The What & Hows of Fundraising Data: Post 3

With a what and one of three hows of nonprofit fundraising data under our belt, today we turn our attention to how #2 - how do we store it?

After you’ve determined which sources are available to you for gathering donor and prospect data, it’s time to store that data.

If you are a new or small organization with a limited budget, using Excel is okay to start. Having said that, be sure to design your worksheets in a way that will make the transition to a more robust constituent relationship management (CRM) system later on as painless as possible. What do I mean by this? Use the nonprofit CRM buyers guide below to do some initial research. Most, if not all, of the options listed have helpful videos on their website or social media platforms. Watch these videos, paying particular attention to field names. Build these field names into your Excel worksheet(s). Excel is not forever. I recommend moving to a CRM system sooner rather than later.

If you are a large, more established organization, I'm going to give you the opposite advice. If you have any, get rid of your donor and prospect data spreadsheets. I call them shadow databases. In addition to creating a security risk, they are inefficient and leave too much room for mistakes when updating. If you are a larger organization and aren't using a CRM, use the list below to begin or continue your research.

A CRM system is used to store and organize the information you collect on your donors and prospects. The best CRM systems manage all constituent actions both incoming and outgoing. Be sure to focus on and ultimately choose a solution that either has all-in-one features or is able to integrate with other products that provide:

• Online fundraising
• Payment processing
• Communications management
• Major gift management
• Analysis and reporting

Of course choose a CRM package that best fits your organization's fundraising practices and your budget. To begin or continue your CRM research, check out this nonprofit CRM buyers guide. This is not an exhaustive list, but it will give you a good start.