Insights
1 min Read
December 5, 2012

Customizing How We Communicate: the power of a great database

Most nonprofits dream about segmenting their lists and communicating in more personalized ways with their supporters, clients, partners and friends, but many really do it. What gets in the way is a great database.

I recently got this email from Fab– a very neat online store I shopped at for the first time a couple of days ago. 

As a new customer, I’m interested to hear more about sales and products at Fab, but perhaps not as regularly as a more avid shopper or someone with more time might. I love this audience-centric email they sent me; they’re asking me how often I want to hear from them and making it easy for me to be in the driver’s seat with how they communicate with me.

Pulling off an email like this requires a great Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system and the ability to adjust content in-house as a result of the information collected. Sure, the technology is there, but the time isn’t for many nonprofits. Get ready, though; this type of communicating is going to become increasingly the norm for for-profits and nonprofits alike. I wrote about it in this article on 2012 fundraising for the Nonprofit Technology Network. Take a gander and let me know what you think.