Whatever we call organizations in the nonprofit sector — charities, foundations, social enterprises, and so on — the point is that their paths to growth and success are based on strategies similar to those used by for-profit companies. Like these companies, nonprofits and charities require strong leadership, vision, and innovation, along with the right people and tools, to give their causes the visibility they deserve.

Here, we’ll examine some of the key strategies that nonprofits can use in order to garner support and increase their impact.

1. Know your donors

The most successful charities truly know their donors. In the corporate world, this principle is called “knowing your customer.” But whether you’re referring to customers or donors, the underlying message is that it’s important to look beyond the numbers and learn more about what attracts individuals to your organization.

A forward-thinking nonprofit will always stay focused on the things their donors care about, where their preferences lie, and how much they’ve given in the past. Sophisticated organizations can even use this information to predict (with surprising accuracy) how much those donors will give in the future. This is a huge advantage, as it takes a lot of the risk out of strategic planning.

How do these organizations do it? It’s a combination of the right instincts, the right tools, and the right processes. Interact with your supporters at any opportunity, invest in a comprehensive donor management solution, and make market research an ongoing part of your operations. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve when you have a better understanding of your audience.

2. Personalize every connection

When it comes to effective donor management, you cannot overestimate the importance of building relationships and personalizing every communication. The people who are giving to your charity need to know that they’re making a difference. They also need to feel that their efforts are acknowledged and appreciated.

Hold on. But they’re giving for the cause, not for themselves, right?

Of course, that’s a nice thought, and it may be true for some donors. But overall, that’s not how the business of nonprofit management works. Ask any successful for-profit business about the importance of personal relationships. They’ll tell you that building and maintaining those relationships is crucial to their success.  

The same thing applies here. In fact, in the nonprofit world, creating these meaningful relationships is even more important, because the donor is giving you their money without receiving a product or service in return.  

To maximize donor retention, treat each donor like they’re your biggest supporter. Every email, outreach and check-in call should be personalized and informed by their previous interactions with your nonprofit, their giving history, and the things they care about.

3. Leverage digital tools

Your donors are online and digitally active. For many younger supporters, it’s the best way they know of to learn about your nonprofit, see the work you’re doing, and plan their future giving.

Just as for-profit companies use technology to strengthen their brand, connect with potential buyers and manage customer relationships, your organization should do the same. At a minimum, this means you should have a well-maintained website and a strong social media presence.

From an internal perspective, cloud-based apps are great for providing your team with a shared workspace, a centralized dataset, and mobile access to essential information. For instance, nonprofits can leverage donor management software to:

• Send out personalized email communications
• Organize large-scale marketing campaigns
• Manage interactions with donor leads — and more.

4. Centralize your administration

Many nonprofit organizations consist of a network of local branches across the country, each operating as its own entity. Each one of those local entities has administrative expenses for supplies, technology, and staffing — and those expenses add up quickly. This arrangement is a recipe for duplication and inefficiencies.

There’s a real opportunity for centralization here. For example, the umbrella organization or head office can buy supplies in bulk for cost savings. A shared software solution can also be used to assist individual branches with standardizing administrative tasks. When each branch of a nationwide nonprofit is using the same programs, it promotes consistency in data management, campaign development, and donor communications.

5. Get the right data

Robert McNamara, former Ford Motor Company executive and former US Secretary of Defense, had a set of maxims for leading large organizations. One of them was “get the data.” Indeed, McNamara was one of the first advocates of data-driven management.

Just like private sector businesses, charities need metrics to assess their performance. These key performance indicators (KPIs) help paint a picture of how your campaigns are working and how engaged your supporters are. Important KPIs for nonprofits might include:

• Month-over-month and year-over-year financials  
• Donor acquisition cost: How much do you have to spend to acquire a new donor?
• Retention rate: What percentage of donors who gave last year gave again this year?
• Donor lifetime value: How much value do you obtain from a donor’s lifetime involvement with your organization?

When it comes to strategic planning, the scene at a nonprofit shouldn’t look that different from that at a private company — a group of smart people gathered around a conference table, looking for answers to complex questions and planning the way forward. Your KPIs should be an important part of that strategic process.

Using technology to promote best practices

Every nonprofit best practice — from knowing your donors to collecting essential data — can be supported by the right technology. Nonprofit-specific software can help organizations streamline many aspects of their day-to-day operations, including donor relationship management, donation tracking, email marketing, and reporting.

