5 Questions to Answer Before Selecting a Donor Management System

5 Important Development Team Questions to Answer Before Selecting a Donor Management System like Salesforce

The donor management system is like the right hand of a fundraiser. It stores critical donor information, records interactions and relationships, supports cultivation and stewardship strategies, and is the backbone to a successful development strategy. However, with so many tools and resources out there to choose from, how do we make sure we are picking the right one that fits our organization’s needs and budget.

To help, here are 5 important questions that you and your development team should answer before selecting a donor management system, like Salesforce.

What are your short-term and long-term development goals? 

Knowing where your development operation is today and where you want to be is critical to selecting and implementing a donor management system. These goals will determine how robust your system needs to be. Do you need something that can manage planned giving or has an integrated moves management platform? Do you need to track cultivation and stewardship contacts to grow your individual giving? Or do you primarily plan to pursue grants and institutional funders? By exploring your teams short-term and long-term goals, you are starting to define the types of capabilities that your system will need not only today, but in the future.

What types of data do you need to achieve your goals and who is responsible for ensuring its quality? 

Once you have determined your goals, it is critical to identify what types of data you will need to help meet these goals. Do you need to capture capacity or affinity data to support a capital campaign? Is age important because you plan to send out a planned giving direct mail piece? Or do you need to track relationships and interactions? By identifying the types of data that are critical to meeting your goals, your development team can now explore donor management systems that either have these features built into it or are customizable. 

Once you’ve determined the types of data, it is critical to select at least one member of the team that will be responsible for data quality and system maintenance. This person could be a database administrator, IT person, development associate, or even you. As the old adage goes, garbage in equals garbage out, meaning that your database is only as good as the data you enter. Be sure to determine who will have access to the donor management system and to which types of data. 

How do you plan to track your progress to your goals?

Now that your team has determined what your goals are and what types of data you need to achieve them, your team will need to figure out how you plan to track your progress in meeting these goals. Most donor management systems have standard reports and donor dashboards built into them. When selecting a donor management system be sure to explore its reporting capability. Do the built-in reports help you track progress? Can you easily develop a customizable report or dashboard? Is reporting cumbersome or even worse, doesn’t given you the information you need? By streamlining your reporting, you can reduce or minimize your reliance on other tools like spreadsheets and google docs. 

What’s the cost benefit analysis of selecting a donor management system?

The cost and capacity of donor management systems varies vastly. Some donor management systems can cost more than $100,000 a year while others are free. If you have a line-item in your budget, this will help the selection process, but for most organizations investment in development systems is an afterthought. In these instances, it is helpful to remember that by using a donor management system effectively and regularly will improve your development operations; resulting in increased giving and reductions in the costs and time associated with managing the donor life-cycle. 

A cautionary note: cost does not always determine quality. Free systems, like Salesforce, are robust and can often serve most nonprofits needs, but may require customization whereas other donor management systems might be expensive but have the tools your team needs readily available. When selecting a donor management system, be sure to weigh both the costs and benefits. 

What other tools and resources will you need to integrate with your donor management system?

Odds are your organization uses other tools for email communications, accounting, prospect research, or social media. If these tools are important to achieving your goal and cultivating or stewarding new donors be sure that the donor management system you select has the capability for integration or includes them in their packages. 

Don’t forget the donation page! Some donor management systems have custom built donation pages right in their platform, others require a third-party provider. Regardless, you will want the donation page to match your organization’s brand. Through integration and customization, your donor management system can help further reduce the cost of fundraising and maximize efficiencies.