Constituent Relationship Management Systems

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ICT Guide for Decision Makers

Technology Applications
- Mobile Applications for NGOs
- Electronic Bulk Messaging
- Constituent Relationship Management Systems
- Document Management Systems
- Project Management Applications

This article is part of a series called ICT Guide for Decision Makers, a guide for non-technical decision makers of NGOs in Africa, to help them make better informed decisions about ICT strategies for their organisations. For an in depth and more technical article read Customer Relationship Management on Wikipedia.

Introduction

One of the major functions of a non-profit organization is building, managing, and maintaining relationships with other people, companies, or organizations. We have donors, funders, supporters, members, volunteers, sponsors, people we help, and all other constituents. And we have to manage, keep track of relations with these people or entities. If you are one person that may be some challenge, but as you grow the challenge grows even more.

CRM – or xRM – is a centralized relationship management system. The letter ‘C’ at the beginning originally stands for ‘customer’. It opens as ‘Customer Relationship Management’, a term originated from the business world.

However the non-profits do not necessarily have customers. They have constituents, beneficiaries, donors, sponsors, stakeholders, and etc. So in order to keep term consistent we will use the term CRM in place of xRM, where x stands for whatever you like, be it constituent, donor, beneficiary, funder, volunteer and so on...

The idea of CRM is simple: consolidate all constituent data into one place and provide practical means for the staff to access, edit, update, or add information easily.

Functions of a Typical CRM system for NGOs

The figure below is a summary of common CRM functions.

Storing information

The information stored can be as simple as just contact information to records of each communication, all membership dues, event attendance, you name it.

The system should allow a practical means to add, update this information. Sometimes the updates can be automated (for example working with the accounting system updating membership due payments…)

The system also should keep the records securely, giving access to only authorized people. You can also define what types of records are accessible by what roles. For example, only healthcare personnel can access the person’s HIV status and accountants cannot… This is called access control.

The system should provide means for easy search and retrieval of records. You should be able to search and retrieve using any data type. For example: “donors in Nairobi”.

As with any centralized data system automated backup is necessary and disaster recovery processes should be defined and tested.

Reporting

Reports can be as simple as a mailing list. As long as you have healthy information you can create reports like “list of people who donated more than 10 000 Rand last year and attended or yearly event”. Or “families whom we served last year in Limpopo that have younger than 6 years old children”.

Integration

It is always a good idea to have the CRM system integrated to other applications if possible – this increases the data health by keeping it automatically current, and removing the human data transfer. CRM systems can be integrated to your mailing programs, such as Outlook – this way all electronic communication can be recorded. They can be integrated to accounting systems, websites… depending on your needs. Integration here means, the two systems can exchange common information back and forth.

Other Functions

Some other functions can be part of a CRM system, such as:

Bulk mailing/Newsletters: This can be sending form emails, or newsletters to subscribers or printing mailing labels for postal mails.
Fundraising/Campaign/Lead Management: Fundraising Campaing Management, keeping track of phone calls, managing pledges...
Event Management: Registering event attendees, RSVPs,tracking payments, information forms...
Association/Membership Management: Membership dues, sending renewal reminders...
Survey Management: Sending survey forms, reporting, analysing results
Self-service or eCRM: this function lets constituents update their own data via a website or similar. It can be used for association membership management as an example
Call Centre/Help Desk: Creating support tickets, following them up until case is closed...

Things to consider

When deciding on a CRM system you may need to think about these among others (beyond cost):

The real needs and size of your organisation

Here you have to really look at your organisation: capacity, size, needs… If all you need is just to share a donor contact list – a shared contact list on the network may do the trick – especially if you think about the complexity of maintaining a full blown CRM system. There are simple products, such as Outlook Business Contact Manager, or Sharepoint services that can do the trick. Of course if you are a sizable organization where staff contacts donors, manages membership or keeps track of beneficiaries… well you will need a better solution.

