Begin at the Beginning

Last week there was a question in one of the live sessions for the Level Up Nonprofit Accelerator (LUNA) that made us drop back and think about what we are doing. It had to do with how an organization can begin identifying potential donors from among their current supporters if they don’t have any lists of initial supporters in the first place.

This was an excellent reminder that at LUNA we are serving groups at the very initial phase of developing their fundraising capacity. They really do need us to begin at the beginning. So, we did a follow up post in our Member Forum, to make sure we had answered her question thoroughly and all participants would have a chance to benefit. Here is the bulk of what we said.

First - this is about building and maintaining a master database of all your organization’s contacts. Typically, this means having a CRM - Contact Relationship Management - system in place. CRMs combine the database function with communications - including eblasts to list segments, auto reminders for memberships, etc. etc. Ellen Bristol talks in the All Systems Go session about CRM and other tech systems small groups need, but here are a few ideas to get you started for now.

Capterra.com is a website where people can comparison shop all manner of software. Here is a link to their CRM page, with over 1900 options. Use the filters to whittle the options down using your specific needs. To help you identify what features your group needs or doesn’t need, I have uploaded a template of a CRM side by side comparison chart. (Note, this is a template… based on a client I worked with a number of years ago… You will want to delete some of the features and add others, based on your needs.) Hit me up if you have any questions.

Second, there is the matter of what contacts groups have that can be uploaded into their system, each with different codes that allow them to be sorted later. Here are a few starting points (all available to the group that asked the original question.)

Past donors. You may not have very many yet, but however many you do have should be entered into your system with the amount and date of their last gift. This includes members for those that have membership programs.

Event attendees. The name and contact information for every person who shows up to an event you organize should be collected and entered. Most CRM systems either have an internal event management system or integrate with Eventbrite and other common systems to get that data into your CRM automatically.

Program participants. The people who show up to take part in your programs, whether paid or free, should be part of your database.

Newsletter recipients. If you have been sending out any kind of email blast, those recipients have self-identified as supporters.

Volunteers. The people who help make your programs and administration run should all be in the database. Most CRM systems integrate with volunteer management programs such as Volgistics, but even if you choose one that does not, some of your volunteers would also become donors if they were asked. Don’t forget your board members and former board members.

Social media followers. Depending on the platform it might not be possible to reconstruct a list of all followers, but we all know who the people are who like or comment on every post. Start capturing their names and try to run down email addresses.

Third, there are ways to build a contact list.

Personal friends and family. Any group with five board members should be able to add 500 contacts to their database in a matter of weeks. Honestly, most board members should be willing to reach out to those closest to them for support for the organization and then to supply an excel spreadsheet of their names and contact info. (Excel data easily uploads into nearly all CRMs.) Ping me if you want help crafting how to ask board members for that.

Incoming requests for information. When members of the public call or email or use your website contact form with a question, make sure that name and info gets into the database.

Tabling at public events. Whenever you do outreach at a local festival, find a way to capture contact information from people who drop by. I’ve always found it a simple matter of putting together an attractive basket and giving people a chance to win it if they fill out a ticket with their name and email address.

Petitions. Brilliant for those who do advocacy. Do you support clean water? Sign here!

Open House/Cultivation Event. Organize and publicly advertise a free opportunity to visit the program and learn more. Capture the contact info of those who attend.

Have I missed anyone? Please share! What ways have you found to build your contact lists? Let us know!

The woman who asked the question thanked us sincerely for the following up.

The LUNA program includes 26 weekly live sessions covering board governance, nonprofit accounting, preparing for fundraising, and fundraising techniques plus a wraparound support system in an online community, document templates, one-on-one access to the trainers, and links to resources carefully curated for relevance to small nonprofits.

Learn more and apply to take part in our program at www.lunaexperience.org