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Non-Profit organizations are set up to provide services needed by a society. These are often in fields where government fundings are insufficient. From providing shelter and food to giving skills training, these organizations find a way to ensure that people in need are given the necessary support. To keep their processes efficient, these organizations use software developed for non-profit.
What Are Non-Profit Organizations?
According to Non-Profit and Fund Raising Resources, non-profits are organizations created for public interest. They are tax exempt and focus on raising funds to be able to continue providing services not aimed for profit.
There are different types of Non-Profit Organizations. The classification is based on the service or support they provide. Below are the most common types as defined by The Houston Chronicles.
- Foundations – These are often set up by families, communities and even businesses. While these are considered non-profits, their main function or service is to provide funding for other non-profits, such as scholarships and public charities.
- Social Advocacy – These are set up to spread awareness about a specific cause championed by its members, like women’s rights or environmental protection. They are able to operate from funding received from donors and members.
- Public Charities – This is the category where churches, libraries, hospitals, donors and foundations, and such other organizations that receive funding from the government fall under. They often provide low-cost or even free services to the less fortunate. These services include skills training and workshops. These are services that people with lower incomes may not be able to afford.
- Professional and Trade Organizations – This type of non-profit is often set up for a specific profession or trade. It is set up not to make a profit but rather to provide services or support to its members. Unions and guilds are good examples of this type. Services provided can range from free skills improvement and training to legal assistance.
Despite having different types, all these non-profits need to be able to manage their operations to be able to continue providing services to their members and the public. And in order to do so, they need efficient software designed specifically to meet their needs.
If you are running a non-profit organization, then you are more than familiar with the processes involved which include the following:
- Fund Raising – To be able to provide continued services, non-profits need to reach out to prospective and current donors and their members. Raising funds is crucial to non-profits, so it is a process that needs to be given a lot of attention.
- Expense Management – Non-Profits need to make sure that expenses are managed efficiently so they can continue with their public service. Most of the organization’s funds should be focused on these services and less on the expenses incurred to raise the money and for operations.
- Revenue Statements and Reports – While non-profits are not in it to make money, revenue is still an important part of the process. Without the money that comes in, it would be impossible to execute the projects and extend the services they provide. Keeping track of the money that comes in is certainly one of the most important aspects of non-profit operations.
All three processes mentioned above can be time-consuming. But if any of these are not handled properly, there could be disastrous results that can hurt the non-profit. This is where non-profit software comes in.
What is Non-Profit Software?
Simply put, software for a non-profit organization is a useful tool that can help the operations become more efficient. It can streamline processes by delivering features that make the tasks involved easier to accomplish.
Non-profit software often comes with features that help with donor management, expense and revenue reporting, and fundraising, to name a few. Whether it is a free non-profit software download or one that needs to be purchased, the features delivered are invaluable to the organization.
Benefits of Non-Profit Software
While spending money on software may not sound like the best expense for a non-profit, the benefits it can deliver make it a sound investment. The software can enhance the key processes involved in the organizations’ operations.
- Fund Raising – Reaching out to donors and members in this day and age is often done through emails. So creating the right templates, keeping track of the emails sent and having the right domain are crucial in raising funds. The top non-profit software providers can deliver the benefits of email management software as well.
Better emails can be created from the templates designed to target donors. These are available with non-profit software like Donor Perfect. Organizations can create personalized communication and professional looking newsletters without the need to hire experts. Correspondence can now be used to market the organization’s cause to attract more donors and enjoy the same benefits businesses get from email marketing.
Another feature offered by software for non-profit is donor management. This helps the organization find the donor prospects by implementing a wealth research tool. Church management software has a similar feature that helps increase donations by their congregation.
One other effective way to raise funds is to utilize social media to spread awareness. While this can be done without any additional software, casual posts on networks may not generate the needed attention. This is why most businesses choose to take advantage of social media marketing software to improve the response to their online presence.
Non-profit organizations can also enjoy the same benefits without needing separate software. Most software developed to address non-profit needs come with a feature where online pages can be created and linked to popular social media networks.
These posts can increase the number of donors and amount donated because they reach more people. For example, if a church organization was planning on holding a bake sale, giving out flyers can only reach people within a certain distance range from the church while emails can only be sent out to the people who are in the contacts list.
However, posting about the event on social media will have a wider coverage. People can share the event to let more people know about the bake sale. If the church organization’s page has 10 friends and each of these 10 people have 10 friends as well and so on, then that post will certainly reach a lot more people.
- Expense Management – It is quite common for churches, youth groups, and other non-profits to organize an event to raise funds or to show their appreciation to donors. While these events may sound like an unnecessary cost, they can actually increase the organization’s revenue if the event is managed properly.
Event management is one of the features offered by top non-profit software providers. This provides the organizers with tools to efficiently track expense, organize auctions, analyze response rates and income generated and keep the guest lists in order. With this tool, the organization can save money spent on the event because there will be no need to hire professional event organizers.
Keeping track of everything that’s going on within the organization will require a lot of attention. To address this, the organization may need to hire personnel who can focus on specific tasks or invest in additional equipment.
Top non-profit software companies offer convenient applications so there will be no need to add people or equipment to become more efficient. Reports and other necessary aspects of the operations can be accessed on smartphones and tablets.
- Revenue Statements and Reports – Like businesses that operate for profit, organizations need to keep track of the financials to become more successful. Non-profits need to manage donations, expenses and the services they provide to the public.
Sadly, these processes are still handled the good old fashioned way by smaller non-profits. This usually means that records are manually updated on physical ledgers or excel sheets. While these may seem efficient, there is a high risk of errors and auditing the figures to ensure that they are accurate may take a long time.
One other downside to manual recording is that it takes a while to generate reports. This usually results in people opting not to provide reports unless these are specifically asked for. So, any errors or mistakes may go unnoticed. And that can be disastrous for any non-profit.
Software for non-profit organizations provides reporting features that make financial data, organization activities and other aspects of operations easier to track. The reports can be customized to include what information is needed so analysis and evaluation can be properly done.
Having access to reports does not just protect the organization from errors and fraud but also provides a tool that can be used to assess current strategies. For example, if a youth group needs to raise funds, then they can view reports on previous events to determine which activities generated the most donations.
Whatever size or type of non-profit organization you run, you can certainly benefit from the features delivered by automated software. Visit CrowdReviews.com and check the list of non-profit software provider reviews so you can find the right one for you.
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