17, September, 2024
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Best CRM Software for Churches
Biography
Anna Rodriguez is a CRM consultant with 4 years of experience in helping businesses across various industries select, implement, and manage their CRM systems. She is skilled in CRM system customization, data migration, and user adoption strategies. Anna is passionate about helping businesses unlock the full potential of their CRM systems and fostering a customer-centric culture within organizations. She constantly keeps on top of the newest industry trends and holds a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology.
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Latest Update:
Sep 16, 2024, 8:45 am
In a Nutshell
Exploring CRMs, I discovered many tools that perfectly match church management. These CRMs feature solutions that help ministries connect with their congregation, serve the church family better, and lead more effectively.
5 Best CRM Software for Church Shortlist
I recommend the following church CRM systems:
- Salesforce — Best CRM for fundraising tools
- SimpleChurch CRM — Best for strengthening church relationships on the go
- Bitrix24 — Best for free church CRM software
- eWay-CRM — Best CRM for Outlook integration
- GreenRope — Best CRM for expanding an organization
Many associate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems with profit-related organizations. However, non-profit organizations like churches can benefit significantly from CRMs.
Church work isn’t limited to preaching and communicating with the congregation; there’s a lot of admin work. It becomes even more overwhelming as the church grows. I’ve discovered a handful of the best CRM for churches I’d like to share with you.
Why Churches Need CRM Software
Technology has greatly influenced our lives, and it’s even needed in churches. To remain organized, church leaders need to ensure that administrative work is managed effectively. Planning events, keeping track of members and visitors, organizing volunteers, and managing finances are a few of the many tasks within church administration.
Balancing this with effective communication and delivering excellent church services can be exhausting when using old systems to handle administrative work. Opening various platforms and memorizing their passwords can be too much for anyone. The best church CRM has tools to manage your admin work in one place.
Whether your church has an admin worker or you do everything yourself, CRM is needed to save time and resources. What’s great is that as I was researching church CRMs, I also found some that offer their services free to non-profit organizations.
This means that if you were worried about whether your church could afford these excellent resources, heave a sigh of relief because yes, it can.
It’s time to compare and find the best CRM solution for your ministry. Here are mini-reviews of the top five CRM systems I’ve personally tested. I have provided more details on their features and their strengths and weaknesses.
Top 5 CRM Systems for Churches
Starts at $25 per user per month
Salesforce.org is mainly designed to help churches foster life-changing relationships with other organizations through grants and donations.
Why We Like It
I like that its platform was explicitly created for non-profit organizations. Being a well-known and well-serving CRM globally also makes Salesforce.org more trustworthy. It uses data, AI, and other CRM tools to assist your ministry in effectively managing admin work.
Most Important Church Features
If you want to enhance your fundraising abilities, then Salesforce.org is the best CRM system for your church. It features:
- Excellent fundraising tools that enable portfolio creation for storing donor profiles
- Source codes to drive fundraising and track appeals
- Member attendance tracking and recording of benefits for each church service
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Allows customization of donor database and member dashboards
- Program management tools make it easier to categorize and track participants.
- Readily available email templates help send professional appeals and appreciation messages to potential and existing donors.
Cons
- It can be pricey and unaffordable for churches with less financial capabilities
Free Plan: No
Starting at $35
As the name suggests, SimpleChurch CRM is used to support ministries worldwide.
Why We Like It
I like that it has a mobile app version. Church leaders and members can access it wherever they are to keep up with their organization’s progress. Also, it has almost every tool ministries could ever need, which you can test out thanks to the system’s free 30-day trial.
Most Important Church Features
Features include training tools to assist your admin staff in using the SimpleChurch CRM platform effectively. Other helpful features are communication tools, worship planners, attendance check-ins, background checks in a click, donor management, volunteer schedules, and automation.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Automation tools make it easier to assign tasks and follow up on interactions
- Partners with Protect My Ministry for quick and accurate background checks
- For convenience, there are two app versions designed for leaders and the congregation
Cons
- The price is directly affected by the number of members of your church. It increases with more members.
