Using CRM Software with Integrity

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In the last century, if you wanted to verify user information, you could hop on a phone call, or opt-in for physical meetups with a client. However, as technology has evolved to make client data easier to manage, CRMs do have the disadvantage of being difficult to monitor. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have made exponential progress as one of the most commonly implemented digital tool kits across nonprofit organizations. As an organization grows, the need for CRM software to make data have high quality and integrity has also increased.

Why being transparent with your data is important

As experts in the nonprofit sector, sharing information from your data can say a lot about your organization’s growth. Data transparency externally and internally empowers employees to work in unison to improve the quality and speed of decision-making amongst each other and with clients. Adopting it into your CRM processes will benefit your work within the organization and establish trust and credibility with donors and supporters.

If you’re setting up a new CRM, having transparent data helps create new insights from the previous data within the old system. It’s not that you couldn’t find much needed answers from a previous system, but more so those answers weren’t available to discover! So after investing into a new system and implementing it into your organizational strategy, the opportunity for data transparency increases exponentially! And last but not least, transparency breeds trust from donors when executives openly share the financial impact of fundraising efforts. Having access to clear data will help you monitor the outcome of your fundraising and serve as a catalyst for upcoming operational decisions. To sum up, data can help you interpret your communicative efforts and impact externally and internally.

Approval processing in CRM

To add an extra layer of data protection, organizations can add approval processes as part of their data management. Let’s take Salesforce for example. You have an audit coming up at the end of the quarter and you want to make sure that it’s presentable to your donors. You say, “Hey, I need a process put in place where it’s confirmed someone has reviewed this information.” What can happen is you build up the process that’ll require a “approval” or “dismissal” and other triggers to complete its cycle. You’d be able to adjust the process accordingly to the content you want to see within the audit. By the time it’s finalized, your organization has the necessary material, donors are satisfied with the presentation, and you have a system in place for validating your data’s integrity.

Implementing data integrity with your CRM

A big part of building donor relationships is ensuring your data remains consistent and accurate over the course of that relationship. Your organization relies heavily on data to make strategic decisions. You also have to consider your organization’s reputation when making data-based decisions. The quality and accuracy of client and donor data in the CRM system will impact a consistent, error-free way to enhance the client experience. For example, eliminating duplicate entries will reduce marketing costs by preventing duplicate marketing mailings, advertisements, and emails.

To validate the strength of your CRM data, take a few steps to keep it polished and free from errors. Remove any unnecessary or duplicated information to ensure you have data that displays honesty and trustworthiness. After each session, don’t forget to back up your data. This could look like saving it on a file or sending a copy to yourself. It’s always good to keep a backup. Also, try doing an audit trail periodically. With an audit, you can learn firsthand on how to spot a problem so that you can provide a proactive solution. Instill these practices so you’ll never worry about your organization’s credibility!

Still not sure where to start in securing your CRM transparency? Our team at Tackle would love to help you increase your data integrity. Contact us today to get started.

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Adding Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to your Salesforce User Accounts

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If you might be scratching your head about recent emails from Salesforce about implementing a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirement for your organization, you are not alone.

The key challenges we see with product announcements from Salesforce like this one are that they:

  • focus on the needs of their medium- to large-scale B2B sales customers, not smallish nonprofits,
  • are written for the use of at least moderately experienced in-house Salesforce admins, who can easily identify which parts of the announcement (if any) are relevant for that particular organization.

Many nonprofits don’t fall into these categories. In fact, we have had a few Help Desk clients check in with our team about this email so we thought we would share some information about it so your team can be on top of this Salesforce update.

Our goal with this post is to help nonprofit organizations of various sizes to be able to navigate this change to their MFA with the least amount of headaches.

What is the new MFA requirement in Salesforce?

Beginning February 1, 2022, all Salesforce users will now be required to enable MFA for access to their Salesforce products.

Yep, you have almost an entire year to make sure this change happens.

However, even though this is still a ways out, we don’t want to underplay this update because this changes the way your users login to Salesforce. And you can’t just ignore it until the February 2022 deadline. But don’t panic, because that’s way more time than most nonprofits will need.

What is MFA?

Before we dive into the how, we thought we would actually address what multifactor authentication, or MFA, actually means for your Salesforce users. Read more

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What to do if you have an urgent technology issue

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We’ve all been there. You jump on your website and something is broken and not working. You get an email from a colleague asking if your account has been hacked. You have a donor call and say they keep getting an error when they try to make a donation.

It’s all so… alarming.

Sometimes it’s a simple issue, like user error. But sometimes it’s more than you can handle yourself, and then the dreaded wave of anxiety starts crashing in.

So what should you do? We’ve put together some steps to help you deal with your urgent technology needs so if you find yourself in a pressing situation you can use these tools to address the issue and get on with your day (or week or month).

Don’t panic.

Easier said than done, right? But take a deep breath. Like right now. Emailing 20 people about the issue and hiding under your desk probably isn’t going to actually help the situation.

Many times these issues that seem catastrophic are pretty minor. Or maybe they are widespread, like a server outage, and many other people are experiencing similar issues. Regardless, taking a step back for a minute can help clear your mind and help you to start taking the right steps to actually fix the problem.

Troubleshoot.

You know when you call the cable company because your internet isn’t working and the first thing they ask is if you restarted the modem. It’s like that.

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Why is multi-factor authentication important?

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Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security feature that you have probably come across while signing in to your online accounts.  In addition to your username and password, you are required to enter a code to complete log in. Though it may appear to be an added step that causes inconvenience, MFA can actually shield you from significant security threats.

Given the advantages of MFA, it is a standard in the industry. Tackle strongly advocates for the use of MFA across all digital systems and here are a few of the reasons why.

Significantly increases security.

When using MFA, a special code is required and received via text or an authentication app (ex. Google Authenticator, Salesforce Authenticator, etc.). You must use the code immediately or it will expire.

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