Now more than ever we need nonprofits to support our communities and neighbors. Organizations are stepping up to the challenge, but need financial support to continue delivering on their mission amid COVID-19. Quickly adapting a fundraising strategy and effectively communicating that message to supporters can be a challenge. With revenue lost from cancelled events and face-to-face donor meetings, organizations have been forced to rapidly retool their giving strategies. In this post, we will provide actionable tips for organizations using Salesforce to best manage their constituent communication, track fundraising efforts and keep their fundraising team organized.
Use Activity Tracking to Organize Communications
Social distancing guidelines have shifted typically colocated teams to a remote workforce where calls and emails have replaced in-person discussion. This switch in communication can lead to challenges that may not have existed otherwise. Knowing who on your team has connected with individual constituents – not to mention when or for what purpose – can be an incredible challenge when you are no longer seated next to them. Organizations using Salesforce can leverage activity tracking to manage communications and provide every team member with the visibility they need.
The Activity Timeline provides a single place to view all the interactions your team has had with a constituent or supporter. Phone calls, virtual meetings and emails can be logged on a contact record to ensure that the organization stays in touch with key stakeholders. Make it easy for your users by utilizing global actions for Activities and putting the Log a Call tab on every relevant object. If users do not have the Gmail or Outlook integrations set-up, get that going! It is free and allows you to log emails right from your inbox without the need for any manual entry.
Stay On Track with Tasks
Use Tasks to keep track of your team’s to-do list where your team members can see it. Tasks allow managers to keep their team informed and delegate responsibilities effectively. For fundraisers, this means pulling call lists and assigning each donor to someone on your team. Salesforce users can do this directly on the donor’s Contact record. With Tasks, every member of the fundraising team can see what still needs to get done. They can evaluate and reassign as needed without sending an email or making a single phone call. Everyone on the team is aware of what they need to do in real-time.
Check out the Manage Donors, Tasks, Events, and Email Trailhead to learn more about effectively managing tasks for your team directly in Salesforce.
Automate Processes with Engagement Plans
Social distancing protocol has disproportionately affected in-person events and fundraisers. Attendees, volunteers and partners need to be notified about events being postponed, cancelled or switched to virtual gatherings. A comprehensive plan to transition events and notify stakeholders will likely require emails or phone calls. Teams already using tasks to manage their to-dos on the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) can take it a step further by leveraging Engagement Plans.
Engagement Plans help streamline repetitive processes and ensure consistent delivery. When you have sets of repeating tasks relevant to multiple contacts, it can help save you time and keep you organized. An Engagement Plan is a set of tasks that can be assigned to entire groups of contacts all at once. Each task is scheduled for a set date and assigned to a specific user. Once the user has finished, they can mark each individual Task complete. Organizations can learn about creating and leveraging Engagement Plans on the Power of Us Hub.
Take It to Chatter
Finally, consider using Chatter as a way to store your internal interactions contextually. Instead of taking place at the watercooler or over email, conversations can take place on specific Donor, Donation, or Loan records (or any custom object). Users can also include links and attachments for reference. Another Chatter benefit is that people can “overhear” a conversation and join in when it appears on their feed. When you “follow” a specific record, not only will you receive notifications about Chatter on it, you will also be notified about any relevant changes to the record. And, someone’s departure from the organization does not mean a complete loss of that person’s historical knowledge and activities.
Summary + Conclusion
Activity tracking, Tasks, Engagement Plans and Chatter are native Salesforce tools that help fundraising teams stay on track. Nonprofits are adapting to respond to the needs of their communities during COVID-19. And, many are doing so in a completely new remote setting. Best leveraging technology at this time can make it easier for teams to get their work done and move their mission forward.