How to Maximize Your Nonprofit’s Event Success With a CRM

Guest post by DNL OmniMedia

For nonprofits, hosting an event is about more than raising funds; it's about building relationships, engaging supporters, and advancing your mission. With a constituent relationship management (CRM) system, you can streamline these tasks and ultimately drive greater impact for your cause. 

In this guide, we’ll explain how to harness the power of your CRM software to plan, execute, and optimize events. From efficiently managing event registrations and ticket sales to capturing donor data, these insights will help you enhance every aspect of your event strategy.

Leverage Integrations

Certain CRMs have built-in event management tools, allowing users to plan events and analyze their performance all in one platform. Other systems, however, may require users to integrate third-party software, including: 

• Event management software: Integrate your CRM or donor management system with event management software. This integration allows you to seamlessly manage event registrations, ticket sales, attendee information, and communication. It also provides tools for tracking attendance, managing check-ins, and collecting valuable data about your event attendees.

• Email marketing tools: Connecting your CRM or donor management system with an email marketing platform like Mailchimp can help you send personalized event-related emails. You can automate event reminders, updates, and post-event follow-ups, as well as segment your email list to ensure the right messages reach the right recipients.

• Payment processing systems: If your event involves ticket sales, donations, or merchandise purchases, integrating your CRM with a secure payment gateway is essential. This integration ensures that payments are processed smoothly, reducing manual data entry and potential errors.

If you need help integrating these tools, consider working with a technology consultant. Their expert teams will assess your technology infrastructure and identify compatible solutions. They can then configure and customize the integration, ensuring that data flows smoothly between your CRM and event-related tools.

Train your staff 

Training users on using the CRM before the event is crucial so that staff and volunteers are well-prepared to manage event-related tasks and interactions. It also helps prevent potential errors and confusion during event activities like registration, attendee tracking, and donor engagement. 

Take these steps to train your employees and engage them in the process of data management: 

• Customize training for roles and responsibilities. Not all staff members will use the CRM system in the same way. Tailor your training sessions to each staff member's specific role and their level of interaction with the CRM. For example, event coordinators might need to focus on managing attendee data and communications, whereas a fundraising committee may be more interested in payment processing. 

• Implement hands-on training and real-life scenarios. Instead of just theoretical training, prepare your staff for the event with hands-on training exercises and real-life scenarios. Allow staff to interact with the CRM system directly and practice using it in a controlled environment. Create simulated scenarios based on common event-related tasks, such as registering attendees, tracking donations, or sending out event communications. 

• Provide ongoing support. Learning how to use a CRM system effectively takes time, and staff members may encounter questions or challenges as they start using it. Even after the formal training period ends, offer ongoing support and resources, such as user guides, video tutorials, or a dedicated point of contact for CRM-related inquiries. 

After the event ends, schedule a check-in meeting in which staff can share their experiences and learn from one another. Gather feedback to identify any pain points that may require additional training or system improvements.

Personalize Outreach

Outreach plays an important role in building relationships, increasing attendee engagement, and ultimately enhancing the overall event experience. For the greatest impact, use the data stored in your CRM to personalize outreach based on:

• Engagement level: Leverage historical data to recommend events that align with an individual's past participation or interests. Include this information in your invitations to pique their curiosity and encourage attendance. For example, a major donor might be invited to an exclusive gala, while a new donor receives information about an upcoming welcome luncheon. 

• Behavioral triggers: Implement automated workflows to trigger personalized responses based on user behavior during the invitation phase, such as sending additional event details immediately after someone registers.

• Participation: After the event, thank supporters for their participation and contributions. To make the follow-up communication relevant, mention the specific sessions they attended or interactions they had during the event.

Keep in mind that your CRM data must be up-to-date and accurate for your personalization efforts to be effective. Implement data validation tools and procedures to verify email addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses. This helps prevent inaccuracies and ensures that communication reaches the intended recipients. Additionally, enhance your database by adding missing information, such as social media profiles, job titles, or organization affiliations. 

Track Attendee Interactions

By monitoring attendee interactions, you can gather insights into which sessions or activities were most popular, which marketing strategies were effective, and what areas need improvement for future events.

Here are a few different interactions to take note of in the CRM:

• Event attendance: Record which events (fundraisers, workshops, seminars, etc.) attendees have participated in. This helps you gauge their level of engagement with your organization and identify their interests.

• Audience questions: Record questions asked by attendees during live or virtual sessions and capture poll responses provided by attendees during the event. Analyze the results to gauge attendee sentiment and areas for improvement.

• Donations: Track all donations and contributions made by attendees, including one-time donations, recurring donations, and in-kind contributions. Knowing how much and how often attendees donate helps you assess their financial support and identify potential major donors.

• Communication engagement: Monitor how attendees engage with your organization's communications, such as emails, newsletters, and social media. Track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and response rates to tailor your communication strategy to their preferences and interests.

Throughout this process, implement robust security measures to protect sensitive data like credit card numbers, demographic information, and personal opinions. Contact your CRM provider or work with a nonprofit consulting firm to encrypt data and conduct a security audit to identify potential vulnerabilities. 

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Whether you're organizing a charity gala, fundraising auction, volunteer recruitment drive, or any other type of event, a CRM can be your greatest asset. We encourage you to dive deeper into your system’s features and adapt your approach based on real-time data. Doing so will help you host successful events well into the future.

5 Steps to Take Before Implementing a New Nonprofit CRM

Guest post by Redpath Consulting Group

Supporter relationships are the foundation your nonprofit is built on, and to manage those relationships, you need the help of a capable constituent relationship management (CRM) platform. 

