If you volunteer or donate to a charity, no doubt you’ve experienced this at least once: You receive a solicitation phone call asking for donations and then a day or two later get yet another call from another person soliciting for donations for the same cause or for the same organization. Possibly worse, you volunteer a lot of your time at one particular organization, but it feels like nobody from the organization knows who you are or that you are a regular volunteer. 
You know that volunteering your time or donating your money is not about recognition but about the cause you’re supporting. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be known to them. If you manage or work for a non-profit, the last thing you want to do to your donors or volunteers is to make them feel unknown and unappreciated.
It’s crucial for you to maintain positive relationships with your donors and volunteers or run the risk of losing them to other non-profits. At the same time, you need to make sure you are utilizing that volunteer time or those donated dollars wisely. The difficulty is that the majority of non-profits lack the tools for proper non-profit constituent management.
More than likely, each department or individuals within departments are utilizing spreadsheets, email, outdated contact management systems, or apps they’ve found on their own to do their job. The issue is that it is impossible to see all the information about your constituents in a single, centralized location, resulting in ineffective engagement.
The solution: Constituent management technology that gives you a 360 view of everyone
The key is to find a solution that consolidates all that information collectively under one umbrella, combined so that you can immediately know everything pertinent about your constituents. Information as basic as their name and address to more detailed data such as which events they’ve volunteered, the last time you contacted them and what you talked to them about. Once armed, you can effectively manage your constituents, at a proactive, personalized level—one you would never dream of having the time or resources to do without the right supporting technology. Imagine reaching out to a volunteer with every piece of information you need to have a productive conversation. A conversation that benefits you and reinforces your relationship with a valued resource:
“Hello, James. This is Felicia from the shelter. How are you today? I just wanted to touch base to say thank you so much for being there last Saturday to help distribute holiday meals. I thought you’d like to know that in just 4 hours we were able to serve more than X families! We couldn’t have done it without you. Your experience with organizing assembly lines was the key that made the group more efficient, so please accept our sincerest thanks for your guidance. I am also aware that you donate regularly, which is greatly appreciated. Every dollar can make a difference. Finally, I wanted to let you know that we are organizing a food drive in January. Giving tends to slow down after the holidays, so we need to rebuild our supply for the difficult winter months ahead. Would you be able to join us again? If so, I would love to have James, our distribution coordinator reach out to you because I think your talents would be very helpful in that area…That’s great! I show that this is the best number to call, or would you prefer email or other? Perfect!. Thank you so much for your time and for your ongoing support. Have a beautiful day!”
That’s what a centralized non-profit constituent management solution can do.
Constituent Management provides the base for all areas that advance your mission, to include volunteer, donor, and member management, fundraising & engagement, finance & accounting, not to mention participant and case management, since many non-profits have participants/clients who also volunteer.
Choose the right technology to advance your mission
Constituent management isn’t the only area that can benefit from a technology solution. But technology takes money, time, and resources to implement, and often even the most full-featured software solutions don’t have the things you need to address all your challenges.
and partners who implement their technology that work with non-profits understand this problem. HSO has addressed it with the approach to non-profit technology solutions. Our solutions, powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365, the , and the , provide a connected, flexible platform that lets you choose which functionality you need using your priorities, budget, and time frame as the guide, while providing you with a foundation to easily add additional functionality when you’re ready. , then to get started.
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