Soapbox Engage Blog

What's your plan for the new year? What do you have in store for your nonprofit organization?

Well, we've got some balloons, silly hats and flat champagne…

No, what are your plans in terms of operations? What are you doing to further your mission in the next 12 months?

The same we've always done: raise funds and bring more people into the fold.

Perhaps you should look into more specific goals, since everybody does that. If you have specific goals for your nonprofit, you can actually achieve those results. Developing some resolutions around constituent relationship management (CRM) can help you do that successfully.

You should focus on your supporter relationships in 2015.

Well, then, what would you suggest?

The first thing you should consider is talking to your donors. As the nonprofit blog Frogloop notes, the holiday season that just passed tends to burden your regular donors, since they often support more than one cause. Constantly donating puts a strain on personal finances and tends to make people feel like charities are just asking for handouts. This causes burnout and will make people abandon your organization quickly. So, one thing you should do is check in with them in whatever ways you can. You could discuss a new campaign that you're working on and ask for feedback, for example. This will make supporters remember why they became supporters of your nonprofit in the first place.

In addition, you should make your communications more personable, and that's where a nonprofit CRM can shine. Constituents want to read information that is related to their needs and personality, according to Nonprofit Hub. By sending letters that play to their interests, you give constituents something that will make them feel appreciated. This helps you build your relationship with them. CRM software can help with this through constituent profiles, which can store all the communications you had with a given donor or member to give you a sense of how they react to specific campaigns or pledge drives.

Finally, take some time to figure out your goals for the year. That means reviewing the core of your mission, determining the amount of time over the long term that you intend complete your mission and figuring out what you can do in the course of 12 months. Make your projections realistic so that you don't set your members' expectations too high, and you'll get somewhere. In any event, have a happy New Year!

Same to you! Happy New Year!