Why You Should Stop Using Spreadsheets to Track Donors

Nonprofits need to track several data types to run successful campaigns and fundraisers. From donor contact information to fund progress, information visibility is necessary to continue operations and drive success. After campaigns, analytics and reports can help you learn from your campaign and create stronger ones in the future.

Your organization needs the right tools to access and track all this essential information. However, many nonprofits use spreadsheets at crucial stages of their donor management process, unaware of the disadvantages and weaknesses that accompany the system. Knowing the right tools for your industry can help your nonprofit improve fundraising campaigns and reach current and potential donors.

5 Disadvantages of Using Excel for Donor Management

Using a donation tracking spreadsheet can slow your progress and decrease visibility in your organization. Excel is a widely used tool that many nonprofits rely on to track contact information, donation history, and other essential information. However, Excel has several disadvantages. Here are five reasons you should reconsider Excel and spreadsheets at your nonprofit.

1. Lack of Centralization

Excel is great for organizing information within a single page, but that’s all it can do. It helps organizations micromanage specific types of data, but it can’t give you a big-picture analysis of your organization and its progress. When you open Excel, you don’t receive helpful infographics or updates on what has changed since you last updated it or how you are working toward your goal.

This lack of visibility makes it challenging to keep larger goals and objectives in mind when working on campaigns and events.

2. No Software Integration

Excel and other spreadsheet solutions have no connectivity with other systems. You can’t connect them with emails or automated services to increase their functionality. Using Excel can slow down operations as your employees and volunteers will need to input all data manually.

They will need to move information from your spreadsheets to other programs to send emails, write thank you notes, and update campaign progress and vice versa. Manual data transfer will take longer, pulling employee attention from other essential tasks.

3. Difficult to Track Supporters

Traditionally, Excel spreadsheets house one type of data, and you need multiple spreadsheets to paint a fuller picture. Because of this, it can be challenging to connect information and understand your donors and what efforts you need to reach them. For example, you might store your donor contact information in one spreadsheet and donation history in another. Each sheet holds vital information, but you might not know how to optimize them when separate.

4. Hard to Find Information

Additionally, having so many spreadsheets can make it more challenging to locate specific data. You may need to pull information from several spreadsheets to compile a report on campaign success or progress. Further, each spreadsheet or department might have a different filing system, causing you to search through several folders and similarly titled sheets before finding what you need.

5. Often Inaccurate

Human error is more of a risk with Excel spreadsheets. When people have to enter data manually, they might mistype letters or symbols, causing problems in the future when documenting donations or communicating with donors. You have less trust when tracking donations in Excel and might need more time to fact-check information with original sources.

4 Reasons to Switch to a Donor Management Platform

When spreadsheets prove to be unreliable and inefficient nonprofit resources, you need to determine how to track donors and campaign progress for your organization. A donor management platform is a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that helps you better organize and use collected data. With more automated features and connectivity, you can drive efficiency and communication with this data tracking service.

 

1. Organized Donor Information

A donor management platform will automatically compile and sort your donor information in one place — a donor profile. Whether it pulls data from emails or donation platforms, you can reduce input errors and boost efficiency with this automated feature. Because it stores everything at one location, you can get a more well-rounded image of your donors and their habits, helping drive more targeted campaigns that increase donations.

Because you can store more information on their profiles, you can create more comprehensive records. In addition to contact information and donation history, a donor management platform profile might also house:

• Interaction history.
• Outreach efforts.
• Monthly activity and retention rates.
• Donation patterns.
• Wealth insights and income.
• Birthdays.
• Job.
• Marital status.
• Special interests.
• Social media profiles.

You can better understand your donors, driving decisions that cater to them and their individual needs.

2. Automation and Integration

Beyond creating donor profiles, a donor management platform offers several automated features and integrated services. Its centralized database will compile essential information, giving you more visibility of your organization. As you receive donations, it will track how much you have raised, update your thermometer graphics, and add donor information to their profiles.

A good donor management platform will integrate with other solutions. You can connect it to your email to send automatic updates, thank you notes, and announcements. It will help you sort your contacts into groups, creating more custom communication methods that better meet your donors’ interests.

3. Easy Reporting

Instead of creating reports manually, the automated features will sort data and build a comprehensive set of information you can use to understand progress and boost decisions. You can save time and effort with automatic reporting. Forgo searching for each piece of data, as the platform will find and compile everything for you. Your organization can make stronger decisions and analyze campaigns with information you know is accurate and relevant.

4. No Need for Tech Know-How

GiveSmart’s Donor Management platform is simple and easy to use. Complete with several automated features and functions you can carry out in one click without needing an advanced understanding of technology to optimize this solution. The platform brings you all the necessary data, so you don’t have to memorize complicated pathways or learn complex formats.

Our program comes with the latest technology to help protect your donors’ private data, from their contact information to donor history and patterns. Automatic updates on your dashboard ensure you are always up-to-date on your organization’s standing and strength.

 

Ditch Your Donor Spreadsheet

While spreadsheets rely on manual information and multiple documents, a donor management platform is a perfect upgrade to optimize efficiency and visibility at your nonprofit. Excel can often adapt to many businesses and organizations, but GiveSmart designed our donor management platform specifically for nonprofit organizations, so you build stronger connections with your donors and drive more donations.

Boost organization, communication, and more individualized campaigns with GiveSmart’s Donor Management solution. Request a demo with GiveSmart today and discover how our solutions can help you leave your spreadsheet days in the past.