Driving Outcomes Through Nonprofit Data Integration: Reflections from bbcon 2022

Prior to Blackbaud’s Tech Conference for Good™, bbcon, Omatic Senior Vice President of Sales Mike Sanders reflected on the importance of the event to Omatic, “Omatic got its start in the Blackbaud ecosystem, and we’ve been partners for over 20 years. Our teams work closely together, and we have many mutual customers.”

As a trusted partner to Blackbaud and its customer community, it is no surprise that our companies are aligned around many of our goals and priorities. During the conference, Blackbaud’s Chief Product Officer Sudip Datta highlighted four ways Blackbaud aims to support its nonprofit customers:

• Manage all your data.
• Make the smartest choices.
• Maximize your team’s productivity.
• Move your audience to act.

While Datta shared enhancements Blackbaud is making in these areas, we’d like to use the lens of these outcomes to highlight how Omatic helps organizations make the most of their investments in nonprofit technology by connecting their applications and CRM. Keep reading to learn about the importance of nonprofit data integration – and how it can help your organization drive mission impact.

Manage All Your Data

Over 80% of nonprofits use four or more systems, in addition to their main CRM, to collect, manage, and store data. These applications can improve supporter engagement and drive fundraising success by supporting a range of activities, such as corporate giving, email marketing, event management, and online donations.

Unfortunately, they can also hinder that success if not properly connected. Unintended results include data silos, manual processes for combining data, and outdated or incomplete information. These consequences frustrate nonprofit teams. But, worse, they also lead to poor donor experiences – and, ultimately, donor attrition.

Consider, for example, a supporter who contributes to a nonprofit monthly through his/her employer. If the organization doesn’t capture that information in its main CRM, gifts may not be acknowledged. Communication with the donor wouldn’t reflect his/her ongoing support. Even worse, the donations would likely end – along with the organization’s ability to cultivate the relationship – if the supporter left the employer.

To achieve a complete picture of supporter activity, nonprofits need to consolidate data from different systems into a single source of truth. This is exactly what Omatic was founded to do. Over the last 20+ years, we have partnered with thousands of nonprofits to integrate data from other applications into Raiser’s Edge, Raiser’s Edge NXT, BBCRM, and Altru.

Make the Smartest Choices

In addition to a poor donor experience, ineffective decision-making​ caused by incomplete, stale, or erroneous data is another consequence of disconnected data. Consider a few examples:

• How can a marketing team evaluate campaign effectiveness if actions resulting from that campaign are not recorded in its CRM?
• How would a major gifts officer determine the best donors with whom to cultivate relationships without a complete picture of supporter activity?

How is your organization making strategic decisions if you don’t have the data you need at your fingertips?

Maximize Your Team’s Productivity

An additional consideration is the role data integration plays in your team’s productivity. Recognizing the value of creating a single source of truth for their nonprofit data, some organizations leverage a combination of manual processes, native import tools, and data loaders to consolidate data from different sources. Unfortunately, these tools often have limited functionality or are cumbersome to use.

For example, import tools may require hours of data manipulation in Excel before information can be imported. Some destination systems do not easily accept the format of source data, requiring additional manual work. Others do not allow data mapping to desired locations. In addition, the use of these tools frequently creates duplicate records. Even when an expert database administrator can overcome these challenges, the time consumed to do so means that data isn’t current.

On the other hand, accurate and efficient nonprofit data integration removes manual processes, creates time savings, and enables teams to focus on more strategic work. In our Best Practices for Integrating Nonprofit Data/Software networking session at bbcon, Utah Food Bank’s Julie Adams-Chatterley shared how partnering with Omatic has impacted one of her team members:

“We have a large walk/run on Thanksgiving morning with about 6000 participants. Entering TeamRaiser data from that event into Raiser’s Edge historically put us 2-3 weeks behind during our busiest season. We have one data entry person who puts in all gifts, so to completely watch his life change during the holiday season – from feeling like he was constantly behind to all of a sudden, those gifts were in by 10 a.m. the next day – it’s been really nice. And he now has more time to go deeper with his job.”

Move Your Audience to Act

With so many nonprofits competing for supporters, building personal relationships is essential to an organization’s success. And data is key to cultivating those relationships! Data isn’t just data, after all. It is critical information about your supporters, their activity, and engagement with your organization. It’s information on why, when, and how your donors give. It’s insight into their preferred communication method. And when used effectively, it holds the power to drive donor acquisition and retention.

But – back to our discussion of the need for a single source of truth – if your organization stores data in multiple, siloed systems that don’t talk to each other, you inhibit your ability to use that data to cultivate meaningful relationships.

Learn More about Nonprofit Data Integration

For over 20 years, Omatic has focused on nonprofit data integration, so you can focus on your mission. We seamlessly integrate your applications with your CRM – freeing up team time, enhancing data quality, and helping you drive impact.

If you’d like to learn more, our Opportunities and Obstacles Integrating Nonprofit Technology breakout session is now available on demand through the bbcon EventHub. Check it out to explore the costs of disconnect data – and discover how Omatic can help your organization accurately and efficiently integrate your applications and data.

While the bbcon networking session mentioned above is not available on demand, you can learn more about Utah Food Bank’s partnership with Omatic and the results they have experienced in this recent case study. Or, request a demo from anywhere on our site.