staff will likely be focusing on donor management tools and tracking donor interactions, while your communications team may be more focused on using the CRM’s marketing automation features.

It may be a small part of your organization, or it may be the whole organization. Knowing this information will influence your choice of CRM.

6. The best CRM for non-profits has its head in the cloud

There are two ways to implement CRMs. First, you can install one on your internal network, giving you control over every aspect. However, this makes you responsible for its maintenance, and limits your flexibility and ability to adapt to new conditions.

The other option is to use a cloud-based CRM, which we recommend. This allows you to separate the software from your local IT infrastructure. It makes your data accessible, no matter where you are or what device you're using. This allows it to evolve continuously, which means you'll always have access to the latest features.

The flexibility offered by a cloud-based CRM is especially valuable for donor management, where staff and volunteers might need to access donor data from various locations, whether in the field, from home, or while traveling for events.

This is also relevant in today's working world, where people don't all work in the same place. And while there are various solutions to help telecommuting and employee communication, CRM is also on the list.

7. A CRM for non-profits with integrations and extensions

The best CRM for nonprofits doesn't stand alone. In fact, its primary purpose is to bring people and data together to optimize the management of your NPO. So it's crucial that it can integrate with your ERP software and the communication tools you use in the office (e.g. Microsoft Teams).

The more your CRM can connect with other applications, the easier it will be for your organization to implement and adopt it.

For instance, donor management need to integrate with your existing payment processing systems and accounting software to ensure that donations are tracked, and funds are allocated correctly.

Moreover, connecting the CRM to social media management tools can amplify outreach efforts, especially when targeting potential donors or partners. An integrated system can significantly improve the functionality and productivity of your team, enabling seamless collaboration across departments.

8. Best CRM for non-profit has an accessible mobile interface

The future is on our phones! In today's reality, it's important to be able to access your work from wherever you happen to be – at the office, at home, on the go… Make sure that your CRM has a mobile interface so that work can carry on no matter where your people are.

A mobile-facing non-profit CRM software is also one of the best marketing tools that you can have at your disposal. Because it will highly facilitate the running of your day-to-day tasks, from optimizing donor engagement efforts to getting valuable insights on your donor retention rate and other donor information that you can have at your fingertips.

Mobile platforms are especially useful for fundraisers and event coordinators who may be working off-site and need real-time access to the database and management systems. Real-time updates ensure no time is wasted during donor meetings, and teams can follow up immediately with action items or thank-you messages, keeping engagement high.

9. A CRM for non-profit with top-notch security

It goes without saying that privacy and security are top concerns nowadays. It's vital for the reputation and integrity of your organization that you protect your donor data.

The best nonprofit CRM will have robust security measures to ensure that sensitive information about your donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries is kept safe. Look for a system that offers advanced encryption protocols, role-based access controls, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR or CCPA if you operate internationally.

So dig deeper to make sure that your CRM for non-profit software not only has the best security in place, but that it regularly evolves to makes sure that it is keeping up to date with the latest threats.

10. Best CRM for non-profit is easy to use and maintain

Our lives are complicated enough that there is no reason to bring on a CRM for non-profits that is hard to use or maintain. The CRM for non-profit software exists to make your life easier! There is no reason to struggle. Look for a CRM that was designed for the smoothest, easiest user experience. A CRM that respects its users is a CRM that deserves your attention.

An intuitive CRM interface ensures that even team members who are not tech-savvy can quickly get up to speed and start using the software.

If you choose the nonprofit CRM, you should expect minimal training and support requirements—your team should be able to log in and immediately start using management tools, updating donor databases, and running reports.

For more information on what a CRM for non-profits can do for your organization and to get the big picture on which software is right for you, speak to one of our CRM consultants. We are here to answer to all fo your queries and propose you solutions that are adapted to your non-profit and its needs.

From a powerful donor management software to providing you with online fundraising tools and managing donor relationships, we'll make sure that the essential nonprofit CRM features are present in your software.

Selecting the correct CRM will streamline your operations, enhance donor engagement, and provide long-term value as your organization grows. By focusing on the right donor management CRM and ensuring that your CRM system fits the unique needs of your nonprofit, you’ll be equipped and launch fundraising campaigns and optimise your fundraising efforts to everyday donor communications with ease.