Nonprofits, what's your problem?

Do nonprofits have a problem?

You know that selecting, buying, and implementing enterprise software is a complex task requiring detailed technical knowledge rarely part of the “day job” of the people making the decision.  Furthermore, the process could take months to a couple years (or more).

That’s not the problem.

The stereotype of software salespeople as predators is often true. Many, especially those working for large, publicly traded companies or venture-capitalized start-ups, are on quota. They’re not bad people, but if they miss their quota, they risk losing their job; closing the deal, makes them money. It’s easy to see how this zero-sum game might lead one to gloss over complexity and nuance.

Companies design a veil of confusion around their products, contracts, and pricing for a key reason: they are beholden to revenue estimates for which Wall Street and VCs hold them accountable. Failure to meet estimates can mean lower stock prices and loss of shareowner trust.  

That’s not the problem either, because--honestly--who trusts salespeople, anyway?

The key issue is nonprofits themselves. You’re too nice. Organizations deal with punishing sales experiences all the time. Some even wind up happy. How? If your nonprofit wants to make the process of selecting, buying, and implementing enterprise software work, you need to become knowledgeable, demanding, cynical.

You need to be a tough customer. 

Here’s how:

1. Have staff knowledgeable about the business operations and technology help make the right choice. Free up their time so these people can focus on the process and engage with the details before a decision is made. If you have staff whom can drive the process, you have to make sure that their other responsibilities are reduced so they can give this process their undivided attention. Consider devoting internal staff to the project or working with a consultant familiar with the organization’s needs.
2. Software can only improve a situation when it aligns to an organization's strategic plan and goals.  How many nonprofits actually get specific goals and expectations from senior leadership before researching and selecting software? The best projects have someone from senior leadership (CEO, COO) as engaged project sponsors, setting direction, removing roadblocks and holding everyone accountable. If the CEO can have an intelligent conversation about what’s going well and what’s not working during the process, her/his level of involvement is about right.
3. Get staff buy-in. Dictates from on-high rarely survive ground conditions. Project owners or managers should find out if the software will work for staff and give them what they need. The result is that staff will actually use the product when the switch flips on.
4. Boards usually carry fiduciary responsibility for an enterprise software decision but are rarely involved in selection. If the board has to approve the funds, they might consider appointing a member to get involved and stay involved. You don't want to have to ask the board for money more than once.
5. Consider the alignment of the vendor with your market and their track record of successful long-term relationships with clients like you. My belief is smaller, privately held firms are most willing to go the extra mile for their clients.
6. Hold vendors accountable to terms of contracts, statements of work, and deadlines. If something feels wrong, it probably is. The time to address a problem is early. If this makes your salesperson or project manager uncomfortable, that might be an indication you found something that will make your life difficult later. It is okay to push back early–you are the customer, after all.

ClearView CRM comes to Android

iPhone users shouldn't get all the ClearView CRM Mobile benefits, should they? We think not. That's why the mobile app is now available for your Android smartphone.

As with the iOS version, ClearView CRM Mobile for Android is free for ClearView users in the cloud. Just visit the Google Play store for your download. 

If you're an Android device owner and had the chance to view the SofTrek's special webinar on Mobile for iOS, you should know that using the app on Android is a nearly identical process. If you didn't see the webinar, you can view it for free at your convenience.  

If you're a frontline fundraiser, in many respects ClearView CRM Mobile makes your PC or laptop obsolete. Remember, below is a high-level view of everything you can do in Mobile:

• Work with your prospects. You can create and track opportunities, capture meeting notes with your phone's voice-text tools and prep for meetings.

• Stay connected with your key donors. You can make calls or email from right in the app, update donor data when you learn new info, and import that info to your device contacts file.

• Quickly handle tasks like creating and tracking actions to take, sending notifications to colleagues, and capturing and connecting pictures to donor files.

If your nonprofit uses ClearView CRM in the cloud, you can go mobile. Ask your organization's ClearView administrator to configure your system. Once the configuration is complete,  visit Google Play, download, and you're ready for the road.

