All-in-One Online Fundraising System Key to Effective Constituent Relationship Management

This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Now Marjorie was really angry. None of her clients would have tolerated such impersonal treatment. She had been a loyal supporter for five years, yet PIR seemed to have no idea who she was or how - or even if - she was supporting the organization. If PIR was so disorganized internally, she wondered, how effectively could it serve families in crisis? She began to consider shopping around for a more professionally managed nonprofit.

This fictionalized scenario is all too common in the real world. Of course, nonprofits like these don't intentionally alienate donors and supporters. All too often, they simply lack an adequate infrastructure for fundraising and advocacy, relying on a patchwork of donor tracking and communications systems that create separate silos of information spread across multiple departments.

The marketing department, for example, may be using an e-mail marketing program to create and track solicitation campaigns. The information about the resulting donations, however, is collected by the development department, which records the names of the donors and the amounts they've contributed in a separate donor tracking system. Since the e-mail campaign and the campaign results cannot be evaluated together, it's impossible for the two departments to collaborate and optimize these efforts.

The marketing department may also maintain a second database, perhaps in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, to capture contact information for event attendees, some of whom may be invited guests of the sponsors recruited by members of the development department. Once again, there is a fatal disconnect between both systems and departments.

The results are predictable. With no way to centrally track and coordinate activity across the organization, each department acts independently. Prospects and supporters receive redundant, sometimes conflicting solicitations. Multiple copies of expensively bound and printed annual reports are mailed to stakeholders and supporters. Business leaders like Marjorie are hounded by well-meaning but inadequately equipped marketing, volunteer and development staff.