Nonprofit organizations are burdened with many responsibilities: obtaining support through fundraising from individuals and corporations, maintaining a strong volunteer base, and building a well-connected board of directors. They also must skillfully craft a message that the public will easily receive, which should then turn them into supporters, donors, and advocates.
A nonprofit organizations’ very existence can hinge on how well or how badly it performs these tasks. But more so today than in the past, an organizations’ success depends on how effective its volunteer management software is and what it can and cannot do. In a recent side-by-side comparison of volunteer software systems conducted by Softwareadvice.com, several of the major volunteer systems were tested based on what platforms they could run on, what size companies they could serve, and how easy they are to deploy.
But even in making the choice to go with one volunteer software system over another, what many nonprofits forget about is improving upon a system when it becomes old, outdated, and no longer functional. Many organizations simply trudge along for years with this same system. This could be due to budget cuts, a false sense of familiarity, or a combination of both, among other reasons. For these reasons, it is necessary for a nonprofit organization to perform a SWOT analysis on their volunteer software system. Whether it is weekly, monthly or annually, determining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a volunteer software system can reignite the spark that once lit the fire, the purpose, and the vision or a nonprofit organization.
In the process of conducting this SWOT analysis of an organizations’ volunteer software system, there are key questions that a nonprofit must ask of itself and of its system beyond just the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:
Have we narrowed down what software we are looking at?
Are we aware of the issues that our current software system faces?
Is the use of multiple systems the most effective use of our time as far as our volunteer software/CRM system?
What is the strongest characteristic of our volunteer software/CRM system?
What is the biggest weakness of our volunteer management/CRM software system?
What are our biggest pain points with our current CRM system?
It is not easy to admit that the volunteer software system being used may need overhauling and replacing. But for nonprofit organizations’ continued growth and success, the tough questions must be asked, both early and often. Doing a SWOT analysis of your nonprofit’s volunteer software system can help to avoid some costly fundraising, donation and volunteer management mistakes and lead to a more efficient, better functioning nonprofit organization.