Is Microsoft CRM For Nonprofits? Explore Key Features & Real-Life Case

Most NGOs face some challenges which include work automation, tracking of donor information and operational management. Microsoft CRM can eliminate those problems and help organisations to do more with corresponding success.

In this article, we’ll be covering how Microsoft CRM can address critical nonprofit challenges and presenting a real-world case of a nonprofit organisation in the Netherlands.

Critical Nonprofit Industry Challenges

There are many particular difficulties that the nonprofit sector encounters that prevent it from serving communities and accomplishing its work. This is because nonprofits constantly seek to address society’s needs with the support of funds received from donors. For this reason, nonprofits can easily be cash-starved and often require funds from donors.

Limited resources and budget constraints

Operating under tight financial belts is the most critical challenge. Many nonprofit organisations survive on grants and donations and cannot afford to waste a penny spent. Thus, it is always an ever-balancing process to deliver necessary services and manage operating costs. Most organisations do not have adequate finances to hire staff and use modern technologies, which leads to inefficiencies. Manual activities and outdated systems also cost time and personnel.

Donor and volunteer management

Every nonprofit focuses on people - volunteers and contributors, who are the lifeblood of the organisation. Yet, sustaining such partnerships might not be easy especially when NGOs are growing. The typical problem is the documentation of volunteer contracts, gifts received and donor preferences. It becomes challenging for any organisation to sustain volunteer and contributor relationships without a proper foundation. This leads to missed opportunities and poor retention.

Financial management and transparency

To continue to get the trust of partners and optimise financial flows, nonprofit organisations must clarify their finances. Nonprofits must follow a lot of reporting standards and ensure that the money is appropriately distributed. Without clear and accurate financial data, an organisation may suffer its reputation and fundraising efforts. The main challenge lies in managing financing sources, tracking expenditures, and producing reports with limited tools.

Fundraising challenges

While any nonprofit’s focus lies on fundraising, getting donor’s attention is challenging. Organisations are under pressure to add value and transform themselves in a better way that can attract funders. Nonprofits need to adjust to digital media, tailored approaches, and analytics, which may be insufficient within traditional methods only for fundraising. Moreover, traditional workflow and limited resources make embracing new fundraising approaches harder.

Donor data silos and lack of integration

What many charity organisations make use of, is data spread across multiple platforms and this leads to system silos. Therefore, they cannot create a proper analysis of the donor data, resulting in poor operations and lost opportunities. Donor preferences, therefore, become difficult to comprehend, especially arising from duplicate records and inconsistent data from different departments.

How Microsoft CRM Brings Value For Nonprofits

Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a fully integrated solution that enhances the relationships with the donors, speeds up processes and increases effectiveness. Dynamics CRM can become a robust tool for any nonprofit organisation.

• Seamless integration and unified data: Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps such as Sales, Customer Insights and Customer Service can be well-integrated, centralising the organisation's data in a single platform. These solutions also eliminate inefficient data silos, thus delivering comprehensive views of an organisation’s volunteers, funders, and other stakeholders.
• Intelligent customer communication: Organisations can utilise robust CRM capabilities to nurture lifelong supporters and volunteers. Microsoft Dynamics Customer Insights allows users to create an omnichannel view of volunteers and donors so that personalised communications and context can be well-incorporated into each communication.
• Modern finance & operations: Using Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central helps organisations of all sizes efficiently streamline financial management processes. The solution allows users to have a higher control level, monitor progress in real-time, predict potential events and utilise the best evidence-based decision-making.

Maybe you’re interested: Is Microsoft CRM For Small Businesses?

• Custom business processes: Microsoft CRM can be the most innovative platform to help nonprofits achieve goals faster by leveraging Power Platform - low-code development solutions. For instance, implementing Power Apps helps you develop custom solutions to solve unique challenges while using Dynamics 365 Sales, or connecting with Power BI helps you make use of robust data analytics tools.
• AI-powered stakeholders communication: Nonprofits can quickly respond to their stakeholders via Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, or conversational AI, which is known as conversational bots.

Essential Microsoft CRM Apps For Nonprofits

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM is a suite of applications that are hosted in the cloud to assist a company in interacting and developing customer relationships more effectively.  Key applications include Sales, Customer Insights, Customer Service, Field Service, Finance, and Project Operations.

Learn more about features, pricing, and use cases: Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM - A Comprehensive Guide For Beginners.

