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Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Understanding the different nuances of CRM for ‘not-for-profit’ companies

12/09/2014 12:49:00 pm

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The non-for-profit organizations require CRM too and in fact their need is as crucial as that of a commercial company. Considering the challenges in regard to CRM and solutions for the non-for-profit companies is a good idea to strengthen the capability.

It is believed that the non-profit firms and NGOs witness some unique CRM challenges that the commercial enterprises don’t have to. Their data structure, assets and also requirements are expected to be more complex in varied ways possible.

Now let us take a close look at some of the challenges faced by CRM for the non-profit organizations –

- They are required to market the product, which can be intangible, not just to the consumers, but also to varied people such as individuals, corporate donors, government agencies, members and also partners.

- They are not just staffed by the volunteers but also employees comprising of the Board of Directors.

- They are required to keep a close track of not just the sales but also the gifts.

- Their communications are usually a complete mixture of emails, telephone, and in-person contact and also press all at the same time. It can be complex in nature as well.

- They are dependent mainly on goodwill, which is difficult to judge.

- They are expected to be engaged in collaborations like consortia.

- They are usually engaged with more special events in comparison to 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.

Solutions offered by CRM 
It is believed that the complexity of the non-profit mission demands for attention in developing the most appropriate tool.  Various CRM vendors provide software that have been particularly developed and designed keeping in mind the requirements of the non-profit organizations with useful features such as donor tracking and also volunteer response reports. In fact, many at times the CRM tools are found to be playing the role of ‘constituent relationship management’.

It has been found that a good CRM manager has the potential to select and also implement a system with utmost care.

- One of the first steps is for judging the data situation via company-wide details. A complete audit comprises of input from staff at the operational level and not just from the managers.

- The CRM manager is required to define what opportunities are available given the collected details and to assess what they require out of the firm. The decision would comprise of a cost efficient analysis of the separate CRM modules in regard to the complete purchase. The tendency should be inclined towards comprehensiveness, but one can say that all the groups of constituent detail need to be included. The progressive vendors are responsible for the market integrated modules and also the system elements are possible to be added as per requirement.

- Like all firms, the nonprofit companies are required to accumulate CRM in the past, not later. It is easier to add details to a system in place of imposing the system on the information.

One of the added advantages of using CRM for nonprofit organizations is that there are varied vendors that provide software without the license fees. Many of the well-known CRM service providers have been providing free licenses for the help desk software and also add ons.

The article is also available at http://salescrms.weebly.com/blog/understanding-the-different-nuances-of-crm-for-not-for-profit-companies


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