Could it be that the wrong membership software in place is having an impact on productivity, costs, & your ability to make smarter business decisions at your nonprofit? In this article, I discuss how Membership Software features today may help your nonprofit maximize productivity and possibly save jobs.
Saving Jobs with Nonprofit Membership Software
I believe that it’s kind of sad when I hear that in order to reduce overhead costs, some organizations resort to cutting staff positions despite having staff which are overworked. In my experience, this strategy is fraught with so many problems, however, because understaffed and poorly funded nonprofits often struggle to maintain optimal business management processes, it seems like the prudent thing to do.
In contrast to “cutting” team members, I always encourage executives to ask, what if technology could help you do better? In my mind, a successful strategy to handle the issue of inefficiencies and lost revenue opportunities may be found in finding the smartest software choice designed to automate various features of your nonprofit operations.
7 Features & Benefits of Membership Software
For a moment, consider some of the features and benefits which I have reviewed in many membership software programs on the market today:
Membership Processing:
Properly configured membership software can virtually automate the member participation process at both ends. From collecting a new member application online vs. manually inputting information from a PDF, you can free up staff time to do more valuable tasks such as building relationships.
Online e Commerce:
What employee works 24/7/365 days a year? None. With the mere fact that your store front is open all the time, you can likely increase the likelihood of sales for things like sponsors, events, booth sales, and even training. And, again, your staff can manage the process to ensure that the process gets smoother and smoother.
Workflow Automation:
Generating flags to alert your staff of upcoming membership renewals, it prompts follow-up and can be configured to send emails and other marketing materials to your members automatically. Keeping your promises and commitments with members is critical to success in your day-to-day job.
Marketing Management:
When dues and fees come back in to your nonprofit, the software can measure the success of your marketing campaigns. This in turn will allow you to tailor your marketing strategies in the most impactful manner, as the software provides you with information you can really use about how to retain current members while also recruiting new ones. Bringing in new members is paramount to success for membership directors, isn’t it?
Member Contact Management:
As new members are found via inbound or outbound tactics, the membership management software can easily incorporates their information into your database without staff time. And, then you are able to market to them accordingly.
Open Architecture:
While not necessarily a feature, an open API is critical today. And, many of the leading membership software providers provide an Open API structure in their platform. In layman’s terms, high-quality membership management software solutions provide an API which can usually integrate with other software used already in your nonprofit. This helps to make maintaining your member database as seamless as possible. For example, email marketing systems such as Informz can drastically improve efficiency and effectiveness for many nonprofits with their email marketing service. It’s integration is the key value in keeping sanity with your data points.
Business Analytics:
All databases can capture data. With Membership Database Software, you can spend less time figuring out if the data you are looking at is correct. For many, inaccurate data can be the difference in a good decision or bad one. And, too many bad decisions will likely cost you peace of mind and possibly your job.
Pursue Your Mission
With the right database software, your nonprofit may be able to better focus on pursuing your organization’s mission by simply letting technology do the heavy manual lifting processes of your organization. There are so many examples of features which may help nonprofits do more with less. I have only mentioned some of the key ones on my mind.
But, the most important thing isn’t all about that mere fact. Empowering your members and donors to have a better experience with your organization, will help improve member and staff satisfaction equally. And, when that transpires in a harmonious way, it’s a beautiful thing to see!
So, what if Membership Software could help you do better? Could it save your job?
If you would like more information about the features & benefits of membership management software or simply want to compare and contrast the membership software on the market today, please contact us. We can provide guidance to help you find the smartest software database for your particular needs.
Until next time, keep SmartThoughts in mind.
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