By investing in key tools right from the get-go, your organization will be well-equipped to capture new leads, turn those leads into donors, and execute campaigns to keep donors engaged for the long haul.

The post 5 Best Practices for Running a Nonprofit appeared first on Method.

For starters, nonprofits need to market to and build strong relationships with their supporters, just as companies need to keep their customers engaged. Successful organizations have to demonstrate value, service, and a personal connection in everything they do — maybe even more so than for-profit businesses.

And much like small companies, most nonprofits are working with small teams and tight operating budgets. They must use their limited resources as efficiently as possible to maximize the impact they can have in their communities.

For all of these reasons, a good customer relationship management (CRM) system can be a game-changer for nonprofits. As the name implies, CRM software can help any type of organization better manage its relationships with its patrons. Many systems also offer features to help streamline workflows and improve efficiency.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that not all CRMs are suitable for the unique needs of the nonprofit industry. If you’re seeking a CRM for your nonprofit, here are some key features to look for.

1. Ability to Cultivate Donor Relationships

Obviously, the best nonprofit CRMs will actively help organizations cultivate donor relationships. Not only should the CRM track offline and online donations, but it should keep track of attendance at events, phone conversations, and other points of contact. The ability to schedule tasks also ensures that follow-ups occur in a timely manner.

These features will help you reinforce connections with your donors, as well as improve internal communication and organization amongst your team members.

2. Donor Management Features

To turn donors into loyal supporters, it’s important to let them know how much your organization appreciates their contributions. For instance, most donors expect tax receipts. They also certainly expect and deserve thanks for their generosity.

A good CRM for nonprofits can generate both of these documents automatically and email them instantly to donors. Contributors will appreciate this kind of prompt service. Best of all, it won’t take any additional manual effort on the part of your team to delight your supporters.

3. Email Integrations

Just as for-profit businesses are adopting technology to help them work more efficiently, so too are nonprofits. For instance, many nonprofits increasingly rely upon email for communication.

Besides offering the ability to schedule thank-you and follow-up emails, a good CRM for nonprofits should integrate with popular email providers and email marketing software. CRM email add-ons display a convenient overview of a donor’s history while users compose messages. Meanwhile, email marketing integrations make it easy to send out mass emails for fundraising campaigns.

4. Automation Features

Too many nonprofits waste time with manual effort for donor and donation management. The right CRM software can easily automate tasks and streamline workflows.

For instance, the process for accepting online donations typically starts with an online donation page. A good CRM will make it simple for even non-technical people to create an effective fundraising page. In turn, information entered on this page should automatically be saved to the CRM and trigger appropriate follow-up activities. After all, most nonprofits don’t have the time or money to spend on complex website development or repetitive data entry.

5. Integration With Your Accounting Software

Accounting software only ever works as well as the data it can capture. Often, nonprofit employees or volunteers have to manually copy information from the system that captures contacts and donations to their accounting software. This takes time and can lead to data entry errors.

A good CRM will solve this problem by integrating with popular accounting software like QuickBooks. By automatically syncing your donor and donation data to your accounting database, you’ll save time and improve your data accuracy.

6. Accessible Mobile Interface

These days, people like to be able to work anywhere from any device — and nonprofit employees are no exception. During the course of the day, you may be visiting different sites and going online using your laptop, desktop computer, tablet, or phone.

For maximum productivity, the best nonprofit CRMs will have mobile app functionality. This ensures that the features you need to use look good and work well no matter which device you’re working on.

7. Customization Options

Every nonprofit has its own unique needs and workflows. Furthermore, no organization wants to change their processes just to fit the constraints of their software. That’s why a customizable CRM is an ideal solution for nonprofits that don’t have the budget for a custom-built system.

Customizable CRM software will make it easy to personalize donation pages, add new data fields, and set up custom processes. And as time passes and certain aspects of your organization evolve, the CRM can evolve along with them. In the end, this level of flexibility will save you money and increase productivity, allowing you to focus more energy on fundraising.

Choosing a Great CRM for Your Nonprofit

A great CRM can help nonprofits reduce manual data entry, streamline workflows, and improve donor relationships. While adopting new software may seem like a daunting task, don’t let the initial investment deter you. In the long run, the time you’ll save will allow you to focus your efforts on the work that really matters.

