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Jul 30, 2024
It’s Time To Move On
Breakups are hard. Whether it’s a situationship or a long-term relationship, saying goodbye to something that served you in the past is a difficult but necessary step. For your nonprofit, breaking up with your fundraising software that is not serving you will allow you to evolve and provide you with new opportunities. Having the right fundraising software allows your nonprofit to provide a seamless donor experience, utilize top-performing features and best practices, and manage your data like never before. You know what they say, if you love the wrong person this much, imagine how much you will love the right person!
Here’s how to know when it’s time to move on from your fundraising software and upgrade.
Outdated and Insufficient Tech
Donor Impact
If your fundraising platform lacks essential features, it’s time to explore newer options. Donors often struggle with platforms that have complex donation processes, confusing navigation, and limited payment options.
Slow load times and unresponsive mobile designs can also be frustrating, leading to potential donor abandonment. After all, donors agree that a positive online experience makes them more likely to donate
Issues like lack of transparency about how donations are used, delayed confirmation or missing receipts, and complicated recurring donation setups can further discourage supporters. Limi ted customer support, no social sharing options, inadequate security measures, and fixed donation amounts can make the donor experience less enjoyable.
Nonprofit Staff Experience
For fundraisers, an outdated platform can complicate campaign management with high fees, limited customization, and poor integration with other tools. Insufficient marketing features, and slow payouts can hinder your campaign’s success.
For nonprofit staff, a platform that requires multiple passwords to access all features decreases efficiency and adds greater security risk. Not having to log in again and again as you toggle between tools, enhances usability and user satisfaction.
A platform might be considered outdated if it has an old-fashioned design, isn't mobile-friendly, and offers limited payment options, including digital wallets and cryptocurrencies. Poor security, slow performance, and frequent technical glitches can frustrate users. Without modern integrations, social media features, and robust analytics, the platform’s effectiveness is greatly reduced. If your platform exhibits these issues, it’s worth considering an upgrade to a more modern and effective solution.
Donor Experience
If your fundraising platform is providing a poor donor experience, it’s time to consider a change. Negative feedback from staff about software usability or from donors about the donation process indicates that the current system might not be meeting needs effectively.
All credit card processing involves a credit card fee. But, add-on fees can bog down and confuse donors. For example, a tipping model can frustrate donors, while transaction and ticketing fees, in addition to credit card fees, can feel like an organization is being taken advantage of.
A limited range of payment options might also deter them from completing their donation. This issue is further worsened when donors "abandon their cart"—a situation where they start the donation process but do not finish it due to a complex donation procedure, technical glitches, or insufficient payment choices.
With 74% of millennial donors saying they prefer personalized content, segmentation is crucial for your fundraising platform. However, segmenting donors can be a challenge on some platforms. Ensuring accurate and consistent data, managing diverse donor profiles, and keeping segments up to date can be difficult. Integration with other systems, like CRM tools, adds to the complexity, and over-segmentation can lead to confusion.
Scalability
Overall, poor scalability can hinder growth, create operational inefficiencies, and affect overall user satisfaction.
Some software struggles to manage increased traffic and donations, resulting in slow load times and frequent crashes, particularly during peak periods or high-traffic events. Such platforms may have limited capacity, which restricts the number of users, donors, or transactions they can handle as your organization grows. Inefficient data management can lead to slow processing and errors, while a rigid infrastructure makes it difficult to add new features or integrate with other tools. Additionally, scaling up might involve high costs or require major upgrades, which can be financially burdensome.
Did you know?
GiveSmart users see 10x the ROI fundraised within the first year, and we don’t require additional contract costs depending on how much you raise – or don’t.
Data Management Challenges
Relationships thrive when both partners work together to complete mundane tasks, like managing finances and doing chores. It’s important for your fundraising platform to do the same and manage and analyze donor data efficiently. This includes difficulties in tracking donor history, preferences, and engagement. Inadequate performance tracking compounds these challenges, making it hard to assess the effectiveness of fundraising efforts.
Moreover, reporting is a critical aspect that is often overlooked. Effective reporting enhances the donor experience by providing insights into donor preferences and behaviors, allowing for personalized communication. Clear reports on how donations are utilized build trust, and recognizing donor milestones shows appreciation. Reporting also enables organizations to learn from feedback, refine strategies, and track campaign performance. Without robust reporting capabilities, creating a transparent and engaging experience for donors becomes significantly more challenging.
Poor Customer Support
In relationships, your partner should support you and talk things through with you when you need support. The same applies to fundraising platforms. Just as a dependable partner is crucial for a healthy relationship, reliable customer support is essential for the smooth operation of fundraising platforms.
Some fundraising platforms, however, lack the necessary reliable customer support, making it difficult to resolve issues promptly and effectively. Technical issues can arise, and without timely support, these problems can escalate, disrupting fundraising efforts and causing frustration for users. Additionally, the absence of proactive support means that users may struggle to navigate the platform's features and optimize their fundraising strategies. This can lead to missed opportunities, inefficiencies, and ultimately, a decrease in funds raised and increase in goals missed. Having robust customer support is vital for ensuring that users can maximize the platform's potential and achieve their fundraising goals seamlessly.
Too Many Tools Needed to Fundraise
The overwhelming majority of nonprofit staff share that optimizing technology is paramount to serving their missions better, acknowledging they are working with highly inefficient systems. If you’re using different systems for peer-to-peer, auctions, and your annual campaigns, you may feel the same way.
While nonprofits have upgraded their technology over time, nearly 6 out of 10 organizations still say their technology management is overly time-consuming. Consider how an all-in-one software system can benefit your team and goals.
Using technology to identify and capitalize on new funding streams will help nonprofits innovate, improve, and succeed. Technology improves staff operational efficiency and presents new ways to engage with donors, analyze revenue streams, and increase donations.
Your fundraising software should support you and help you grow, not hinder your fundraising and impact. Learn more about GiveSmart and how we are a true partner to thousands of nonprofits.
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