Transforming Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations collect a lot of donor data in their CRM systems. But what is the quality of that data? And what insights are nonprofits getting from that data to help increase donations?

Listen to Build Consulting's development/fundraising operations and CRM experts, who offer ideas and answer your questions about how to take your donor data management to the next level, originally recorded in 2019.

Our experts have served hundreds of nonprofit organizations, assessing their needs for donor relationship management, selecting and implementing CRM systems, and providing hands-on data management and reporting support.

Registrants submitted dozens of questions and we chose nine to answer, reflecting a range of issues important to the participants. Thank you to all our participants for helping shape our discussion to include real-life scenarios.

The Questions

1. How do I get my organization to understand how important our CRM database is?
2. What are some key trends that you see happening in the CRM space this past year and what should we be planning for?
3. The marketing department is pushing us to change CRMs, they don't seem to understand how difficult that would be. What should we be communicating?
4. We actually have two or three different CRMs, one for support services, one for volunteers, and The Raiser's Edge for donors. It's a mess and no one seems to care!

In Pt 2, Build Consulting expert Peter Mirus presents an interactive webinar on CRM Database manager characteristics to look for when hiring, how to manage this position, and how to improve in this role at your organization.

Finding, developing, and retaining good CRM database managers (including for systems like The Raiser's Edge and Salesforce) is a constant business challenge for the nonprofit community. This challenge can create problems for donor data management that adversely impacts the results of fundraising efforts.

• Learn the qualities possessed by top-quality nonprofit CRM database managers.
• CRM database managers will learn where they should focus themselves to improve.
• Executives and managers will learn to hire, develop, and retain good CRM database managers.
• Learn when and how to outsource the role.
• Improve fundraising outcomes by hiring and retaining the best CRM database managers, and supporting them at your organization.

Build provides outsourced donor database assessment consulting services, as well as ongoing donor database management services for clients with platforms such as The Raiser's Edge and Salesforce. If you need more information contact us.

Finding, developing, and retaining good CRM database managers (including for systems like The Raiser's Edge and Salesforce) is a constant business challenge for the nonprofit community. This challenge can create problems for donor data management that adversely impacts the results of fundraising efforts.

• Learn the qualities possessed by top-quality nonprofit CRM database managers.
• CRM database managers will learn where they should focus themselves to improve.
• Executives and managers will learn to hire, develop, and retain good CRM database managers.
• Learn when and how to outsource the role.
• Improve fundraising outcomes by hiring and retaining the best CRM database managers, and supporting them at your organization.

Build provides outsourced donor database assessment consulting services, as well as ongoing donor database management services for clients with platforms such as The Raiser's Edge and Salesforce. If you need more information contact us.

In Part 2, Build Consulting expert Peter Mirus presents an interactive webinar offering insights from his years of experience as an executive and consultant, and answering participant questions on driving successful technology projects.

What you'll learn:

• What does it mean for a project to be a "success?"
• What are the key elements your organization needs to have in place?
• What are the secrets of success that fail to get enough attention?
• How can you help your nonprofit be in the 50% of tech projects that succeed?

There is a 15-minute Q&A at the end of the webinar addressing specific business cases.

Build Consulting's CIO service provides part-time or interim CIOs to lead strategic technology planning and project implementation. Our CIOs have extensive experience blending nonprofit and technology strategy. They work with your leadership and other team members to make sure technology serves the needs of the organization. Build CIOs are also attentive to how new technology brings organizational change, and help guide that change process. The presenter: Peter Mirus co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, following over 15 years of nonprofit consulting experience in the areas of technology, branding, marketing, and development. Peter's work for Build clients has a broad focus spanning many operational areas, including fundraising, program monitoring and evaluation, accounting, and impact reporting/analysis.

In Part 1, Build Consulting expert Peter Mirus presents an interactive webinar offering insights from his years of experience as an executive and consultant, and answering participant questions on driving successful technology projects.

What you'll learn:

• What does it mean for a project to be a "success?"
• What are the key elements your organization needs to have in place?
• What are the secrets of success that fail to get enough attention?
• How can you help your nonprofit be in the 50% of tech projects that succeed?

There is a 15-minute Q&A at the end of the webinar addressing specific business cases.