The post Essential Features of a Nonprofit CRM appeared first on Method.

While personalized letters to your donors are highly meaningful, it takes a lot of time to write and send them. During busy periods like the holiday fundraising season, it can be challenging to keep up with these thank you letters alongside your other activities. Anything you can do to improve the efficiency of your letter writing process (while still maintaining a personal touch) will help to ensure the success of your current and future fundraising efforts.

Here are nine tips to help nonprofit organizations write and send great donor thank you letters.

1. Integrate a CRM for nonprofits into your operations

During busy fundraising seasons, your team can quickly become overwhelmed by administrative tasks. This makes it impractical to write and send each thank you letter manually. Thankfully, you can streamline this process from start to finish with the tools in a CRM designed for nonprofits. A good CRM system not only helps you organize your donor and donation data, but it can also automate the process of sending a thank you letter to each donor. As a result, you’ll save time and effort without compromising on the quality of your donor communications.

2. Mind the time

In an age of instant gratification, it’s important to send your thank you letters within 48 hours of receiving donations. This quick turnaround time ensures that your donors feel their contributions were acknowledged and appreciated by your nonprofit. Rapid responses also demonstrate that your organization intends to use the funds promptly. In the end, when you mind the time in sending out your thank you letters, you keep your donors engaged with your nonprofit and its mission to help.

3. Set reminders

Upon receiving a donation, the clock quickly starts ticking down, demanding that you act fast in sending out your letter. To make sure you stay within the optimal window, set reminders to keep you on track. This is another great opportunity to make use of your CRM: as soon as you log a donation, schedule a related task to send the thank you letter. You can then refer back to your to-do list at convenient points during the day. This system will help you create and send your thank you letters well within the 48-hour period.

4. Make your letters specific

As you diversify your fundraising efforts, avoid sending generic “thank you for your donation” letters to all donors. Instead, your thank you letters should always refer to the specific initiative supported or event attended. These detailed letters will remind your donors of their personal involvement in your community. As part of this process, make sure to also highlight the impact that each donor will have on your organization’s work. You can do so by explaining how the money will be used to directly fulfill the mission of the specific fundraising campaign.

5. Create reusable templates

As the fundraising season ramps up, your team will have little time left in the day for crafting and sending the engaging letters described above. Streamline the process and make sure everything gets done in a timely manner by creating reusable thank you letter templates. You’ll want to create a template for each fundraising campaign and event you run. Download and modify free templates available online or build on those available in your CRM system. As time goes on, you can work even more efficiently by basing new templates off of old ones.

6. Personalize every message

When you use templates to create your thank you letters, it’s important to personalize each letter with the donor’s name. Include details about their donation as well, especially if you can describe the impact the donation will have on your nonprofit’s operations. When you include these personal touches in your thank you letters, your donors feel more connected to your mission and more invested in the results you achieve with your fundraising campaigns.

7. Track donor history

The way your donors interact with your nonprofit offers key information that you can incorporate into your fundraising strategy. Beyond name and donation amount, personalize your thank you letters further by referencing individual donor history. You might personally thank new donors for taking an interest in your mission, for example, or applaud existing donors for their long track record of support. The key is to track as much donor data as possible using your CRM or favorite spreadsheet program. These details can strengthen the success of your fundraising campaigns by helping you speak directly to your donors.

8. Send tax receipts

Since you need to send tax receipts anyway, make them an integral part of your thank you letter process. Within your thank you letter template, include a message to explain that the donation is tax deductible (if applicable). Then, use the automation tools in your CRM to print or email your letters and tax receipts simultaneously. Your donors will appreciate the streamlined correspondence, especially if they’re in the habit of making regular donations.

9. Include an invitation

It costs more to attract new donors than retain existing ones — so don’t let your generous supporters lose interest in your mission. Your thank you letters should always encourage ongoing engagement with your nonprofit. Within each template, include an invitation to attend an event, follow your social media channels, or support an upcoming fundraiser. You can also encourage donors to share these invitations with family and friends to increase awareness and support for your nonprofit.

