Managing volunteer sign-ups manually can eat up a lot of time and resources for nonprofits. With automation, your organization can streamline these processes, increase efficiency, and focus more on making an impact.
In this article, we’ll explore how nonprofits can use automation to save time, improve accuracy, and create seamless experiences for volunteers and staff alike.
Introduction to Nonprofit Automation
If you work at a Nonprofit, you know better than anyone that there is endless need and limited resources to meet it. And while part of that has to do with work strategy and ability to delegate, the other part of it making sure you are squeezing every drop of efficiency you can out of your tool.
Automating your processes can help you close that gap.
What is Nonprofit Automation?
Nonprofit automation refers to the use of software and tools to streamline and connect tasks that would otherwise require manual effort. These tasks often involve data entry, communication, and scheduling. Automating processes helps nonprofits reduce human error, stay organized, and operate more efficiently.
Key Signs Something Can Be Automated
Tasks or processes that exhibit these traits are going to be low-hanging fruit for simple automation:
It’s Repetitive
If you or your employees are doing the same thing over and over again, it’s a good candidate for automation.
It’s a Time Suck
If a task takes a long time to complete, or there are long wait times between steps, automation can help.
It’s Error Prone
If error rates are high, automation can help improve accuracy.
There’s a Lot of It
If you’re dealing with a large volume of transactions, automation can help manage the workload.
Requires Specific Conventions
If the inputs for a process are clear and standardized, it’s a good candidate for automation.
For example, automating volunteer sign-ups might involve setting up online forms that collect volunteer information, trigger confirmation or scheduling emails, update internal systems, and send reminders—without the need for constant staff oversight.
Common areas where automation can be applied include:
- Volunteer management
- Fundraising campaigns
- Email communications
- Donor tracking
- Grant management
- Event registration
Benefits of Nonprofit Automation
Automation isn’t just about saving time; it’s about optimizing how your nonprofit operates across the board. Here are the core benefits automation brings to nonprofits:
1. Increased Efficiency
Automation eliminates repetitive tasks, such as manually sending confirmation emails or updating spreadsheets. This means your team has more time to focus on mission-critical activities like volunteer engagement and fundraising strategies.
A recent McKinsey report found that automating business processes can reduce manual task time by up to 20-30%. Additionally, Salesforce users reported a 30% increase in productivity through automation. By streamlining these processes, your organization can drive greater impact with less manual effort.
2. Reduced Human Error
Manual processes leave room for mistakes like data entry errors or missed deadlines. Automation ensures that processes run smoothly and consistently, reducing the risk of human error.
3. Improved Volunteer and Donor Engagement
By automating follow-up communications, such as thank-you emails after donations or reminders for volunteer shifts, you can maintain relationships and improve engagement without constant manual input.
4. Better Data Management
Automation tools integrate with other systems, ensuring that your CRM, like Salesforce and other databases, are always up to date. This makes tracking interactions, donations, and volunteer involvement easier and more accurate.
5. Cost Savings
Automation can reduce the need for extra administrative staff, especially for time-consuming tasks like data entry and communications. With fewer manual processes, your nonprofit can save on operational costs. A recent study by TechSoup found that automation reduces admin overhead saving nonprofits 15-20% on operational costs.
Why is Automation Important for Nonprofits?
For nonprofits operating with limited resources, time and labor savings are crucial. Automation offers a way to do more with less. It allows your team to stretch their time further, helping to manage donor relations, volunteer coordination, and administrative tasks more efficiently.
Additionally, the demand for digital engagement is higher than ever. Donors and volunteers expect seamless interactions and quick responses. Automation helps meet these expectations by providing timely follow-ups, consistent communication, and instant processing, ensuring that your nonprofit remains competitive in a digital-first world.
Tasks You Can Automate in Nonprofits
Automation can be applied to countless tasks from administrative processes to donor outreach. Here are some of the most common areas where nonprofits are using automation to save time and improve accuracy:
1. Volunteer Sign-Ups and Reminders
Managing volunteer sign-ups manually can take up a significant portion of your staff’s time. Automation allows you to set up forms that collect information, trigger confirmation emails, and automatically send reminders before the volunteer’s shift.
2. Donation Processing and Acknowledgments
Automation helps track donations, send receipts, and follow up with personalized thank-you emails, all without manual input. This improves the donor experience and saves time for your team.
3. Email Campaigns and Newsletters
Nonprofits rely heavily on email campaigns to engage with their community. Automating email campaigns ensures timely delivery of newsletters, fundraising appeals, and event updates, while also allowing for personalized messaging based on donor or volunteer history.
4. Event Registrations
Automating event registration allows your nonprofit to seamlessly collect RSVPs, send confirmations, and track attendance, without requiring manual updates.
5. Membership Renewals
For membership-based organizations, automating renewals reduces the risk of lapses and ensures that members stay engaged. Automated reminders and payments streamline the entire process.
Fundraising Automation for Nonprofits
Fundraising is the lifeblood of many nonprofits, and automating key processes can significantly boost both efficiency and results. Automating tasks like donation tracking, email campaigns, and personalized follow-ups allows your team to spend less time on admin and more time building lasting connections with donors.
For example, you can set up an automated donation sequence where, immediately after a contribution, donors receive a personalized thank-you email, followed by periodic updates showing the impact of their gift. This keeps donors engaged and strengthens relationships. To streamline the experience, make donating simple—integrate payment options directly into your web form to avoid sending donors to multiple pages.
Automation for Member Management
Managing members is often a time-intensive task for nonprofits, especially those with large memberships or multiple tiers of involvement. Automating member sign-ups, renewals, and communications can help ensure that no one falls through the cracks. For example, an automated system can send renewal reminders, process payments, and update member profiles in real time, reducing manual oversight.
