Any mission-driven nonprofit organization with a membership, donor, or public support base is going to need a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system to successfully sustain its operations over time. If you are a nonprofit leader or marketing or development professional who is not familiar with the term, you should be. Here is a definition from Kindful's Nonprofit Glossary:

A Nonprofit CRM is a platform that helps organizations understand and maximize their relationships with their donors. Also known as a “Constituent Relationship Management” system, the software is synonymous with a nonprofit database or a donor management system that organizes donor data, identifies donor trends, and makes recommendations to increase the likelihood of receiving future donations.

For nonprofits, these platforms (if properly designed) can provide a set of indispensable tools to support important membership communications, marketing, and fundraising functions, including:

• Contact and gift records tracking

• Receipting and acknowledgments

• Email and direct mail marketing

• Data analysis, hygiene, and reporting

• Prospect management and wealth screening

• Automated marketing workflows

The problem is that while the technology exists to support an all-in-one platform that provides all of the above functions and tools, few nonprofit CRMs are available today that meet that standard of performance. Some were designed nearly two decades ago, using outdated legacy tracking and reporting models, and providing few of the tools nonprofit leaders desperately need today. Others have been designed with a single solution focus, choosing to be the best tool on the market for email marketing or wealth screening, rather than trying to provide a complete suite of tools. These options can be valuable when they have the ability to integrate with larger CRMs, but the process can be both time-consuming and costly for nonprofit organizations operating within time constraints and on limited budgets.

For many small to mid-sized nonprofits, the best solution is going to be an all-in-one CRM that serves as a one-stop-shop for all fundraising, marketing, and communications management. These are the three that we recommend at Devine & Parker:

VIRTUOUS

Styled as a "responsive fundraising platform" Virtuous provides an impressive suite of tools within its system, including:

• Nonprofit CRM (modern donor management)

• Marketing & Email (multichannel campaigns and segmentation)

• Signals (data-driven insights)

• Automation (personal donor journeys and workflows)

• Giving & Events (frictionless giving and event experiences)

• Volunteer Management (recruitment and mobilization tools)

The main benefit of Virtuous is that it can likely replace most, if not all, of an organization's marketing and fundraising tools, making it easier to get a full picture of your data while avoiding the time-consuming process of moving data manually between siloed platforms. Contact profiles are robust, and powerful, tracking every mail, email, and website interaction that a member has with your organization. Automated workflows support retention by creating a personalized and automatic experience for members while organizing tasks for your internal team. Real-time reporting makes it easy to see year-to-date returns or month-over-month comparisons, and the campaign and project structure makes it possible to track the origin and destination of every dollar donated to your nonprofit.

EVERYACTION (BONTERRA)

Calling itself "nonprofit tech that makes an impact" EveryAction divides its services into three primary buckets:

• Digital

• Fundraising

• Organizing

In addition to its "all-in-one" CRM, which provides a host of donor management, digital marketing, and events and volunteer management functionalities, EveryAction also offers a unique set of grassroots mobilization tools designed specifically to connect members to elected officials. These advocacy tools are paramount for public policy organizations looking to raise awareness or hold state and federal officials accountable to their constituents on key social issues.

Note that EveryAction has recently been consolidated with several other nonprofit technology solutions under a newly branded company called Bonterra. This may change how services are offered over time.

KEELA

A smaller, but powerful up-and-coming CRM, Keela refers to itself as the "Do-It-All Software for Nonprofits." This solution is best for small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations with a digital-first philosophy. Keela's offerings are grouped as follows:

• Fundraising

• Communications

• CRM Donor Management

In addition to providing the same complete suite of marketing, fundraising, records management, and automation solutions as the other CRMs listed, Keela has an extremely impressive reporting capability and comes at a very affordable starting price for nonprofits that don't have large budgets to invest in new technology. If you are a newer nonprofit setting up a CRM for the first time, you should definitely check Keela out.

Choosing the right CRM isn't just a tech decision—it's about picking a partner that'll grow with you and help you make a more significant impact, without losing your mind over spreadsheets and disconnected data.