Support your fundraising campaigns with superb thank you letter practices

Your donors will be more likely to support your future fundraising campaigns if you acknowledge their current support. If you’re struggling to keep up with sending thank you letters, consider adopting some of the tips described above. In particular, using a CRM designed for nonprofits can help with many aspects of preparing these letters, from templates to timing to tax receipts. By sending heartfelt notes of gratitude in a timely manner, you’ll strengthen the bonds between your nonprofit and its donors for years to come.

The post 9 Tips to Help Nonprofits Send Excellent Donor Thank You Letters appeared first on Method.

Conversely, the months following the holidays tend to bring in fewer donations as people tighten their purse strings and balance their budgets. This means it’s important for your nonprofit to put plenty of thought into the fundraising campaigns you run during the busy season.

Luckily, the holiday season offers a wealth of great ways to attract new supporters to your nonprofit. And since the holidays are fast approaching — the time to start planning is now! Whether you want to throw one massive gala or run a variety of smaller events, the following list of fundraising campaigns has something to suit every nonprofit this holiday season.

1. Charity or silent auction

Everyone loves an auction, and there’s a great reason for any nonprofit to try this fundraiser – it’s all profit! Ideally, items are donated to the cause by local businesses in exchange for free publicity.

On the day of the event, the auction structure is flexible. You might arrange a traditional “live” affair with an auctioneer or a silent auction where attendees can add their bids to a list until a pre-determined end time. In either scenario, you can streamline the event logistics using mobile bidding software. Beyond the auction itself, you can even combine this fundraiser with a dinner or cocktail party, making it a large-scale event that your donors and volunteers can look forward to and enjoy.

2. Holiday gala

A formal holiday gala allows your nonprofit to make the most of the giving season while celebrating the past year’s accomplishments. Such an event typically includes dress attire, elegant dining, and a beautiful location. In addition to the money raised through ticket sales, you might incorporate an auction, a raffle, or live entertainment to bring in additional funds. Beyond the fundraising potential of the event, a gala can also provide an excellent opportunity to publicly thank long-time supporters or volunteers for their hard work and generosity.

3. Casual dinner party

If a fancy gala is too extravagant for your nonprofit, a smaller dinner party can also be an excellent fundraiser. The guest list for this more intimate event might include your board members, biggest donors, and most dedicated volunteers. You can also use low-budget advertising methods like email and social media to promote the event in your community. By keeping the event smaller and more low-key, it can be as much a holiday celebration for your inner circle as it is a fundraiser.

4. Good old-fashioned benefit event

There are about a million ways to run a benefit event. Often these events have several types of fundraising happening at the same time. You might include a silent auction, split-the-pot raffle tickets, and various holiday-themed competitions (like snowman building, gingerbread house decorating, or an ugly sweater showdown). Rather than culminating in a fancy dinner like a gala does, your benefit might center around a performance or artist showcase.

5. Holiday-themed sales

The various holidays in November and December offer plenty of options for holiday-themed fundraiser sales. Baked goods and candy sales are well-loved, but don’t forget about inedible items! Ideas might include wrapping paper, decorations, wreaths, Christmas trees, or fresh garland and mistletoe.

These sales can run for several weeks leading up to the holidays, with volunteers taking orders at in-person events. You can also leverage your online donation pages to run the sales 24/7.

6. Holiday-themed services

Rather than focusing on material goods, the holiday season is a great chance to offer helpful services to your community. This can be a one-day, multi-day, or even multi-week event, depending on the size of your volunteer roster.

The services you offer will depend on the weather in your area at this time of year. For instance, you may not want to plan an outdoor car wash in a location where the temperatures typically dip below freezing! Seasonally-appropriate services might include gift wrapping, holiday decorating, and even snow removal.

7. Polar bear plunge

Jumping into a freezing cold body of water in the middle of winter is probably one of the more eccentric ways to raise money. In spite of the hypothermia risk, these events have become popular and well-liked liked fundraisers for many nonprofits.

Much like a walk-a-thon or charity run, donors sponsor the individuals who plan to leap into the lake or river. To raise additional funds, you can also sell promotional apparel for the event. Participants will surely appreciate having a toasty new sweater to throw on when they emerge from the water!

8. Host a charity run

The type of run you host will again depend on the seasonal temperatures in your area. Some organizations find that hosting a shorter outdoor run in lower temperatures can still attract quite a good turn-out. Others may opt to host their running or walking events at an indoor arena. In either case, adding a holiday costume component to the event can help to entice individuals who may not think they’re “athletic” enough to participate.

