Fundraising Software Features
Fundraising software often contains, but is not limited to, the following features:
Email marketing – A key part of nonprofit fundraising over the past decade, fundraising software offers email marketing functionality to help users connect with potential donors.
Direct mail — While response rates for direct mail have slowed, fundraising software still often contains direct mail capabilities so users can track and monitor direct mail campaigns and the data that is created as a result of those campaigns.
Event planning — Event fundraising is a massive industry, and fundraising software typically provides users with features that enable them to plan fundraising events directly within the application. Fundraising events may include auctions or events like bike races, for which the entire goal is to raise money for the organization. Event planning features allow for the seamless transition from event planning to event management and donation collection.
Donor profiles – Fundraising software builds and maintains donor profiles so nonprofit organizations can have a comprehensive overview of everyone contributing to a given cause. These donor profiles include donor history, all interactions that occurred between the organization and the donor, and donor information. Your organization can use these profiles to build out donor personas, which are analogous to the buyer personas often used in marketing strategy. These personas will help your organization shape their fundraising strategy and change it up depending on the specific persona they are going after.
Campaign management – Fundraising software often contains fundraising campaign management features. These features allow users to actively manage and oversee their organization’s fundraising campaigns.
Donation portal – A donation portal gives you the ability to accept donation payments directly in the application you’re using.
Mobile-friendly – Fundraising is taking place more on mobile devices than ever before, so fundraising software vendors are offering more mobile-friendly solutions than ever before.
Interaction tracking — Fundraising software often contains interaction tracking features, which provide your organization with an overview of all interactions between a given donor and your organization. This includes donation history, so you’re able to touch base with the donor at the correct times in order to turn them into a recurring donor.
Reporting – Most fundraising software offers users fairly detailed and customizable reporting features, which employees can use to track the successes and failures of various fundraising strategies.
Recurring donations – This feature gives organizations the ability to set up consistent donations for a given donor, ensuring a constant stream of income. Recurring donations also take the onus off of the organization to reach out again and again to the donor, removing the steps necessary for a donor to consistently contribute to a cause they deem of interest.
Automation — Fundraising automation functionality allows your organization to automatically schedule email blasts and send receipts to donors. The more the system is automated, the more time your employees have to focus on value-adding tasks, like crafting strategy or planning the next viral fundraising campaign.
Other features of fundraising software: Capital Campaign Capabilities, Planning Giving Capabilities.
Many fundraising software tools will also offer the following features:
