Nonprofit Tech Tools: A Roundup
Nonprofit tech tools - we all know they can help us save time and money, but they can also be super overwhelming. I asked my Rolodex pros what are their favorite tech tools for nonprofits to use is this is what they came up with:
The Roundup
JENN ALLARD, Mainsail Events
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: GIVESMART
“My favorite tech tool is definitely online auction and event software! Givesmart by Community Brands is my go-to auction and event software. Not only do they make a non-profit’s life easier by organizing all aspects of an event in one place (everything from ticketing, sponsor management, auctions, donations, raffles to merchandise sales) but from a donor perspective, Givesmart is so user friendly. My favorite feature, however, is their reporting. I’m talking the thing that Development Directors’ dreams are made of! This software is worth every penny because it will make managing your event so much easier in the long run.”
LYNN ARSENAULT, LMA Grant Consulting
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: GRANTSTATION
“As a grant writer, having an easy-to-use grant database is really important for finding prospective grants. I've been using GrantStation since about 2017 when I first started grant writing. I've enjoyed it so much that I'm now an "MVP partner" with them -- which means my clients can purchase GrantStation for their organization at a significantly reduced price. From narrowing down your search by geographic location, mission, grant type, and more, this tool truly makes prospect research for grants a breeze!”
TASHA VAN VLACK, cloudStack Services
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: SALESFORCE
“Favorite nonprofit tool is Salesforce – For me it’s the ease of being able to log in to one platform and just from glancing at the dashboard know what tasks I have coming up, how much closer I am to meeting a fundraising goal for the month, follow up with one-time donors that I am courting to become recurring donors and put together a report that satisfies the board without hours of work. Having that 360 degree view of all constituents not only saves time but also saves my sanity.”
HAWWA MUHAMMAD, Pink Trumpet
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: TRELLO
“Trello is my go-to planning and project management tool that helps me organize my internal business and my work with clients. As someone who loves to plan with sticky notes, having a tool that mimics this format online is extremely helpful. One of the main reasons why I enjoy using Trello is because it has a user-friendly interface and it has so many integrations and add-ons that make staying organized easy. I can integrate my google workspace, videos, Mailchimp, and some of my other favorite productivity tools. For a busy entrepreneur who is in the business of creating systems, this tool is essential for me.”
LISA TARSHIS, Evolve Giving Group
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: THE SCHEDULE SEND FEATURE IN GMAIL
“One of my favorite tech tools is the “schedule send” feature in Gmail. It’s great for batching work and having emails go out when you want them too or if you are writing emails at off hours and don’t want people to be getting the emails then or don’t want people to know you are working then, it’s great because you can schedule the email to go out in the morning or at a different hour.”
AMANDA COWART, Lemon Zest Copywriting
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: READABILITY SCORER BY WEBFX
“My favorite tech tool is this readability scorer by WebFX. (Triple bonus points because it's free and there's no login required!) When writing fundraising appeals, I aim for a 5th-7th grade reading level. Why? Because if it's too complex, readers tune out...which means no donation. Simply copy and paste your appeal -- or any type of communication -- into the reader, and it'll pop out a variety of scores. The Flesch Kincaid Score, also known as the FK Score, is the one I use the most. The lower the FK score, the better! The point isn't to "dumb down" your appeal, but to make it easy to read and understand so donors take action.”
REBEKAH GRMELA, Right + Good Consulting
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: AIRTABLE
“Airtable is one of my favorite business tools that I use every single day. While most people think it's a fancy spreadsheet, it's so much more valuable for my business, as well as for the clients that I work with and manage. It functions as my task list, my CRM, my lead list, my sales tracker, my editorial calendar and more. I've created a workhub for my own Right + Good work, and create a custom hub for each client to help them accelerate their capacity and work from a single source of truth when managing their work. Airtable is also great because it's free to a pretty extensive point, allows you to collaborate with members, customize views, link to existing tools and more. My favorite part are the free nonprofit templates and the community of Airtable nerds out their customizing and creating solutions for clients all over the world.”
SARA HOSHOOLEY, Charity Shift
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: QR CODE
“My favorite tech tool for nonprofits to integrate into their fundraising communications is a QR code. These can easily be created online for free and can be added on your direct mail solicitations, reporting documents, brochures, signage and any other printed material. You can link to your website to learn more about your organization, or to a donation page, a video, a free offer or even use it for stewardship messaging.
One of our partner charities used a QR code on their direct mail campaign during the holiday season. They saw an increase in the number of people who chose to give online, even though they had been solicited only by mail. Keep in mind when using a QR code that your donors will be accessing the content from a mobile - so make sure it is mobile-friendly and concise."
TANIA BHATTACHARYYA, Lumos Marketing
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: LINKEDIN FOR FINDING BOARD MEMBERS
“As nonprofit professionals, we’re always looking for engaged board members and ambassadors to amplify our mission. LinkedIn’s search functionality makes it really easy to find your next volunteer, because you can filter by people who want to join a nonprofit board, volunteer, or provide probono services. Yes, really!
Just go to the search bar at the top of LinkedIn and type in a keyword associated with your mission, such as “mental health” or “legal advocacy”. Then, click on "All Filters" towards the right of the top screen. A new section will come up where you can choose various filters to search on. Select Filter Only “People” from the dropdown, then scroll to the very bottom where it says "Open to".
Select either 'Pro bono consulting or volunteering' or 'Joining a nonprofit board' based on your nonprofit's goals. Hit “Show results” and voila! Now you have a targeted list of professionals in your niche that are open to getting involved with a nonprofit like yours. With some engagement, trust building, and cultivation, you can find your next group of ambassadors on LinkedIn.”
BRITTNY WILSON, Brittny Wilson Consulting
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: CALENDLY
“As a fairly new consultant, my favorite tech tool is Calendly. Between my own personal calendar, my business calendar and calendars I might have with clients, it's so nice to have a scheduler that combines them all together and shows my true availability. As a consultant I am juggling so many different schedules with my various clients. My fear is potentially overbooking myself. Calendly does the hard work for me of consolidating everything so when I send my custom link to someone to schedule a meeting or they choose to book a meeting through my website, I know I can be there for the time that works best for them."
MADELEINE ST. JOHN, St. John Consulting
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: GIVEBUTTER
“When campaign season rolls around, I set my clients up for success on the Givebutter platform. Designed with people in mind, Givebutter provides completely free fundraising, donor management, and donor engagement tools all within an intuitive software that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That's right. With an easy-to-navigate interface, Givebutter is certainly a better way to give. But it's also a better way to receive. Customizable campaign landing pages, peer-to-peer fundraising functionality, and built-in donor tracking make this technology the best tool around for one-off campaigns. It can even function as an interim CRM for the budding nonprofit that needs a simple-but-sophisticated solution while they scale. Bells and whistles aside, though, my favorite thing about Givebutter is the company's commitment to creating a beautiful giving experience. At St. John Consulting, I teach my clients that donor experience is essential to establishing donor loyalty -- resulting in more funds raised. If you are looking for a better way to fundraise and want to look polished while doing it, look no farther than Givebutter.”
MARTICE SUTTON, Martice Sutton
FAVORITE TECH TOOL: SLACK
“Greatest informal team management tool! I've yet to find a better solution that allows me to have multiple conversation topics in one place. Imagine forgetting the quote a coworker shared for a social media post and then being able to go to the #social channel and grab it without waiting on them to get back to you! Life saver! Being able to utilize it on mobile or desktop is what also sets the tool apart.”
