When I arrived at NPower Indiana a little over a year ago, I wanted to learn as much about our business as possible. Like most newbies, I went through files, documents and our server-based customer management system in great detail. Without question, having access to that information was very helpful, but there was so much information in so many different places.
I knew we could be doing better -- especially in the area of membership management. So that's where we started.
Like any good technology project, we started by defining our requirements and looking at options for the right tool for us. Fairly quickly, a web-based service called salesforce.com rose to the top - it is reliable, flexible and very inexpensive to most nonprofit organizations (the first 10 licenses are free!)
Our initial implementation took a little over 2 months, but that was mainly because I was squeezing in the customization work while keeping both hands firmly on the wheel as the new CEO. In that short time, we opened up a huge window of opportunity for our membership management going forward.
Through our new system we now can track information (and apply it) much better than ever before. Let me share one example: We now track all of the benefits that are received by our members. So when a client receives discounted consulting services, attends a free training, or receives donated hardware/software, we now document that (and assign a value to it)in our system. When renewal time comes (we have renewals throughout the year), we're able to show members that their investment in NPower membership has generated far more value than the annual membership dues. And that's what membership management is all about!
Great Article Mike!
We also use Salesforce to track memberships and benefits to members.
Posted by: Anand Sethupathy | November 21, 2007 at 09:52 AM