Every school spends a lot of time and resources (and sweat) courting donors. But they’re not always well organized about it.
If the whole process isn’t recorded and enhanced digitally, your school will inevitably be at a disadvantage in a changing and increasingly competitive donation marketplace.
What does that look like?
Here’s a start. Do you have a system in place that
- tracks every contact with a donor or prospect?
- automates your workflow?
- ranks donors, determining what engagement should occur based on the involvement of the donor with your school?
- manages your events, and how your donors are connected with them?
- automatically acknowledges online donations with more than just a tax receipt?
- and allows you to build custom reports easily?
If you don’t, you should.
In the for-profit world, a “customer relationship management” software platform called Salesforce does all of this for customers instead of donors. However, Salesforce offers a solution for nonprofits that’s free for up to 10 users, and steeply discounted after that.
Salesforce is powerful, but it’s also complex and ridden with features you probably don’t need. That’s where DonorLynk comes in: We can create a Salesforce system that is narrowly focused on an educational institution’s needs, with custom fields and applications.
With Salesforce in place, you’ll know at a single glance
- a donor’s contact and demographic info
- all of the times you called and emailed the donor, with details of those calls and emails
- the events the donor has attended
- the amount of money the donor has paid or pledged
- and much more.
With custom reports, you’ll be able to see which campaigns and events worked in terms of expanding your donor base, and which didn’t work so well. You’ll be able to keep tracks of goals and achievements. And you’ll be able to see in real time where your donation base stands.
It’s a brave new world, but it’s also an exciting one. Software can now act as the driver and monitor of donor engagement. If your institution hasn’t yet automated its donor management, what are you waiting for?
Contact us and get all of the information you need. We know from experience that there’s a custom system that’s exactly right for your unique institution.
Joe Paone is a content strategist at DonorLynk who loves informing nonprofits.