Blog

Donor Contact Management and CRM

It used to be that a singular, 'one-size-fits-all' approach was all that was required to get and keep donor attention. But today, donor management has become much more complex. These days, a donor can be reached just about anywhere.

Knowing where those donors are going at any given time is crucial to any charities who find themselves seeking new donors. But trying to track all of these interactions at all of these different places manually is nearly impossible.

The CRM Solution

Thankfully, along with today's technology is CRM, or customer relationship management. CRM has evolved a great deal over the last few years. Today, it is a one-stop solution for the automating of several tasks that were, historically, managed on a manual basis. This has been of significant benefit to organisations which have a web presence.

Tracking the Donor Journey for Effective Contact Management

Donor contact information may first be obtained at a charity event. They may supply their contact details and may have completed a short information form. Following that, this information can be entered into your CRM software where continuous engagement with the would-be donor can be recorded.

A charity can then use the stored information to send messages directly to a would-be donor by text or email for their fundraising campaigns.

Understanding Technology's Effects

It's been said that the use of texting and social media on personal mobile devices is causing significant changes in the way we are choosing to communicate. And this is proving true; at least one study has revealed that many generations now prefer text or social media interactions over a phone call or even email communication. This makes it even more important to have a software-based method which allows for donor contact point management.

However, CRM can also be used to record those donors who prefer not to use social media. It may be that one organisation's donors prefer to make regular donations, whilst another organisation may receive the bulk of its donations in a one-off manner via website.

Preferred Mediums can mean Increased Probability of Donations

Regardless of the way in which donations are made, CRM can be the ideal way to track donor contact preference so that they are always reached on the medium they access most, no matter how many times that preferred medium may change over time.

Deeper Donor Understanding

The deeper understanding of donors that a CRM software solution provides not only allows for more accurate contact via preferred donor mediums; it also allows organisations to see how their donors are segmented, allowing them to ensure that not a drop of their communications are being unseen.