4 Tools for Streamlined Fundraising

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As a busy nonprofit professional, you are likely always looking for ways to streamline your fundraising processes and procedures. Luckily, there are many tricks and tools available to you so that you can maximize your time and focus on your mission.

  1. A social listening tool: Social media is becoming more popular and vital than ever for nonprofits, but you probably don’t have the time to dig through mentions, reactions and engagement on all of your social platforms every day. A social listening tool, like Hootsuite or Meltwater, can streamline your social media efforts by finding and reporting on important social media metrics.
  2. A donor management system: We may be a little biased, but a donor management/CRM system is a must if you want to streamline your fundraising. A donor management system allows you to implement donor cultivation strategies, foster your recurring gifts program, segment constituents, analyze performance, run queries, pull reports, see where your donors are in the pipeline and more. Additionally, have you ever wondered how much time you could save if you didn’t have to manage spreadsheets filled with donors? Now you can find out! A donor management system eliminates the need for Excel spreadsheets.
  3. A mail-merge tool: No more sending out individual emails to your constituents, a mail-merge tool allows you to send out an email to a group of donors or prospects in one fell swoop. All you have to do is enter the criteria and write the letter, and your mail-merge tool will do the rest. Bonus: Many donor management systems have a mail-merge tool built in so that you can contact the donors in your database in-bulk.
  4. A wealth screening tool: If you’re thinking about implementing a recurring gifts program or a major donor cultivation strategy, you’ll want to know which donors to reach out to. Rather than hunting through your spreadsheets or CRM to compile a list of possibly-compatible donors, a wealth screening tool – like DonorSearch or WealthEngine – can identify these donors for you. These tools integrate with your ResultsPlus CRM and find donors within your database that are financially viable for your major gifts or recurring gifts program.

As technology continues to advance, more and more tools are available at our disposal to make processes and procedures more efficient. What are some of the best tools that you have found to streamline your nonprofit duties? Share in the comments below!