Go mobile on the go

If you're a frontline fundraiser who's often on the road, you have a powerful new ally in the mobile version of ClearView CRM, available for iPhones and iPads. 

Anyone who spends a lot of time on the go knows that being efficient and effective can be a real challenge. That's why ClearView CRM Mobile helps with the kinds of activities that are keys to fundraising success. With the new mobile app, you can:

• work with prospects by creating and tracking opportunities, capturing meeting notes with their phones’ voice-text tools and prepping for meetings.

• stay connected with donors by making calls or emailing directly from the app, updating donor data as soon as they learn new info, and importing donor info to a device contacts file.

• immediately handle tasks like creating and tracking actions to take, sending notifications to colleagues, and capturing and connecting pictures to donor files.

The app offers even more support for your out-of-office solicitation efforts. For instance, you can easily plan your strategies for those all-important prospect meetings right from within ClearView CRM Mobile.

If you're already using ClearView CRM in the cloud and have an Apple device, you can go mobile. Your first step is asking your organization's ClearView administrator to configure your system, which is a quick and straightforward process. Once the configuration is complete, simply visit the iTunes app store, and download ClearView CRM.

Ready for even more integrations?

ClearView CRM connects with even more software that nonprofits use regularly

New accounting software integration is system’s 14^th

The list keeps growing. ClearView CRM from SofTrek Corporation added three more applications with which the system connects. The integrations, which allow the applications to “talk” to ClearView CRM directly, give SofTrek's nonprofit clients the flexibility to build a fundraising software system that exactly meets their organizations’ needs. 

The applications that newly connect with ClearView CRM include peer-to-peer and online event fundraising, in addition to the system’s 14^th accounting software integration. They are:

• DonorDrive peer-to-peer fundraising software that provides tools for people to raise funds for causes they care about.
• TeamRaiser online event fundraising software that helps organizations turn event participants into fundraisers.
• Epicor accounting software, which provides general ledger journals, accounts payable and receivable, cash management and other accounting functions.

ClearView CRM’s core donor database now connects through APIs (application programming interfaces) with nearly 45 applications that nonprofits use regularly, such as accounting, credit-card payment processing, giving analytics, prospect research, email marketing and more.

“These latest integrations with ClearView CRM prove our commitment to helping our nonprofit clients create fundraising software systems that work exactly as they want them to,” said Robert Girardi, SofTrek president and CEO. “We've always believed in playing nicely with others, as the tech industry puts it, and we'll continue to add to the list of applications to which our clients can connect ClearView CRM."

Before your busy season heats up, create some opportunities

While we’re basking in summer’s warmth, fundraising professionals know that their busiest season is right around the corner.

Why not gear up for your fundraising autumn by creating opportunities in ClearView CRM for the prospects in your portfolio? With ClearView CRM’s Opportunity Management feature, you can more easily and efficiently coordinate the set of fundraising asks and activities that gift officers and others need to execute with their targeted list of prospects.

A key reason to use Opportunity Management? It can actually make much more predictable even the highly individualized process of major gift fundraising.

So, what kinds of opportunities should you create? Think broadly: opportunities refer to anything of value your organization might want from a constituent of any kind. They could be major gifts, board memberships, bequests or something else. With Opportunity Management, you make the most of these opportunities by creating an opportunity linked to a specific prospect, adding information about

the opportunity, tracking constituents as they mature from prospect to donor to major donor, and managing the actions associated with bringing it to completion.

In fact, making an “Action Track” in an opportunity record is the closest you’ll come to automating parts of the high-touch process of donor development. Ultimately, Opportunity Management streamlines your workflow and ensures you take every step necessary toward achieving any opportunity.

Turning Reports into Dashboard Panels

Are you on a quest for the perfect fundraising dashboard? With ClearView CRM, you have a useful option of adding your own report-based, custom panels to the system’s standard list of dashboard panel choices.