9. Sporting events

There are a wide variety of sporting competitions that can serve as good fundraising opportunities. These can include classic team sports like basketball or baseball or indoor sports from your gym class days, like dodgeball or floor hockey. You could also take a cue from the winter weather and invite your community to participate in a skating, sledding, or cross-country skiing event.

Sporting fundraisers often feature prizes for the winners, which helps to draw a crowd. You might also include food and drink sales as well as a raffle to supplement the funds from registration fees.

10. Bake/cook-offs

Sports aren’t the only activity that brings out healthy competition! Hosting a bake-off or cook-off can be a delicious way to raise funds for your nonprofit. Participants can pay a fee to compete while community members can buy tickets for the taste-test. The food in question can be a holiday classic like pies or cookies, or something more unique to your local culture and traditions.

Making the most of your holiday fundraising campaigns

Hosting an end-of-the-year event gives you a great opportunity to get the word out about your nonprofit while also raising valuable funds. To attract generous donations, your fundraiser should offer something fun for those who participate. You should also share all of the event details, photos, and acknowledgments on your social media channels to encourage repeat attendance in future years.

In the slower months following the holiday season, take advantage of the downtime to assess how well your holiday fundraising campaigns performed. Using a CRM for nonprofits is a great way to keep track of your new and returning donors along with their donations. It also speeds up the process of creating thank-you letters and tax receipts, which you’re sure to be sending a lot of! By taking an organized approach to donor management, you can develop an annual holiday fundraising strategy that will benefit your nonprofit for years to come.

The post 10 Great Holiday Fundraising Campaigns for Nonprofits appeared first on Method.

In spite of these obstacles, it’s essential for each nonprofit to do the best they can with the resources they have. In this article, we’ll take a look at some key areas to focus on when trying to improve your donor retention rate.

Determine Your Donor Retention Rate

Your first step in improving your donor retention rate is to determine what that rate is. Whether you’re using a CRM for nonprofits or basic spreadsheets, you’ll need to review your past donation data. Start by adding up your total number of donors in a particular 12-month period. Then tally up how many of those donors gave again during the following 12 months. This will give you a count of your recurring donors over the last two years. For example, let’s say your nonprofit had 2,400 donors in 2016 and 1,200 of those donors donated again in 2017.

Now, divide the number of repeat donors from the second year (in this case, 2017) by the number of donors in the first year and multiply by 100. For our example, the donor retention rate from 2016 to 2017 is 50 percent. This means you have retained half of your donors, but the other half is not returning year after year. Is this a problem?

According to CauseVox, the average donor retention rate is 43 percent, while the donor attrition rate is approximately 57 percent. This means that a retention rate greater than 43 percent is considered good compared to other nonprofits. But if your rate falls below 43 percent, it may indicate a misaligned mission and your organization could be in jeopardy. You are not necessarily shutting your doors quite yet, but it is time to make a plan for improving this rate.

Connect With Your Community

One way to gain and retain support for your nonprofit is to improve communication with your donors. To do this, you must find a consistent way to connect with the community that supports you. However, with smartphones and email replacing most landlines and direct mail, your communication strategies must evolve. Social media is the new party line, and it is also where your nonprofit needs a voice. Here are some questions to answer for your organization:

• Do you have an active social media presence for your nonprofit?
• Are you engaged with users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or some other social media platform?
• Does your nonprofit have a website and/or a blog?
• Do you have any volunteers or staff that handle social media for your organization?

If you answered no to any or all of these questions, then it’s time to revamp your approach to communication. Focus on becoming more accessible online. You should also look at social demographic data for your community. Based on factors such as age, income, social status, education level, etc., you can better ascertain where to find your supporters on the internet. This helps you direct your communication efforts in a more focused manner. You also avoid diluting your message by sending out communications to unintended recipients.

Managing Data for Nonprofits

Right along with communication, the ability to deal with big data as a nonprofit is instrumental. Your organization is focused on building support within a community. But how can you truly engage with the members without having a system for managing information about them?

First, you need a way to congregate your data, followed by a systematic process for reviewing this data regularly. Using a CRM designed for nonprofits is a great solution for tracking your donors and donations throughout all stages of the donation cycle. When your donor database integrates with your accounting software, it minimizes errors associated with double data entry. A CRM program can also enhance your communication with donors by letting you easily send thank-you notes and schedule follow-ups for future donations. It all comes full circle.

