Incorporate Automation into Nonprofit Processes: Top 5 Uses

While you likely try to devote as much attention as possible to mission-critical work, tasks like data entry can eat away at your time. Additionally, you’re more likely to make errors when handling these tasks manually, which can cause issues such as impeded donor communication and incorrect employee compensation.

With workflow automation, you can direct your attention away from tedious tasks and toward more fulfilling, mission-driven work instead. For example, using a nonprofit CRM allows your organization to automate many donor and volunteer engagement processes. That way, you can still keep up with stakeholders but reallocate staff time to mission-critical initiatives.

From donor emails to data management, here are five processes your organization can automate:

1. Donor appreciation
2. Corporate giving
3. Data management
4. Merchandise fundraising
5. Company culture and employee satisfaction

Let’s review how to configure your nonprofit’s software tools to automate these processes for more streamlined workflows and better supporter engagement.

Donor Appreciation

Implementing proper donor recognition practices is an essential part of managing donor relationships and ensuring continued support. It’s best to recognize donors as soon as possible when they contribute to your organization to make sure they know you appreciate their support, and automation empowers you to act quickly. 

With the help of a document management system, you can trigger an automated workflow that reminds gift officers to thank the donor over the phone or email. Thus, you can make sure supporters receive a unique thank-you message, such as an eCard immediately after they donate.

Corporate Giving

Smart form automation is useful when it comes to maximizing corporate gifts. For instance, Double the Donation recommends asking volunteers if they work for companies that offer volunteer grants. If they check yes, you can configure the form to ask them what the name of their company is. Then, you can set up an automated reminder that will ensure you follow up with these volunteers to ask if they can submit a volunteer grant request to benefit your organization.

You can implement a similar automation process for matching gifts as well. When donors give to your organization, include a form field that asks them if their employer has a matching gift program. If they check yes, allow them to input the name of their company. That way, you can set up an automated reminder notifying you to ask these donors to submit a matching gift request to their employer. Once their requests are approved, your nonprofit will earn double or even triple the amount of donation revenue.

Making the volunteer grant and matching gift processes as streamlined as possible will help you raise more for your cause with less effort.

Data Management

Data is at the heart of good nonprofit decision-making. The more data you collect from your donors and volunteers, the better you can serve their needs. As a result, you’ll gain more support for your cause.

However, it’s important to keep constituent data private. When you integrate automation tools into donor CRMs like Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge, you can keep sensitive data safe. Using data encryption and redaction, the right automation provider will help you protect against data breaches and cyber-attacks. With these types of tools, you can protect constituent data and build trust with donors and volunteers.

Merchandise Fundraisers

It can be difficult to come up with new and innovative fundraising ideas. Merchandise fundraisers are ideal because they provide the donor with something in return for their contribution. Additionally, branded merchandise like t-shirts, hats, and stickers can serve as advertisements for your organization and allow donors to share your mission with others.

Procurement software makes merchandise fundraisers easy. It streamlines communication with merchandise vendors and offers automated invoice processing to simplify the purchasing process. As a result, you can focus more time on raising money for your cause and less on the underlying processes that facilitate merchandise fundraisers.

Company Culture and Employee Satisfaction

eCardWidget explains that positive company culture can increase employee satisfaction and retention. While most of your time is spent engaging donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries, it’s important to keep your employees motivated and eager to uphold your mission.

Using payroll processing automation can contribute to positive company culture. With mobile DMS, employees can scan their time cards, which will prompt the payroll software to validate and compute their wages. Then, it will forward the payslips to the appropriate team member without intervention from your staff.

When you use payroll processing automation, you give employees a greater sense of security when it comes to getting paid. That in turn improves company culture because employees feel less stressed and can focus on their work instead of worrying about their compensation.

You can also support company culture through employee appreciation efforts. Just like with donor appreciation, you can use eCards to thank your employees for their hard work and dedication to your cause. Additionally, you can allow employees to send eCards to each other to recognize their co-workers for workplace wins and outstanding achievements.

It’s no secret that there are many different projects and roles nonprofit professionals must take on each day in support of their organization’s missions. However, there’s no reason employees in the nonprofit sector should be bogged down with tedious and unnecessary tasks. 

Automation ensures that nonprofit operations run efficiently so that nonprofit staff can focus on making an impact. Whether you’re automating donor appreciation, corporate giving, data management, merchandise sales, or employee satisfaction efforts, know that you’re saving valuable time and resources that can be redirected to more mission-related initiatives.

Get a demo today on PairSoft’s natively integrated fundraising management solutions for Blackbaud CRM and Raiser’s Edge NXT.