2021 Nonprofit Software Guide: Which Tools You Must Have for the New Year

Running a nonprofit in 2021 calls for powerful donor relationship management software. Whether an organization relies on a single platform or combines platforms for fundraising and operations, here is a guide to nonprofit data integration software for automated import management and other routine tasks to maximize the return on an investment in nonprofit software.

Cloud Integration for Nonprofits

While some organizations rely on a single platform such as Salesforce for Nonprofits or Raiser’s Edge NXT, other groups get results by combining the unique strengths of these platforms. Salesforce has more robust features for tracking online engagement while Raiser’s Edge is the natural choice for conventional fundraising. If an organization seeks to combine these software as a service platforms or other nonprofit management software, it may prove necessary to integrate nonprofits donor data across platforms.

The best advantage of a successful cloud integration is the availability of records across platforms and devices. Staff members, volunteers and other stakeholders can access the data they need to fundraise effectively anywhere at any time. Donor data is also not limited to physical storage that places the burden of security squarely on an organization.

Automated Import Management System

An import management system can be an effective way for any organization to experience the benefits of automation. Data entry and transfer is one of the least efficient and most error-prone tasks. Automating donor record imports is a good way to ensure that any information transferred is as accurate as the original source. Some donor relationship management software also offers data health utilities to correct, improve or standardize records.

In some cases, an automated system may be bidirectional and allow records to be transferred back and forth between platforms. Other builds may work to automate and standardize data transfer from a primary platform to secondary software or from a platform used to support conventional fundraising to another service that excels at next-generation engagement tracking. In other cases, connectors can be used to unify importing and exporting into a single step in a larger organizational workflow.

Start the New Year Off Strong

Pursuing cloud-based data integration solutions is a good way for any nonprofit to start off the new year right. A full-featured integration can make it easier for the staff and stakeholders in an organization to access needed information when and where it can do the most good in terms of guiding and tracking fundraising and engagement initiatives. It may be helpful for the leadership of an organization to assess the data strategy and look for ways to maximize efficiency, cost per dollar raised and return on investment in the new year.

A substantial investment in licensing fees for the leading nonprofit platforms can be wasted without functional integration solutions. Siloed data is much less useful for guiding fundraising campaigns that draw on the unique strengths of Blackbaud and Salesforce software. As these leading donor management platforms are proprietary and open-source, respectively, integration software is needed to import and export data for use in analytics and segmentation to guide donor asks and engagement in 2021 and beyond.