Non-profits now face unprecedented demand – how do they effectively manage both donor retention and donation allocation to reduce the risk of errors and ensure mission goals are met?

The non-profit sector in Canada now employs more than 2.5 million people and represents almost 13 percent of all jobs in Canada. Two-thirds of non-profit staff work with non-profit organizations (NPOs) serving the government, and the sector is rapidly diversifying with the addition of immigrant and indigenous staff members.

But even as sector employment rises, new challenges emerge. More NPOs mean more choice for Canadians when it comes to their donation options, which makes both donor retention and effective donation management critical for organizations to ensure continued operations.

Sage Intacct for Non-Profits can help streamline current processes and drive sustained growth. Here’s how.

The Changing Landscape of Canadian Non-Profits

According to recent survey data, 26 percent of Canadians already use or expect to use charitable services in 2022, even as NPOs expect a decrease in the total volume of donations. What’s more, NPOs are worried about both the increasing prices of goods and services and their ability to find, train, and retain great staff.

The result is a two-fold challenge for non-profits: Even as demand surges, their ability to effectively manage donors and donations is stretched thin. Lacking the tools and technologies to manage multiple facets of their operations simultaneously, many NPOs find themselves dedicating more staff to manual operations, in turn limiting their overall efficacy.

Key Elements for Non-Profit Success

So what does non-profit success look like? What elements are critical for NPOs to make the most of donation volumes, keep staff happy, and ensure they’re ready to handle future challenges?

First is the ability to effectively track where donations are coming from, how much is being donated, and what purpose these donations serve. Next is ensuring that all donations are accurately accounted for across their lifecycle. This includes how much is being spent where, why, and ensuring that records are ready for potential audits by government agencies as required.

Finally, organizations need the ability to leverage this data and drive actionable insights that help inform future decision-making. For example, if donor profiles have shifted such that large donations are less frequent but more beneficial over the long term, NPOs may want to consider changing their campaign and marketing approaches to match.

In many cases, however, the disconnect between what non-profits have and what they need is substantial. Many are still leveraging legacy tools and hardware that were capable of handling donations and donor data in a pre-cloud and mobile era but now struggle to keep pace in a giving environment driven by the need for on-demand information about how money is collected, spent, and used over time.

How Sage Intacct Can Help

Sage Intacct for Non-Profits can help Canadian organizations excel in four key areas:

• Speed

Sage Intacct makes it possible for companies to “know and show” what’s happening across their organization on-demand. Rather than waiting days or weeks for relevant donor and investment data, non-profits can maximize the impact of donor information ASAP.

• Accuracy

Accurate data is critical for NPO success. If donation or spending information is incorrectly reported, the results can range from small mistakes that require remediation by staff to larger-scale issues that could lead to audits of current practices. Sage Intacct delivers accuracy at all stages of NPO reporting.

• Clarity

The more you know, the better. Sage Intacct helps take insight to a new level with end-to-end visibility and clarity of NPO data, allowing teams to leverage this information for better decision-making.

• Reporting

Finally, NPOs need in-depth reporting that helps effectively manage multiple donation and revenue streams. With Sage Intacct’s in-depth fund accounting, organizations can easily generate statements of activities, statements of financial position, and statements of cash flow.

NPOs By the Numbers

Three numbers make the impact of Sage Intacct for Non-profits crystal clear. First is time to pay back the investment: On average, it took companies just six months to pay back their entire Intacct investment. NPOs also saw an average 65 percent increase in overall productivity and enjoyed 250 percent ROI when compared with previous financial management tools.

Put simply? Sage Intacct makes it possible for non-profits to maximize their impact while minimizing the complexity that comes with managing donor sources, volumes, and distributions at scale.

IWI Consulting Group has been helping Canadian non-profits manage donations and drive future growth for more than 20 years. See how we can streamline your Sage Intacct deployment. Let’s talk.