Avoid a Failed Non-Profit Software Implementation by Learning From Buyers With Experience

As a manager at a non-profit organization, you may need help with volunteer management and tracking donation amounts from various sources or a better marketing and campaign management strategy to create more awareness around your cause.

Non-profit software can help centralize such tasks, freeing you to focus more on donor relations and creating better team workflows to cater to your existing patrons and volunteers. However, investing in a solution requires knowing which features to look out for, what budget to set, and the unique requirements your business may have. 

Each year, Software Advice's advisors speak with thousands of software purchase decision-makers evaluating new non-profit software for their businesses. We've mined those conversations for insights on budgets, feature needs, and pain points to aid your software search. Our key insights will help you understand buyer pain points and challenges with existing setups, why third-party solutions, such as accounting and data management software, are insufficient, and finally, find the right software for your organization.

Buyers seek donor management functionality, while users rate donation tracking as a critical feature

To gain insights into user preferences, we analyzed thousands of non-profit software reviews available on Software Advice to identify the features that non-profit software users consider the most critical for their daily work. Interestingly, our findings revealed a discrepancy between the priorities of non-profit software buyers and users.

Fifty percent of actual non-profit software users rate donation tracking as a critical feature. Compared to that, 62% of non-profit software buyers prioritize seeking donor management functionality during software purchase.

These findings indicate that while the priorities of both non-profit software users and buyers center around donors, current users focus more on monitoring and recording financial transactions related to donations received by their organization and keeping a detailed record of individual contributions, amount, source, and donor information. 

On the other hand, software buyers seek donor management functionality to focus more on building and maintaining long-term relationships with donors. It goes beyond financial transactions to encompass a holistic view of the donors and their engagement with the organization.

Most businesses rely on third-party software, spreadsheets, or manual methods to handle day-to-day non-profit operations

When our advisors asked buyers what methods they were currently using to handle their day-to-day non-profit operations, here's what they found:

• Forty-six percent of buyers use third-party software across functions such as payment processing, email marketing, and CRM for their business. 

• Thirty percent of buyers use spreadsheets to manage donor databases and keep track of donations. In comparison, 22% of buyers use manual methods, such as keeping physical notes and maintaining ledgers for similar purposes.

Given the large donor databases that non-profit organizations have to manage, having dedicated non-profit software means you get access to dedicated tools for donation tracking, donor database management, fundraising campaign monitoring, and detailed financial report generation. The software acts as a centralized platform to manage day-to-day operations and improves team efficiency.

Consolidating functions within a single non-profit platform eliminates the need to invest in multiple third-party software and manage their licenses, subscriptions, and integrations.

Inefficiency, limited functionality, and lack of user-friendliness are key drivers of a switch to non-profit software

Our advisors conversed with buyers currently using either manual methods or third-party software and seeking a switch to non-profit software. These discussions shed light on businesses' real-life challenges with their existing tools. These included inefficiency (42%), limited functionality (27%), and lack of user-friendliness (13%).

• Inefficiency: Third-party software and manual methods often aren't efficient enough with various non-profit operations. One such instance is manual processes, such as tracking funds, managing donor count, and sending emails to donors becoming increasingly resource-intensive and not scaling efficiently to accommodate larger volumes of donor data and financial transactions. Similarly, reliance on manual, paper-based processes can also slow down operations and increase the risk of errors. This is especially true for donation processing, grant management, and reporting and analytics. 

• Limited functionality: Compatibility issues with existing software or hardware can hinder the implementation and effectiveness of third-party tools. Additionally, certain third-party tools may have limited customization options for reporting, making it challenging for non-profits to generate required financial reports.

• Lack of user-friendliness: Sometimes, third-party software may have a steep learning curve or it might not provide an intuitive user interface. Moreover, the lack of responsive help desk support, product documentation, and non-availability of online forms adds to the struggle with third-party software. Such obstacles can cause non-profits to switch to a dedicated non-profit platform.

The average buyer’s budget ranges from $34 to $111 per user, per month

The budget for purchasing non-profit software varies from industry to industry based on factors such as organization size, the number of users, and the required features and functionalities.

However, the average budget across industries for purchasing non-profit software was approximately $71 per user per month.

The chart below highlights the average buyer budget per user, per month for the top five industries interested in non-profit software.

Use cases of non-profit software

Non-profit software helps human services organizations manage client information, track services provided, and maintain case histories. This simplifies case management processes, improves record-keeping, and ensures clients receive appropriate and timely support. Non-profit software can facilitate applicant intake by automating eligibility assessments for individuals seeking assistance. It helps collect relevant information, determine eligibility criteria, and connect clients with the appropriate services.

Similarly, associations that frequently organize donor conferences, seminars, and webinars use non-profit software for event planning, registrations, and attendee management. The software can handle tasks such as ticketing, scheduling, and sending event-related communications. 

Faith-based ministries, including churches, religious organizations, and other spiritual communities, can benefit significantly from using non-profit software to enhance operations, foster community engagement, and support mission-driven activities. They can use non-profit software to manage their congregational databases. It facilitates member registration, tracks attendance, and manages donor contributions. This allows ministries to maintain accurate records, acknowledge donations, and engage with members effectively.

Arts and cultural organizations primarily use non-profit software during their ticketed events, such as fundraising exhibitions and concerts to keep track of ticket sales, registration process, and attendees. Additionally, the software helps with volunteer coordination, task distribution, and management during such events.

More resources for your software search

Whether you’re looking to buy new non-profit software or replace your existing tool, here are some additional resources to aid your software search:

• Start with our interactive non-profit software directory to compare hundreds of products, filter your search by specific features, and read comprehensive reviews from SMB leaders.

• Check out top-rated non-profit software based on user ratings and popularity in the Non-Profit Software Frontrunners Report.

• Go through the non-profit software buyers guide to better understand the market.

Buyer demographics

The buyers we interacted with are largely small businesses. You’ll find the demographics of the buyers below, so you can see the sizes and types of businesses, from annual revenue to industry.