Nonprofit organizations need customer relationship management, just like commercial enterprises. In fact, nonprofits and NGO's face CRM challenges that commercial enterprises don't have. Their data structure, assets and needs are likely to be more complex in several ways.

Customer Relationship Management Challengesfor Nonprofits

• They need to market the product--often intangible--not only to consumers, but also to individual and corporate donors, government agencies, members and partners
• They're staffed by volunteers in addition to employees, including, invariably, the Board of Directors.
• They need to track not only sales, but also gifts
• Their communications mix tends to be complex, often a mixture of mail, telephone, in-person contact, and press
• They depend heavily on goodwill, which is difficult to measure
• They are more likely to be involved in partnerships such as consortia
• They tend to be more involved with special events than commercial enterprises

It follows that CRM software can be particularly useful to nonprofits. A CRM application should centralize data on all constituents, not only customers, and the Nonprofit CRM system ideally includes information on every person, company, and agency impacting the organization.

Customer Relationship Management Solutions

The complexity of the nonprofit mission calls for some particular attention in designing a CRM application. Several companies, including Microsoft and Convio, offer CRM systems specifically designed for nonprofits' needs, with features like donor tracking and volunteer response reports. Indeed, the systems are sometimes called "constituent relationship management".

The wise CRM manager should choose and implement a system with care.

• The first step is to assess the data situation through an organization-wide information needs audit. It should be managed on the highest level--perhaps by the CIO if there is one. A complete audit involves input from staff at the operational level--not merely from managers.
• The CRM manager needs to define what opportunities are present given the aggregate collected information and to assess what they needs of the organization are.
• The nonprofit CRM master needs to assess CRM products in terms of the particular features he needs. The decision would involve a cost-benefit analysis of the separate CRM modules in the context of the entire purchase. The tendency should be toward comprehensiveness, but it's too easy to say that all categories of constituent information should be included. The progressive vendors market integrated modules, and system elements can be added as needed.
• Like all companies, the nonprofit needs to assimilate CRM earlier, not later. It's easier to add information to a system than to impose the system on the information.

Fortunately for nonprofits, software developers appreciate their work, and several offer CRM software without license fees. SalesForce, EBSuite, and CiviCRM, for example, offer license-free systems, and Kayako offers free licenses for help desk software and add-ons

With open-source software, the client is free to develop customer relationship management features and functionality it needs uniquely. MPower Systems it adopted an open-source policy last year (license-free to NGO's). In June, SalesForce began to offer its Nonprofit Starter Pack as open source.

Even the small nonprofit should consider a CRM application. Some vendors have user fees of as low as $40 per month.

Sources

Convio

E-Business Suite

IM Cool

Microsoft Solution Finder

Ostatic

PNN Online

Tech Soup

About the Author
Steve Greechie (MBA, MSLIS, MA) is a freelance business writer in New York City. He's published extensively in a range of publications, including The Boston Business Journal, Information Outlook, Online, Architectural Record and The Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship. He contributed to The Core Business Web, which The American Library Association named The Best Business Reference Book of 2003. His internet copy appears widely.