ClearView CRM offers a range of panels already built into its Panel Library, from Action Reminders and Gifts by Geography, to Prospects Added in Past Month and numerous others. As luck (or software developers) would have it, you also can add panels that reflect reports you use frequently but that don’t appear on the built-in panel list. Technically, this is called “rendering” a report in a custom panel.

Adding a new custom panel to your available Panel Library list offers a few advantages:

• Efficiency: Report information that you use frequently is immediately available in the panel when you log in to your ClearView CRM dashboard.
• Effectiveness: An optimum panel configuration allows you to grasp quickly the import of what you see.
• Choice: You have more options with which to build exactly the dashboard(s) that supports your and your organization’s work.

Many interactive summary reports in the ClearView Reports Library are good candidates for a custom panel. Great examples are the Active Donor by Geography report and the Solicitor Activity Performance Summary report. Your ClearView CRM administrator will need to configure any new custom panels to display properly and with the right kind of information.  After you select the report you want in the custom panel, you’ll choose an appropriate visual layout. Once the panel is complete, it will show up in the Panel Library, and anyone can choose to include it in a dashboard.

If you don’t have support from an internal ClearView CRM administrator, ask for help to create your report-based custom panel from your account manager or anyone on the Client Services Team. They’ll be happy to help you produce a custom panel that can immediately show up on the fundraising dashboard of your dreams.

New Connections, New Capabilities

ClearView CRM Connects to Three More Applications

New integrations add accounting, call center and social capabilities

If you're a multi-channel fundraising shop, ClearView CRM fundraising software has taken your

ability to connect all your channels to a new level.  You probably know that ClearView already integrates with a long list of various kinds of applications--accounting, online giving, giving analytics and more--that nonprofits use regularly.

Three new integrations recently added to the slate of applications with which the system connects. All will help ClearView's nonprofit clients conduct their fundraising efforts more efficiently and accurately by “talking” to one another directly. New integrations come from the accounting, call center and social engagement arenas:

• Workday Financial Management, a cloud-based suite of accounting applications including grants management and reporting.
• USA800, an inbound call center that allows nonprofits to outsource their constituent-support and telephone donation-processing needs.
• Crowdster, a group of social applications like networking, cause marketing, event registration and more.

ClearView CRM’s donor database now connects through APIs (application programming interfaces) with some 40 applications.

“We’ve always had a philosophical commitment to openness for ClearView CRM,” said Robert Girardi, president and CEO of SofTrek, which develops ClearView. “These new integrations reflect our continuing efforts to expand the range of applications to which clients can connect our constituent relationship management system.”

Are Your Databases Asking You to Integrate?

Squealing brakes. Loose steering. Black exhaust.

The message from your car is obvious: “Tune me up!” Likewise, your donor management software, online giving application, volunteer management software and other systems have distinct ways of letting you know that they need to be integrated—or to at least talk to one another. Most organizations have reasonable explanations for keeping dispersed donor databases. The absence of integration, however, always makes itself known and can often manifest in not-so-happy ways.

If you recognize your organization or department in these indicators, your databases just might be telling you to make some connections:

You annoy donors

People give you money; ergo, they like you. But how do they feel if you misspell their name in an appeal letter? Call them by phone when they’ve told you they want email? Send event invitations to deceased family members? You probably already know the key reason for errors like these. They insinuate themselves into your data primarily when your organization houses donor information in multiple databases.

Really, we all know that effective management of one donor list is difficult enough without adding other, disconnected lists into the mix. The predictable result is disgruntled, irritated and disturbed donors. When your data sources don’t talk, you run the risk of hurting the relationships you most want to nurture--and of raising less money.

You leave opportunities hanging

If you have to jump through hoops to pull a project report for a major donor about his restricted giving, your organization’s relationship with that person can founder. If Visitor Services can’t identify members who are up for renewal when they enter the building, you lose the chance to increase your renewal rate.