Working to improve donor retention rates for your nonprofit is an ongoing process. As you make changes, remember to evaluate your results. CRM software comes in handy during these evaluations by providing you with the reporting tools needed to break down and summarize the numbers. Thanks to this technology, your team will be better equipped to provide feedback to your community and less likely to make costly errors that hamper retention.

Provide Total Transparency

One of the reasons that nonprofits struggle to retain donors is a lack of transparency. If your community has doubts about where their donations are going, they are far less likely to give. To overcome this doubt, work on improving the transparency of your organization. Do you host public or private meetings with donors? Are you posting donation information that is accessible to the general public, such as on your organization’s website?

According to Charity Navigator, which rates all nonprofits nationwide based on transparency, this quality is closely tied to accountability. Accountability refers to your obligation to your community, and being transparent with your financial information (i.e. making it available to the public) enables you to be more accountable. Check out Charity Navigator’s rankings to see how well your organization measures up compared to other nonprofits in your niche. Think of this like a credit report for your nonprofit, and use it to correct any issues with your public image.

Nonprofit organizations are dedicated to serving the needs of others, but they rely on the continued support of donors in order to do so. Luckily, advances in technology are opening new doors for nonprofits to manage their donors more effectively. In order to achieve your fundraising goals, it may be time to take a new approach towards improving donor retention.

The post How to Improve Donor Retention for Nonprofits appeared first on Method.

Are you an accountant working with nonprofits who needs help getting their accounting practices whipped into shape?
If your eyes just widened and you thought, “Yes!” you’ll want to attend our June 17th webinar

Method:Donor – Donor Management Software for Nonprofits Using QuickBooks, hosted by Gregg Bossen.

Gregg, a CPA with a long history of working with nonprofits, will introduce you to our newly-launched donor management app, Method:Donor!
Ensuring nonprofit clients enter donor and donation data correctly in QuickBooks can be a headache. In the webinar, Gregg will demonstrate how Method:Donor takes the guesswork out of entering donations for your clients.

“How”, you ask?

Method’s QuickBooks sync is built with accounting best practices in mind, so when your client updates a donation in Method, it automatically syncs into the “right” accounting place in QuickBooks.

During our 1 hour together you’ll learn:

• the benefits of keeping all donor and donation history in the same place
• the relationship-building power of knowing each donor
• how QuickBooks integration allows vital work to get done without being in QuickBooks
• how even the smallest nonprofit can have a solution personalized to their organization

Webinar Details:

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Accountants with nonprofit clients
HOST: Gregg Bossen – Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Creator of QuickBooks Made Easy education and training.
WHEN: 12:30 PM EST
WHERE: Online (don’t forget to register!)
CAN’T MAKE IT? Register anyway and we’ll let you know when the webinar is available on-demand.

If you need any help getting registered or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at mpp@method.me

The post [Webinar] An Introduction to Method:Donor appeared first on Method.

At Method, we understand running a nonprofit organization is a labor of love. You and your team are passionate about your cause and you work tirelessly to raise funds and awareness to benefit others, and we salute you for it!

But are you just working hard, or working smart?

Here are three reasons why you should think about managing your donors more effectively with a Nonprofit CRM.

Whether you’re interacting with your donors at gala events, communicating via phone and email, or meeting face-to-face at their very doorsteps, your relationship with donors is what fuels the engine that keeps your nonprofit running. As nonprofit expert Joanne Fritz says,

Nonprofits need to build relationship capital to​ increase donors, retain them, and get them to bring in more donors.

What Joanne calls “relationship capital” really boils down to making your donors feel like they are valued and appreciated.

A Nonprofit CRM that allows you to keep track of your interactions with donors, including an accurate record of how often they’ve been solicited, will help you to balance your requests for donations with day-to-day recognition of their ongoing support. After all, you don’t want to hold out your hand more often than you’re shaking theirs!

The benefits don’t stop there: a Nonprofit CRM will also help you make sure any receipts are sent to the donor in a timely fashion. A donor who has a positive experience with your organization is more likely to recommend you to their friends, as Joanne also points out:

…there’s no better way to keep that [life]blood pumping than by generating referrals from existing donors.

