What are the Benefits for a Charity Using a CRM System?
There are many and varied, and can include:
Bringing all the strands of information together makes it quicker and easier to find what you need to communicate relevantly and effectively with supporters
Keeping all supporter data, forms, and declarations in one place and easily accessible is a major advantage for ensuring data protection law compliance – as well as for claiming Gift Aid. For example, a key requirement of GDPR is that you know what data you hold about each individual supporter in your system, and that you can view, copy, and delete all or part of it as requested. A single record for each supporter makes it easier to record and access consent choices as needed, and make any changes
One central database makes it a lot easier to ensure you don’t have lots of slightly different records for the same supporter – again important for complying with data protection legislation, as well as relationship building
Having all information strands in once place also fosters better collaboration between teams, which again, will only serve to improve everything you do. One key area this helps with is to ensure that, regardless of which team is using the data within your organisation, every communication to supporters has the same voice, rather than sounding different depending on which team it comes from. It has the added benefit of ensuring that all teams know who and when supporters are contacted which can help in streamlining and increasing communication effectiveness.
As an organisation adds to its offering from research, to funding, services and volunteering, the more integration is needed with different data sources and systems, in areas that can include event management, payment processing etc. A CRM system performs a valuable role in bringing all those data sources together, improving operational efficiency.
- Most CRM systems have standard reporting inbuilt, which will keep you informed on many things including the likes of new donors, income acquired, demographics etc. Some systems will go further with their standard or bespoke intelligent reporting that you can set. This will help you when contacting supporters at key times, such as the anniversary of their first donation.