Problems like this arise from fragmented data that hinders your ability to recognize trends or situations that can help fine-tune strategy. Ideally, your systems should help you answer hypotheticals like:

• How will a high bounce rate affect donation levels from our email marketing efforts?
• How do major donors behave once projects they supported are complete?
• What is the effect on giving if we coordinate solicitations in our multichannel fundraising?

Getting answers to such queries requires painting a coherent picture from data that is probably stored in more than one system.

You protect your turf

Different departments all have distinct needs that their systems satisfy. The issue arises when these systems aren’t coordinated centrally. What if each department collects and enters data differently? If they have different standards for what qualifies as clean data? If donor or constituent ID numbers aren’t the same in every system? The result is that no one trusts anyone else’s data. Finance sniffs at data from the development department. Info from the volunteer coordinator’s office is suspect. Shadow databases in spreadsheets run amok. Further, no one wants to share their data because they fear it could be compromised in the process.
Department staff often cite their lack of confidence in others’ data quality as justification for keeping their data separate. As well, different departments inevitably need their own systems for various reasons. Finally, any effort to integrate databases is a highly technical, possibly time-intensive, project. These factors show why communication among systems is often lacking when it should be a priority. Achieving system integration and effective, consistent data management across an organization usually takes

• a mandate from above (i.e., from upper management).
• agreement among departments that cooperation and teamwork among staff should extend to their systems.
• commitment from systems vendors that they will facilitate integration with their respective products. If you’re looking at a new system, ask vendors about their APIs, test environments and their history of collaborating with other vendors.

Though none of the above is easy, your donors—and your organization—deserve the right treatment. Don’t miss chances (or, worse still, harm good connections) because you can only see fragmented or less-than-complete pictures.  When the picture is disjointed or if getting the full picture takes undue effort, you miss opportunities and, again, harm relationships. The full view becomes possible only if your systems talk to one another.

6 Ways to Grow Your Active Donor Base with Data, Part 1

Without a healthy active donor base, you’re in trouble. That’s a truism all nonprofit fundraisers acknowledge. Growing the number of active donors is a constant process, but you can take steps today to boost that effort. The following strategies focus on reactivating lapsed donors and acquiring new names.  Upgrading current donors is certainly important, but these folks are already active givers.

For most nonprofits, addressing attrition is the key to growing a healthy active list.  Most also recognize the need to generate growth in new donors.  Making sure the data your organization has is working the way it should can address both needs and translate to better results.  And, no, your data doesn't have to be “big.” You can make use of data already in your systems to encourage growth.
  

#1:  Tighten Up Data Management

Data management is the administrative process by which your organization acquires, validates, stores, protects and processes the data it needs. The result of good data management is data that’s accessible, reliable, timely and accurate enough to satisfy the needs of anyone who uses it.
If your data is not satisfying everyone—if it, in fact, gives people heartburn—try a few of these tactics to tighten up your data management.

• Most important and a best practice: Merge all your databases--donor, volunteer and event, even shadow--into one main list.  Also, integrate your online database, if you have one.  So many benefits here: If someone makes a change (e.g., snowbirds indicate their preferred seasonal addresses), everyone has access to the information. Incorrect data due to double entries decreases.  Any information captured online immediately appears in the main database.  The list goes on.
• Standardize how you collect data.  First, determine what donor and prospect information is required when a record enters the system, whether by manual entry or online capture.  Also, require the use of USPS-standard address formats.  A further step is to expand your data collection to include information you might not currently store, such as mail records that show appeals, responses to appeals or giving channel breakdowns.
• Standardized your workflows.  Adopt and communicate a consistent way to code information, and build that into your system.  For instance, make mandatory certain information (say, source codes showing where donors come from) so that anyone who adds a record into the system has no choice but to enter the info.
• Implement a National Change of Address (NCOA) and/or “new move list” service (from companies like SofTrek partner Melissa Data) to ensure that current addresses are always available even on inactive donors.  Since U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicate around 15% of people change addresses in a year, this move alone could greatly increase the quality of your contact data. 

Next:  Thoughtful list analysis