Many nonprofit heads use Salesforce’s Nonprofit Sucess Pack app to keep track of their donations, government funding, and donor information. The same leaders often rely on Raiser’s Edge, which allows them to monitor ongoing campaigns and new donors. If you’re a nonprofit executive who uses both tools, consider investing in a Salesforce data integration to get the most out of both platforms.
Data Management Best Practices
Before you can integrate your NPSP and RE data, it’s important to make sure your data is in good condition. First, look through both platforms for duplicate donor information and delete any extra entries. This practice keeps you from contacting the same person twice and reduces your marketing expenses.
Next, make sure that all your data is current. If your donors or volunteers have contacted you about new addresses or names, ensure that these updates are in your platforms so that your integration software can quickly match the correct data.
The best nonprofit software can reformat all your entries so that they’re uniform. For example, if your NPSP data uses correct punctuation but your RE data is written only in capital letters, your integration process can smooth out these differences. The process will be much quicker if you take care of these formatting issues now and commit to using the same system in the future.
How to Identify the Best CRM for Your Needs?
Once you’ve adopted these best practices for nonprofit data management, you’re ready to find the constituent relationship management technology that fits your needs. First, take any CRMs that don’t specialize in nonprofits off your list. Nonprofits operate very differently from for-profit corporations, and you don’t want to create any confusion in case you get audited.
Next, figure out what your top needs in a CRM are. Do you want help contacting your donors electronically, or do you want to switch to an online payment system? Is your database of donors and volunteers getting out of hand, or do you need help finding more constituents? Make a list of your top ten needs and look for CRMs that address them.
Good CRMs are easy to set up so that you don’t waste hours integrating your data, but they’re also customizable. Unless you have experience in data management software, choose one that has a startup guide and includes user support.
How Do You Begin the Integration Process?
If you’ve found a CRM that you like, it’s time to start integrating your NPSP and RE data to make your information easier to access and analyze. Reach out to another nonprofit executive who has already integrated his or her data and ask for advice. Then, designate one of your workers or an independent contractor as the lead for this project.
Once you’ve begun importing your RE data to NPSP, keep track of how much data you’ve transferred to avoid losing people’s information. Invest in training for your workforce so that your whole team can benefit from your integration.
Follow these steps to handle data integration like a professional.
