10 Ways Nonproft Leaders Can Improve Their Processes

While most nonprofit leaders may feel like they never have enough funding, they usually have an abundance of process. Whether those processes are well-documented and implemented consistently — well, that's another story.

Just think about all of the processes that your organization manages: engaging with first time donors, stewarding major donors, onboarding new volunteers, reviewing applications for services, admitting people to programs, signing up new members, collecting forms, sending back forms, and so on.

Even if you're an experience nonprofit leader, it's easy to become overwhelmed trying to remember and manage all of those steps in any given process. But have no fear. MonkeyPod is here to help you become a process expert.

"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."

~W. Edwards Deming

Introducing Pipelines

Pipelines is a customizable workflow management tool. You can use Pipelines to manage almost any of your organizational processes.

With Pipelines, you can create a series of steps and then track CRM records (e.g. donors, volunteers, program participants, etc.) as they complete those steps. You can create an unlimited number of Pipelines in MonkeyPod. And you can add an unlimited number of CRM entities to your Pipelines. Each Pipeline can also be made private.

Learn more about setting up Pipelines by visiting our Knowledgebase.

Benefits of Using Pipelines

Pipelines offers two major benefits to your organization:

1. Pipelines force you to document your processes. By documenting your processes, you will be more likely to identify gaps or problem areas. And you will be able to improve those processes more quickly.
2. Pipelines ensure consistency across your team. At MonkeyPod we're big fans of turning indivdual knowledge into institutional knowledge. Pipelines make it easy to hand off management of a process to another team member because each step has been documented and placed in an intentional order. And if a team member is out sick or on vacation, someone can easily jump in and manage that process.

How to Add CRM Entities to Pipelines

There are a few ways to add CRM entities to Pipelines:

1. Directly in a Pipeline. You can add one entity at a time to a Pipeline.
2. From the Pipelines relationship card in the CRM entity's record. You can add that CRM entity to one or more Pipelines.
3. From Advanced Search. You can bulk add CRM entities to Pipelines.

10 Ways You Can Use Pipelines in Your Organization

1. Re-engaging lapsed donors. Identify your lapsed donors in MonkeyPod's Advanced Search feature. Then add them to a Pipeline for outreach and communication.
2. Converting small donors to recurring donors. Building a community of recurring donors can be critical to the financial sustainability of your organization. Start with your small donors and see if they'll commit to becoming recurring donors, even if it's only a small amount per month.
3. Cultivating major donors. Each relationship with a major donor is different. But you can use Pipelines to identify the major milestones in your donor cultivation process and ensure your team is keeping close track of those relationships.
4. Developing and launching fundraising subpages for board members. Did you know that you can create fundraising subpages in MonkeyPod? It's a perfect feaure to get your board involved in fundraising. Each board member's fundraising page will need a page description, a campaign goal, donation options, etc. Track your board members as they provide you with all of the necessary information you need to get those pages launched.
5. Onboarding new volunteers. If volunteer training is high-stakes or critical to your organization, a Pipeline will help you ensure each of your volunteers completes the required steps and submits the required documentation. Minimize your risk and ensure your volunteers are trained by using a volunteer onboarding Pipeline.
6. Onboarding new employees. The nonprofit sector is notorious for staff turnover. Make sure your new employees receive the training and support they need so they can do their best work and become invested in your organization.
7. Qualifying grant funding opportunities. There are countless grant funding opportunities out there. But your team is small and your time is the most precious resource you have. Create a Pipeline to review grantmakers and their funding opportunities. Systematically review strategic funding priorities, other projects that have been funded, deadlines, proposal requirements, and any other information that will help you narrow the list. You want to make sure you're only applying to funding opportunities that you have the best chance to win.
8. Managing and reviewing program applications. Do you have students applying for a summer program? Or how about clients applying to receive social services? Create a Pipeline to manage those applications and review information in a consistent manner.
9. Collecting impact metrics from your programs. Did you know that you can create unlimited CRM entities and unlimited custom attributes (i.e. custom data fields) in MonkeyPod? You can track all of your program participants and their evaluation data right in MonkeyPod. Create a Pipeline to ensure you collect all of the necessary evaluation data from every program participant. Pre-program surveys, post-program surveys, interviews — they can all be documented and tracked in Pipelines.
10. Tracking corporate sponsorships. If you're organizing an event and accepting corporate sponsorships, you'll need to collect several pieces of information from each sponsor. Track all of those items in a Pipeline. Did each sponsor submit their logo and company profile? Did each sponsor confirm how many of their employees will be in attendance? Did each sponsor submit payment? That sounds like a checklist that is perfectly suited for Pipelines.

While MonkeyPod can help your wrangle your processes, that's just the tip of the iceberg. MonkeyPod can help your nonprofit become even more impactful with our suite of nonprofit management software. From books to budgets, people to programs, MonkeyPod can help you manage it all so you can focus on what really matters — your mission.

Schedule a demo with our team to learn how MonkeyPod can support your organization.