1. Customer Insights

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights helps to provide your stakeholders with the right services they expect. It forms the basis of crafting experiences that are highly personalised and well-integrated with service, marketing and fundraising teams.

• Artificial intelligence for identity management
• Data enrichment as well as forecasting
• Lead targeting, customer segmentation, and management
• Customer journeys builder
• Rich media communication technologies

2. Sales

Dynamics 365 Sales app helps you create and utilise marketing lists, opportunities, invoices, quotes, products and leads in one location. This solution streamlines the process of fundraising, event planning, and volunteer management across multiple departments.

• Artificial intelligent pipeline management
• Orders and invoices management
• Office 365 integration
• Sales management and forecasting
• Leads, opportunities, and partners management
• Campaigns and list creation

3. Finance

Dynamics 365 Finance benefits those businesses managing grants by centralising grant monitoring, funds, and budget. It ensures transparency, conformity to the donor standards, and utilisation of the resources. 

• Cash flow and budget management
• Payment forecasting, automated invoicing
• Credit risk management and prediction
• Subscription billing, tax management

4. Field Service

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service allows the organisation to effectively schedule the volunteers, on-site assignments and outreach activities. It makes sure that crucial services get delivered to the intended person within the expected time.

• Self-service timetable
• Real-time monitoring of tracking volunteers
• AI-driven and remote-solving
• Work order management
• Microsoft Teams integration

5. Customer Service

This app provides consistent information and enables effective communication for nonprofit organisations to easily assist partners, funders and beneficiaries. They can also ensure quick responses to inquiries through various platforms.

• Stakeholders support using AI
• Staff forecasting, multiple channel control
• Queue and case management
• Automated self-service and primary admin tasks

6. Project Operation

This app is particularly suitable for use in nonprofit organisations that deal with multiple projects. Project Operation allows tracking of resources and schedules for projects, major projects’ identification and project budgets. It is also appropriate for organisations that manage social programs or grants.

• Flexible pipeline and deal processes
• AI-powered project management
• Integrated data and future trends analysis
• Mobile access, cash flow management

Reinier van Arkel’s Nonprofit Transformation with Microsoft CRM

Reinier van Arkel is a charitable organisation based in the Netherlands, which provides mental health services for more than 14 thousand patients per year. It dates back to 1442 and assists clientele with complex psychological disorders where general practitioners cannot assist.

The critical challenge

Reinier van Arkel has a very tight budget, and as is often the case with many organisations, the demand for services is extremely high. Longer periods taken to receive treatment are particularly due to the increasing number of individuals who present with mental health issues and a shortage of carers.

The staff had to make the necessary changes manually because of the outdated system in the waitlist, which they experienced slow processing time for customer requests. All these challenges originated from the fact that admin tasks absorbed a lot of their important time.

Microsoft CRM & The Revolutionary Changes

Reinier van Arkel had access to a robust set of tools from Microsoft CRM to address these issues:

• The organisation was able to solve this problem by streamlining and going paperless for their queue system through the help of Dynamics 365. The new approach meant that customer referral became efficient, and personnel could immediately focus on cases described as high priority.
• Reinier van Arkel was also able to determine the waiting numbers, provide resource assignments, and transform working procedures as it gained access to real-time data from Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Power Automate. Finally, this enhanced their ability to treat a larger population as they speed up the treatment process and are better placed to optimise resource allocation.

Fine Tune Your Workflows with Microsoft CRM For Nonprofits

Consider using Microsoft CRM for your nonprofit organisation to build upon and develop fundraising and community engagement efforts. This solution leads to improved communication and interaction that later translates into a more optimised experience for your stakeholders.

Havi Technology can become your ideal implementation partner in Australia in case you need to deploy and optimise Microsoft CRM procedures. Get in touch with our team should you have any questions.

Microsoft CRM For Nonprofits - FAQs

1. Does Microsoft offer a CRM program?

Yes. Microsoft offers a suite of applications with robust and innovative CRM features such as Dynamics Sales, Customer Service, Customer Insights, Field Service and Project Operations. These apps can work either individually or together to help organisations achieve their productivity and management goals.

2. What is the best non-profit CRM?

Two of the best CRM options for nonprofit organisations include Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Nonprofits. These solutions offer robust features specific to nonprofits, volunteer management, fundraising, donor management and much more.

3. Do nonprofits use CRM?

Yes. Nonprofits use CRM mostly for the registration of donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries, and for the management of NGOs and donors. Many other important tasks that can be utilised with a CRM are tracking of fundraising campaigns, and program analysis and delivery.