A Nonprofit CRM that helps you keep track of your donors also keeps track of where those donations are headed! As a nonprofit, there are a number of different places your incoming donations can (and must!) be applied, and your donors will care deeply about where their contributions are going.

Quite often, splitting donations can bog your team down with paperwork: ensuring checks, cash donations, online payments and more are split between several different programs. Wouldn’t it be helpful if you could use a donations app to split those payments between different programs as they’re received?

Any solution that helps to streamline the workflow for your accounting processes means saving overhead costs, which can then be used to fund even more awesome programs – it’s an upward spiral!

Speaking of streamlining your workflow, one of the great challenges of a nonprofit is ensuring all your donations are accurately entered into your accounting software for business and tax purposes.

Keeping an accurate record of your donations isn’t just integral in maintaining your accreditation, it’s also the key to determining what works and what doesn’t in terms of your campaign strategies. But once again, human error and redundancy can slow down and complicate this process.

Using a Nonprofit CRM that syncs with your QuickBooks accounting software eliminates the time-sucking of double entry as well as limiting the human error potential by seamlessly transferring your donation information directly into your QuickBooks file.

So what’s the takeaway?

Your donors are the lifeblood not only of your organization, but of the worthy causes you support. Making use of a fantastic Nonprofit CRM like Method:Donor, the donor management app from Method, you can build ongoing donor relationships, while streamlining your workflow by making sure your donors’ generous contributions are tracked, properly applied, and most importantly, recognized.

Interested in learning more about Method:Donor? Check out this fun video:

The post 3 Reasons Every Nonprofit Should Use a CRM appeared first on Method.

A quick backstory: once upon a time, Method was known solely for its flagship CRM — a customer relationship management system that integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks. But that changed in 2014 when the Method team won Intuit’s QuickBooks Connect Hackathon with an app designed for nonprofits.

You see, we knew that nonprofits could benefit from connecting their contact management and their accounting. But we also knew that nonprofits have unique needs that weren’t addressed by our existing CRM. So we took our winning idea and ran with it.

After surveying hundreds of small charitable organizations, collaborating with nonprofit accountants, and executing a successful beta, we launched Method:Donor in 2015. Four years later, it’s still going strong, and we love hearing how it helps nonprofits work more efficiently. If you’re in the market for donor management software, here’s an overview of what Method offers.

What is Method:Donor and how can it help my nonprofit?

If you work at a small nonprofit, your donor and donation data is likely scattered across email accounts and spreadsheets. You’re probably also spending a large portion of your day just trying to keep up with administrative work and reporting.

Enter the solution: mobile-friendly donor management software for nonprofits using QuickBooks. With Method:Donor, you can organize all your donors, follow-ups, and donation history in one place and access them anytime, on any device. This allows you to efficiently carry out fundraising best practices, including personalized thank-you letters, timely receipting, and regular follow-ups.

Method also has a two-way, real-time integration with all versions of QuickBooks. This means you can enter donations in Method and they will automatically sync to QuickBooks, eliminating the need for double data entry. Your accountant will love this! Plus, with complete and accurate data in both Method and QuickBooks, reporting will no longer take hours each month.

Method:Donor is also 100% customizable, allowing you to streamline workflows unique to your nonprofit.

How does Method:Donor work?

Let’s say you have a new volunteer starting today – welcome, Betty!

You’re busy with an upcoming event, so you’d like Betty to enter a stack of checks and send tax receipts. Luckily, Method:Donor’s simple user interface is so intuitive, your new volunteer can get going within minutes — no training necessary!

Here’s how easy it is for Betty to record a donation from Errol, who has sent a nice letter and a $500 check:

1. Because Errol is a first-time donor to your organization, Betty quickly enters his contact info into the donor management software.
2. Betty then enters the donation and splits it between two of the organization’s programs, as requested in Errol’s letter.
3. Behind the scenes, Errol’s contact details and donation automatically transfer over to QuickBooks (just the way your accountant likes it!).
4. With one click, Betty sends Errol a personalized ‘thank-you’ email and tax receipt directly from Method.
5. Lastly, she schedules a reminder in Method to follow up with Errol in two weeks to start building a long-term relationship.

And there you have it. With Method:Donor, your team regains hours each week and you can cultivate stronger relationships with your community of donors. Most importantly, you’re spending less time on data entry and “pushing paper” and more time on the work that matters most.

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