Starts at $49 per user per month
Bitrix24 offers free management software to churches. The platform features over 35 tools and allows unlimited user access.
Why We Like It
I like that the system is designed to support churches with limited funds. You can access its resources for free, and even when you upgrade there are various plans so you can choose an affordable one for your organization.
Most Important Church Features
Among its many features, Bitrix24 has management tools for integrating apps, managing documents, scheduling, and planning projects. Its mobile-compatible site provides social tools for congregants to share scriptures and have meaningful interactions.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Tracks and automates admin processes to save time
- Provides detailed reports and analytics on donations, events, internal processes, and congregation-related content
- Mobile compatible website with complex features to address various church needs
Cons
- The free plan has limitations such as 5 GB storage per account and excludes features such as marketing, sales automation, and telephony.
Free Plan: Yes
Starting at $18
If you’ve been doing your church admin through Outlook, then eWay-CRM is the way to go. Integrate the two, and your work will be automatically stored in this CRM platform.
Why We Like It
If you’ve been using Outlook, this CRM cuts your admin work and saves you time from the beginning. Although it has paid plans that focus on increasing business sales, there’s a free plan recommended for NPOs. This plan allows unlimited users.
Most Important Church Features
eWay-CRM has straightforward tools to keep your church organized. Its user-friendly platform provides detailed stats on user behavior, groups project-related communications, stores emails, notes, and documents, and synchronizes with your mobile phone.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- It synchronizes with your mobile phone, allowing you to access and amend church data whenever necessary.
- The free plan can connect with popular apps, including Zapier, PowerBI, and WordPress
- Straightforward navigation and easy-to-use resources
Cons
- The free plan has 200 MB for documents and emails only
Starts at $99 per user per month
GreenRope has a free CRM program set to give back to non-profit organizations. It gives churches access to relationship management tools to grow and continue their community work.
Why We Like It
I like that the platform makes learning more accessible for inexperienced admin staff. Besides the demo, it brings together resources from different departments (i.e., finance, marketing, and events). This makes learning and connecting these departments easier, and ensures that the church grows.
Most Important Church Features
GreenRope’s important features include analytics that help track website visits, event attendance, and other marketing progress. You can manage your events through ticketing, linking RSVP forms, and setting reminders on the calendar.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Integrates multiple resources to address various ministry needs in one system
- Encourages growth by giving NPOs a free tool that includes marketing resources, tools for recruiting and enrolling donors, and driving traffic to church websites
- Automates communication with donors and volunteers to save time
Cons
- Navigating some of its features can be confusing to new users
Criteria for Selecting the Best CRM for Churches:
Robust security is crucial when looking for an excellent CRM for any organization. Because you’ll be storing people’s data, the CRM must comply with your location’s data protection regulations. Scalability is another important factor, especially for organizations like churches, which have the potential to grow bigger with time.
I also recommend you consider the following factors:
- Affordability: Ensure the CRM you pick doesn’t cause more stress by being a financial burden on your church. Compare and ensure there aren’t hidden costs, a limit to the number of members or an additional cost when more are added. As mentioned, some CRMs offer free services to NPOs to give back to the community.
- Member management: Relationship management tools should make it easy to store, communicate, track, and provide members with necessary resources.
- Volunteer management: Volunteers are also an integral part of a ministry. The CRM tool you choose must make setting up meetings easier and empower volunteers to continue their selfless work.
- Communication: It’s best if a church CRM allows mass texting, features a mobile app, and offers event planning tools.
- Handling finances: It should also include tools that make recording tithes and donations to the church more accessible.
Conclusion
I’m sure you now better understand why your church needs CRM software. If you think your ministry is too small a CRM can help it grow, or streamline overwhelming work if it’s big. The mini-reviews above will help you decide which CRM is best for your ministry.
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