To raise funds, NGOs build a network of donors, connections with funding agencies, corporate and government agencies. It is generally not a direct path, and requires multiple interaction points or a series of communication with the contact person from the organization before they become a part of the network.
Most of the times the contact and communication data is managed in excel sheets and is scattered through many different communication channels like mailboxes, mailthreads and call logs etc… The effectiveness of this relationship management decreases as more people join in and no one knows how to continue. The leads begin to slip through the cracks. It becomes harder to connect with them again and new leads have to be looked for.
After learning from many NGOs how they had a difficult time raising donations and funds for their NGO, one thing we realized was that the relationships weren’t managed well.
Relationships can be managed through a system and hence making het process more effective. The system allows NGOs to create the profiles of prospective donors and funders they meet. Different members of the NGO can be a part of creating this pool and expanding the network. And then these connections can be passed on to dedicated members for further communication so that they can be inducted well. Throughout the process, till the lead is converted, the system can be used to track the communication and plan the next actions for each of the leads.
Infact, this tool which was created for NGOs turned out to be useful for us. While conducting the research which led us to connect with several NGOs and gain their feedback and understand what are the other ways we could build solutions for them to run their NGOs effectively, we used this system. Whenever a team member would connect with a new NGO they would create a profile for them. We would continue to track our communication with them through the tool. The system reminded us to follow up with them if they did not respond back or continue the conversation if we missed connecting back. A team could together use it and maintain their respective leads and also learn from each other’s experiences.
This made it easy for us to make the best out of the NGOs who connected back with us and also in making sure that we build; [[[healthy relations with them not just till the research was over but one which was more lasting. NGOs can use this tool in a similar way to build their donor and funder network based on healthy communication. This also streamlines which are the right connections to focus their energy on and which ones can be let go.
This CRM feature allowed NGOs to connect with potential clients or to make corporate connections and onboard them over a series of communication. They can record the communication and follow up with the clients where they left off so that they don’t have to do the work again and again, also not lose the connections.
