Tony Kavanagh, Insightly CMO, talks non-profits and new features

Last month, Insightly carried out a survey on CRM use by non-profit organizations. The results found that, of those which had adopted a CRM, 90% reported a return on their investment within the first year.  

We talked with Insightly's CMO Tony Kavanagh about how Insightly was using this data to improve on its own offering, and how the non-profit CRM market is set to develop over the next few years. 

What are the major challenges for non-profits, and how can CRM help reduce these?

Non-profits come in all shapes and sizes, but they generally care about managing donors, members, fundraising events, and their cause-driven projects. And, they have to accomplish all of these activities with limited resources and transient workforces.

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The most common problem that occurs without a CRM is poor information management. This translates into poor donor relationships and team productivity. With a user-friendly CRM that has project management built in, non-profits are able to effectively manage donor and member relationships, regardless of who interacts with them and be more coordinated in their outreach efforts.

What do you think makes Insightly stand out for non-profits?

What makes Insightly stand out for non-profits is threefold: It has project management built in, it has tight integrations with Office 365 and G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Work) and its ease of use enables customers to adopt and use it in a few days, not months or quarters.

How do you plan on developing Insightly's position as a non-profit CRM - any updates in the pipeline?

Insightly is developing a few great features that non-profits will love, including some enhancements to our Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite integrations. A few of the highlights include:

• Custom Record View: You can customize your view by defining what information is displayed for leads, contacts, orgs and deals.
• Pipeline View: Users can more easily manage large donations and fundraising events.
• Workflow Automation: This gives people the ability to spend less time on overhead and more time on building donor relationships.

There are, of course, many more features and improvements to come, but these are a few of the highlights.

How do you see non-profit organizations' needs developing over the next decade?

Non-profits will need to get more adept at using data to serve their constituents and donors better. This will require using systems that surface actionable insights about their performance.

Non-profits will also need organizational processes and tools that adapt to the way they fundraise or serve constituents. So, if a non-profit’s workforce is primarily in the field, then they’ll need tools that can be taken with them in the field.