Moreover, membership-based nonprofits can use automation to segment their members for targeted communications, such as invitations to exclusive events or personalized updates based on membership tier.
Online Donations and Corporate Sponsorships Automation
Donations are vital to nonprofit operations, and automating the donation process can make it easier for both your team and your supporters. With automation, donation forms can be integrated with your CRM, ensuring donor data is automatically updated with every contribution.
Additionally, automating corporate sponsorship outreach and management can help streamline communication with potential sponsors. From sending automated thank-you letters to tracking sponsorship agreements, automation frees up your team to focus on building lasting partnerships.
Grant Application Automation
Grant applications are one of the most time-consuming aspects of nonprofit work. Automating grant tracking, deadline reminders, and documentation can significantly reduce the time spent managing grant applications. For instance, tools can automatically notify you of upcoming deadlines and store all relevant documents in a single place, allowing your team to focus more on writing compelling proposals and less on tracking paperwork.
Use or create a reusable template that can be customized for each grant, so you can submit high-quality applications more efficiently.
How to Choose the Right Automation Tools
When considering automating your processes you want to start at the beginning. How is data getting to our organization? Where is the first process break?
Here are some key factors to consider:
- Ease of Use: Look for tools that are intuitive and easy to implement, especially if your team has limited technical experience.
- Integration Capabilities: To successfully implement an automation strategy, it’s essential that all your systems work together seamlessly. From web forms and CRMs like Salesforce to email platforms and payment applications, each tool should integrate smoothly with the others. Without this connectivity, automating your workflows and processes becomes nearly impossible, leaving you with manual steps that slow down efficiency and growth.
- Scalability: Choose a solution that can grow with your organization. As your nonprofit expands, you’ll want automation tools that can handle increased volume without requiring a complete overhaul. Look for tools that are not limited by submissions or overages, and that have unlimited offerings.
- Cost: Budget is always a concern for nonprofits. Many automation tools offer special nonprofit pricing with essential features, so be sure to ask. Make sure to evaluate cost-effectiveness in relation to the tool’s functionality.
- Customer Support: A dependable customer support team is crucial for any automation solution, especially during the setup process. Without timely assistance to get everything up and running smoothly, even the best-laid plans can fall apart. Make sure you have access to expert support to ensure your solution is implemented successfully from the start.
Examples of Nonprofit Automation in Action
Automation has helped countless nonprofits streamline their operations. Here are a few real-world examples:
1. Volunteer Sign-Ups
SAGE, an LGBTQ nonprofit dedicated to supporting elders in the community, streamlined its volunteer recruitment process by using automation. When potential volunteers express interest in joining their action squad, their information is automatically captured and synced with Salesforce. This integration triggers personalized follow-up emails, ensuring that no potential volunteer slips through the cracks and receives timely, detailed information about the next steps.
2. Coordinating Schedules and Times
Animal Advocacy and Protection (AAP) faced challenges in managing tour schedules and bookings efficiently. Maintaining an up-to-date list of available tours was time-consuming, and the manual process led to potential errors. By implementing FormAssembly’s web forms integrated with Salesforce, AAP transformed its scheduling system. This automation allowed for real-time updates on tour availability, automatic confirmations, and reminder emails to visitors. As a result, AAP streamlined operations reduced administrative workload, and enhanced the visitor experience. They noted, “As a nonprofit, every dollar we spend on technology we cannot spend on animals, so we are very cautious with what we spend… [The integration] saves us a lot of time, and errors as well. It’s all automated, a big efficiency gain.”
2. Fundraising Campaigns
Use automation to send out personalized follow-up emails after each donation. This can increase donor retention and build goodwill with your donor base. By automating campaigns, you can track donation history in your CRM and trigger specific emails based on donor engagement levels.
Want more tips to build better donation forms? Check out this checklist.
3. Grant Management
Automate grant tracking and application responses by connecting your apps together with a webhook or integration, and setting up email response triggers. You can even automate the storage of all necessary documentation, by connecting your forms to a file storage tool like Dropbox or Box. Reduce time spent on administrative tasks and build out a better grant management system today.
Check out this video on how to build a grant management system using FormAssembly.
4. Applications for Assistance
The HomeKeeper app, which assists with affordable homeownership and housing counseling programs, found that many homeownership groups struggled to manage their program application forms using paper processes. Each application contained substantial data, which then had to be manually entered into Salesforce by staff—a time-intensive and resource-draining task. Furthermore, manually connecting related fields in Salesforce proved difficult.
One program revealed that they were spending around $2,000 per application, with 75% of those applications ultimately being declined. This led the HomeKeeper team to realize the need for a smarter solution: moving the application process online. By transitioning to web forms with real-time feedback and conditional logic, they could automatically prevent non-qualifying applications from reaching Salesforce, eliminating manual data entry errors and reducing workload.
The result? Countless hours and money were saved, and applicants enjoyed a smoother, more intuitive experience. As Franklin from HomeKeeper said, “Giving constituents the ability to manage their own data entry in a considerate UI while improving data integrity and freeing up organizational staff resources — win + win + win.”
Streamlining Nonprofit Operations
Automation is an essential tool for nonprofits that want to maximize efficiency and impact. By automating routine tasks such as volunteer sign-ups, donation processing, and grant management, you can free up valuable time to focus on what really matters—your mission.
Whether you’re a small nonprofit or a large organization, the right automation tools can help you streamline your processes, reduce errors, and ultimately make a greater impact in your community.
Ready to explore automation for your nonprofit? Start by identifying the tasks that consume the most time, and find tools that fit your organization’s needs and budget. By embracing automation, your nonprofit will be better equipped to achieve its goals and expand its reach.
Ready to put a plan into action? Schedule a demo with one of our experts to help you bridge the automation gap in your processes.