Build Consulting's CIO service provides part-time or interim CIOs to lead strategic technology planning and project implementation. Our CIOs have extensive experience blending nonprofit and technology strategy. They work with your leadership and other team members to make sure technology serves the needs of the organization. Build CIOs are also attentive to how new technology brings organizational change, and help guide that change process. The presenter: Peter Mirus co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, following over 15 years of nonprofit consulting experience in the areas of technology, branding, marketing, and development. Peter's work for Build clients has a broad focus spanning many operational areas, including fundraising, program monitoring and evaluation, accounting, and impact reporting/analysis.

More than ever, the data associated with constituents and how they engage with your organization are strategic assets worthy of investments. This webinar covered how to define CRM for your organization, the current state of CRM technology options, common challenges in organizational adoption of CRM, and how to get your organization aligned and excited for the work ahead.

Listen to this discussion with Kyle Haines, co-Founder of Build Consulting, and Watt Hamlett, Watt Hamlett Consulting

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. Build is passionately vendor-agnostic.

Part 1:

More than ever, the data associated with constituents and how they engage with your organization are strategic assets worthy of investments. This webinar covered how to define CRM for your organization, the current state of CRM technology options, common challenges in organizational adoption of CRM, and how to get your organization aligned and excited for the work ahead.

Listen to this discussion with Kyle Haines, co-Founder of Build Consulting, and Watt Hamlett, Watt Hamlett Consulting

As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience. Build is passionately vendor-agnostic.

Part 2:

Are you leaving your information strategy up to chance? To move your nonprofit organization to the next level, you need to create and promote an information strategy that defines how information supports your mission.

A good information strategy is defined in 5 important steps:

• Leadership must be engaged in data governance—if leadership doesn't support the proper use of the right systems, your information can't reliably support your nonprofit mission.
• Your organization's operations must be prepared to implement and use your information systems—if you aren't ready, then you can't successfully implement an information strategy.
• The processes used by your nonprofit must be clearly defined and mutually understood by all stakeholders—if you aren't speaking the same language, your information will continue to fall into the cracks.
• Data must be structured and managed in a high-quality and easily accessible manner—if you build it, maintain it.
• The right technology must be selected to support your nonprofit's needs—but no technology can overcome problems in the previous four steps.

Presenter Peter Mirus co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, following over 15 years of nonprofit consulting experience in the areas of technology, branding, marketing, and development. Peter's work for Build clients has a broad focus spanning many operational areas, including fundraising, program monitoring and evaluation, accounting, and impact reporting/analysis.

Are you leaving your information strategy up to chance? To move your nonprofit organization to the next level, you need to create and promote an information strategy that defines how information supports your mission.

A good information strategy is defined in 5 important steps:

• Leadership must be engaged in data governance—if leadership doesn't support the proper use of the right systems, your information can't reliably support your nonprofit mission.
• Your organization's operations must be prepared to implement and use your information systems—if you aren't ready, then you can't successfully implement an information strategy.
• The processes used by your nonprofit must be clearly defined and mutually understood by all stakeholders—if you aren't speaking the same language, your information will continue to fall into the cracks.
• Data must be structured and managed in a high-quality and easily accessible manner—if you build it, maintain it.
• The right technology must be selected to support your nonprofit's needs—but no technology can overcome problems in the previous four steps.

Presenter Peter Mirus co-founded Build Consulting in 2015, following over 15 years of nonprofit consulting experience in the areas of technology, branding, marketing, and development. Peter's work for Build clients has a broad focus spanning many operational areas, including fundraising, program monitoring and evaluation, accounting, and impact reporting/analysis.

The competition in the nonprofit CRM market has become increasingly fierce over the past couple of years. The number of viable competitors has increased, and their systems present a wide range of different features for you to consider.

This situation has raised many questions from our clients, including:

• What are the types of CRMs on the market fornonprofits?
• What are the key differentiators between major CRM products?
• What are the vendors and CRM systems my organization should know about?
• Are there true competitors available that should be considered against industry stalwarts like Blackbaud and Salesforce? What about Microsoft?
• How do I know if my organization could benefit from a new CRM—or when we should pump the brakes on moving to a new one?

Build Consulting nonprofit CRM experts David Deal and Kyle Haines answer these questions, as well as questions submitted by registrants, in this October 2019 webinar that is part of our popular "Ask the Experts" series.

Learn more about the nonprofit CRM market and how increased competition and new platforms will impact your organization!