All sizes of healthcare organizations rely on donations to provide essential services, acquire equipment, and improve treatments. Nonprofits face the unique difficulty of gathering information from a wide range of sources, including communities, employees, volunteers, and donors.
Using technology, nonprofits can build a powerful understanding of their constituencies, including their history, location, demographics, unique interests and more. Analytics can be used to uncover new relationships that can help to better understand giving trends. Here are 5 software essentials for your healthcare philanthropy to thrive:
A Mobile-Friendly Modern Interface
With a wide variety of prospect groups including physicians, hospital employees, grateful patients, corporations, community members, and volunteers, having one central integrated donor system that connects all aspects of your philanthropy is key.
Fundraising has never been more challenging. Today’s donors want to support worthwhile missions, but they face relentless demands on their time and attention. Your organization needs to ensure you are using the right tools with the right donors at the right time and in the form and format they prefer.
Key features to look for in a software technology solution are:
- Single sign on- With a single sign-on a user only has to enter their login credentials (username, password, etc.) one time on a single page to access all of their applications.
- Easy to use- look for a solution that is easy to use and employees can learn it intuitively, with minimum support or pick a solution that will provide setup and implementation support.
- Mobile-friendly- Make sure your solution is mobile friendly so that your staff can work from anywhere.
Data Security
To be successful, you and your team must have peace of mind that your fundraising and donor engagement platform works for you while protecting sensitive constituent data.
MedStar Health, one of the largest healthcare providers serving Baltimore, DC, and Northern Virginia, selected StratusLIVE to replace their legacy Blackbaud disparate systems including Omatic and Luminate Online with the StratusLIVE purpose-built full product suite. One of their key concerns was data security.
“Ensuring that data is managed securely is a critical responsibility. We will be in a better position to service our donors’ present and future demands after implementing StratusLIVE 365 and StratusLIVE Ignite. We can manage, analyze, and act on data quickly and securely using StratusLIVE.”
-Courtney Van Shura, Vice President of Philanthropy, MedStar Health
Make sure the solution you choose employs redundancy at multiple levels to ensure recoverability regardless of the situation for your data.
Workplace Giving
Offering a variety of giving options to meet the needs of virtually any organization and employee, it is key to offer donation payment methods including payroll deduction, paid time off, credit card, and PayPal or similar money transfer services. Including a comprehensive array of corporate philanthropy programs, such as workplace giving, matching gifts, volunteering, and disaster response allows employees to choose the program that best suits their interests.
Branded campaigns enable your corporate partners to easily enjoy the fruits of your Corporate Social Responsibility efforts, including stronger employee ties and improved brand reputation. Learn more about StratusLIVE solutions for workplace giving, here.
Event and Volunteer Capabilities
Events and the volunteers who work them have long been a mainstay of the nonprofit industry. Your organization needs to be able to easily automate and support both and, even more important, improve levels of engagement and participation allowing you to transform volunteers into donors.
Key features should include:
- The ability to recruit volunteers via your nonprofit’s website
- Ability to onboard volunteers through automated messaging
- Self service capabilities to allow volunteers to update their information
- Flexible dashboards to visualize event sign-ups and registrations
With StratusLIVE Volunteer Now, your organization can easily set up and manage events, including venues and logistics, session schedules, on-site registrations, and the roles and responsibilities of assigned staff and volunteers. Read more here.
Reporting in real time
Healthcare organizations face the unique difficulty of gathering information from a range of sources. With donor data hidden in spreadsheets or separate platforms, your organization can lack one cohesive donor view. Nonprofits have started taking advantage of the rise of data philanthropy, predictive analytics, and machine learning to measure impact and extend their reach through new innovative technologies. The benefits of using these new technologies for reporting include:
- Provide a detailed overview of the organization’s finances
- Determine which fundraising campaigns are most effective
- Assess how well an organization is meeting its goals
- Empower staff members to focus on activities that drive results
Whether we like it or not, the world is changing quickly, and technological advancements will have an impact on philanthropy. If your healthcare organization is interested in upgrading in the New Year but doesn’t know where to begin, StratusLIVE can help!
StratusLIVE, an industry leader of Software for Social Good, empowers organizations to drive change and increase impact. Through its Nonprofit Industry Cloud Solution, enterprise nonprofits access CRM Fundraising and Engagement, Mission Delivery through Programs and Partners, a comprehensive Online Giving Suite, an Online CSR solution for Corporate Engagement, and a personalized application for donors.