The right CRM will not only allow your team to keep track of your donors, but it will also help you improve operations across the board—from increasing fundraising efficiency to simplifying donor communications. However, making the move to a new CRM is a lengthy process that requires careful consideration. Before moving forward, make sure you take these steps:

1. Perform a Needs Assessment

2. Define Your Budget

3. Research Implementation Partners

4. Get Board Approval

5. Choose Your New CRM

Even if you already have a specific CRM or software provider in mind, it’s worth taking these steps to ensure you’re happy with your decision and prepared for the implementation process.

1. Perform a Needs Assessment

The first step is to evaluate your current CRM and determine what its challenges and pitfalls are. Common nonprofit needs that a new CRM could address include:

• Disorganized or siloed data. If your donor data is housed in an inconsistent way or spread across multiple different systems, your team can have difficulty locating the information they need. To solve this problem, it’s helpful to have a centralized database that quickly gives you the full picture of every contact and how they engage with you, whether they are monetary donors, in-kind donors, volunteers, staff, partners, or a combination of multiple roles! 

• Difficulty sending and tracking donor communications. If you don’t have an efficient way to send invitations, donation appeals, thank-you emails, updates, and other important messages to donors, you might look for a CRM that can automate communication cadences. Or, choose a CRM with native automation add-ons like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud to meet this need.

• Inefficient grants management process. Nonprofits and foundations that disburse grant funding to other organizations need a streamlined way to track applications and the grants they award. Many CRMs designed for nonprofits include grant management features that allow you to easily consolidate and monitor this information.

Based on these needs, make a list of goals for what you want to accomplish with your new CRM. If you’re a new nonprofit and you don’t yet have a CRM, think about the main needs you want your system to address. 

2. Define Your Budget

After outlining your needs, take a look at your finances and define your budget for the project. Follow nonprofit budgeting best practices, such as reviewing past budgets and defining specific activities within the project, to make it as accurate as possible.

For a CRM implementation project, your budget should include both initial and ongoing expenses, such as:

• The software license, which is typically a monthly, per-user cost

• Consultant services

• Data integration costs

• Training and support costs

• Any additional add-ons or integrations you’ll need

If your budget is tight, consider doing additional fundraising or grant research to secure enough funding for this important project. Check out resources like Getting Attention’s list of nonprofit technology grants to find grants offered by corporations and foundations that support nonprofits’ technological growth. 

3. Research Implementation Partners

Redpath’s Salesforce for Nonprofits implementation guide explains how trying to implement a complex CRM like Salesforce on your own can result in data loss, technical issues, and a low ROI. That’s why many nonprofits choose to work with an implementation partner, an outside consultant who’s a technical expert in the CRM you’re implementing. 

These experts can guide you through the process from start to finish, providing you with services like implementation planning, data migration, and ongoing technical support. The right partner will get to know your organization and technical goals to ensure your new CRM meets all your needs.

As you research consultants to partner with, consider each potential partner’s:

• Certifications: Some of the most popular CRMs for nonprofits, like Salesforce, have official certifications for technology consultants. For example, you might see a badge that says “Salesforce Partner since 2014” or a designation such as “Nonprofit Expert.” These certifications indicate that the partner has sufficient expertise to maintain official partner status. 

• Specialties: Some partners specialize in working with specific sectors or clouds. Ideally, you should seek out a nonprofit-specific software consultant who understands how nonprofits operate and how their CRM can support them. 

• Past work: Look at the partner’s website to find success stories and examples of their past work. Have they worked with organizations similar to yours? What kind of results have they achieved for similar nonprofits? 

Choose a few good options that align with your needs and goals to present to your board. Then, schedule a consultation with your chosen partner to discuss your needs and their implementation strategy. Different consultants have different approaches to CRM implementation, so make sure that their approach supports your goals.

4. Get Board Approval

Since implementing a new CRM is a major project, you’ll need to get approval from your board and other key stakeholders before moving any further in the process.

Schedule a meeting and present them with the findings from your needs assessment, proposed budget, and implementation partner research to give them the full picture of what implementation could look like for your nonprofit. Gather input on anything else your board would like your CRM to have, along with any additional resources or restrictions that should guide your selection process.

For example, if your board is focusing on increasing community engagement at the moment, they might ask you to prioritize volunteer management features in your CRM selection or to find a system that integrates with your existing volunteer management platform.

5. Choose Your New CRM 

Finally, it’s time to evaluate your software options and choose the CRM that’s the best fit for your needs. As you explore different solutions, consider:

• The system’s intuitiveness. Based on your staff members’ technical experience, you may look for systems with faster setup and extra built-in support features.

• Nonprofit-specific features. The best CRM options for nonprofits are those that were designed with nonprofits’ unique needs in mind. Look for systems with donor management, grant management, donation processing, and advocacy features.

• Flexibility and customization. Some CRMs are more flexible than others in terms of how much you can customize the system to meet your exact needs. If you know you need to create a custom app for one of your programs, for example, you’ll need a more flexible system.

• Support and training resources. Explore the resources available to support your team’s training. Is ongoing support included? How robust is the help community?

Along with these considerations, check the availability of add-ons, apps, and integrations that can support your organization’s goals. For example, Salesforce has a community AppExchange that features a wide range of apps for nonprofits, including wealth screening tools, matching gift search tools, and volunteer engagement solutions.  

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After taking these steps, you’re ready to get started! Your implementation partner should lead the way, beginning by discussing your needs and goals and crafting a comprehensive implementation plan. CRM implementations typically take multiple months to complete, so be prepared for the time commitment in advance. At the end of the process, you’ll have a new and improved solution for all your donor management needs.

The preceding post was provided by a guest author unaffiliated with DonationMatch. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of DonationMatch.