Integration with your existing infrastructure and processes

Then check your processes or existing platforms. Integration with mailing system can be critical. In some cases like if you are collecting membership dues, integration with accounting system can be important (and some accounting packages offer CRM modules themselves). Integration with staff desktop applications can be useful if the staff is contacting people with emails, writing reports, documents. Some CRM systems offer web browser access only. This can be useful for field staff that enters via laptops remotely or even via their cell phones. Don’t forget CRM is supposed to facilitate your work not the other way around.

Customization

Just as you think about your budget for a CRM system, keep in mind, most systems require heavy customization for your needs by specialists. This sometimes may end up requiring even more than the software licence itself. Even if you acquire the licence free (for example Microsoft Software Grant or Free and Open Source…) this can be an issue unless you can find a specialist doing it pro bono or for a discounted fee. You may have to re-think about the customizations you need, or tweaking your processes to fit to the product as it is. Just keep in mind.

Privacy laws/regulations, security

Privacy laws are catching up with technology everywhere. A CRM system collects and stores information about people. So be aware about the laws of your country of operation, and what type of information that you are collecting, or exposing… to whom. Do you need policies? Do you need disclaimer notices? Do you need to implement opt in or out options (the person to agree or disagree about the information stored)? And of course the security of the system is important – giving information access to people who need that information to do their job, not more is a key factor. Check with your specialist for these options.

Service or License?

For acquiring or adopting a CRM system you have 2 options: you may acquire it as a licensed product, host it yourself (i.e. on your servers) or you can have it as an online service.

Self hosting can have a steep entry budget, and can be complex to maintain. However if you need specific functions, customizations, integration to your systems, or if are already have the capacity to host such platforms, you may do so.

If you don’t have the capacity or the need to self host, and if just accessing via internet by browsers does what you need, then choosing a service option (SaaS – Software as a Service) is a easy entry solution – and in many cases gets you in business fastest.

Options

Below is a limited list of CRM options specifically for NGOs that you may find worth looking into. Included are free (open or not open source) and commercial software and services. Though keep in mind that free or not most require some customization and launching costs.

CiviCRM

A free and open source product that is designed for the civil society. Besides a contact management core it has these add on modules

Fundraising/donor management
Event management
Membership management/self service sign up
Bulk mailing/newsletters
Report and template management

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft recently started offering Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a service with a solution package for NGOs – although this is currently available only in the USA and Canada. It has out-of-the-box CRM functionality and customizations for:

Donation and pledge management
Basic membership management
Basic volunteer tracking
Campaign management
Excel dashboard reports
Payment solution for online donations

Of course you may acquire the product as a licence through grants (Techsoup) and host it yourself with customizations.

Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is an online “cloud” solution – it provides CRM as a service. They have a donation program for non-profits. You can have up to 10 users (licenses) to have your own solution as a service. They also offer substantial discounts if you require more than 10 licenses. Provides:

A centralized repository for all the people and organizations you work with;
A place for tracking donations, grants, memberships and volunteering, as well as your organization's programs;
A way to track progress toward program goals;
A real-time reporting and analytics engine;
A solution for decreasing administrative time and costs; and
A key to increasing your donor base and funds.

ebase

ebase is a free CRM tool designed for small to medium-sized non-profit organizations. It has Windows and Macintosh versions. It runs on commercial software FileMaker Pro. However if you don’t have that, you can download standalone version, which is somewhat less customizable, but still works and free. It can be yet challenging to configure and maintain for an organization that doesn’t have IT capacity.

Metrix

Metrix is a free and open source, centralized contact management system for non-profits, created by the Fund for the City of New York. It is suitable for small to medium sized organizations. It consists of a user interface designed on Microsoft Access and a Microsoft SQL Server database (both products are available via Techsoup/SANGOTech or Microsoft Software grants), it can also use free Microsoft SQL Server Express. Functions available are: Contact Management, Scheduling, Reporting, Membership, Events and more…

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