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What Do Nonprofits Need In A Database?

Running a nonprofit is complex and challenging. From managing volunteers to tracking donations, there is a considerable amount of behind-the-scenes operational work behind each fundraiser, event, or volunteer opportunity. With a robust nonprofit database, much of this work can be streamlined and optimized to help your team achieve success. But what do you need to know to get started?

Below are four key ways your nonprofit database should contribute to your organization.

Hold Records of Your Donors and Prospects 

Understanding your donors is a crucial part of your role as the manager or owner of a nonprofit organization. That means keeping track of who they are, how regularly they donate, and particular elements of your mission that they connect with. Your nonprofit database should do this work for you by keeping a holistic record of every person who has given. 

Data you should be capturing includes:

  • Each gift a donor makes and to which program 
  • Each donor’s available biographical and contact information 
  • Your past interactions and connections with each donor
  • What projects you might next approach a donor with 

Keeping track of this data all in one place will not only allow you to track revenue–it will also give you a powerful tool to analyze your communication with donors and see where you can improve.  

When it comes to new prospects, it’s always better to be proactive than wait for donors to find you. GivePulse’s all-in-one platform allows you to track donor information, volunteer hours, event attendance, and more. 

By keeping records of members, volunteers, and supporters all in one place, you’ll be able to identify potential new donors from within your nonprofit community.

Serve as a Connection to Your Supporters 

When it comes to donor recognition and retention, it’s essential to let your supporters know they’re appreciated.

A robust nonprofit engagement database will allow you to send a broad range of communications to your supporters, from automated confirmations to personalized messages. You’ll be able to streamline the process of sharing all kinds of supporter communications, including:

  • Acknowledgments for donations and in-kind gifts 
  • Gift solicitations
  • News and updates
  • Scheduling information for volunteers
  • Event registrations

Through GivePulse, nonprofits can connect with supporters through various channels, including on-platform group and individual messages, emails and SMS. Our simple templates make it easy to stay on-brand while personalizing messaging for each supporter.

Manage Memberships and Volunteers

Nonprofits rely on their volunteers, and a robust volunteer management platform is crucial to keep supporters engaged.

Your nonprofit database should include volunteer management capacity so you can register and schedule volunteers, keep track of hours, manage communications, and measure impact. 

GivePulse allows individual volunteers to easily browse, search, and register for volunteer opportunities to make an impact in the community. For nonprofits, it provides an all-in-one platform to recruit community volunteers, streamline communication, schedule one-time and repeat volunteer shifts and more.

Our membership payment system helps you track members and streamline membership dues, allowing your supporters to become sustaining donors.

Measure Impact

In order to grow, your nonprofit organization should constantly be assessing its impact and making improvements. Your nonprofit database should support this with strong reporting tools. 

GivePulse allows nonprofits to export group and individual records to measure impact via gifts, volunteering, events, and one-off campaigns. Our visual representations, like graphs and heatmaps, make data easy to understand for staff and board members.

Gift officers can use the platform to export an individual donor’s complete giving and engagement history and print a summary before important meetings and asks.

Get Started with GivePulse Today 

Fundraising and volunteer management are pillars of nonprofit work. Our all-in-one donor, member and event management system can help you track and increase engagement with your donors, board members and volunteers–all with the lowest fees in the industry! With a solid nonprofit database like GivePulse, your nonprofit can streamline operations to increase revenue and enhance donor relationships. 

Schedule a demo with our team today to learn how we can help you enhance your work and increase your impact.

 


 

About GivePulse

GivePulse's mission is to enable everyone in the world to participate and engage in lifting their community to new heights. We do so by providing a platform to list, find, organize and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and volunteerism.

Founded in 2012 in Austin, Texas, GivePulse works with 650,000+ groups, including colleges and universities, nonprofits, businesses, K-12/school districts and cities and municipalities. Together, we connect millions of people in an effort to create positive social change.

Start making a difference today by visiting www.givepulse.com.