Salesforce offers its CRM for “free” to nonprofits.
The word free above is in quotation marks because yes, it’s free to acquire. But it costs many thousands of dollars to customize to the needs of your specific organization.
Salesforce is a CRM for large entities. Nike, for example.
With 92% of nonprofits having revenue below $1 million, a behemoth of a CRM is probably not what they need. They certainly don’t need all the potential fields of data one could collect thru the Salesforce system.
I’m not trying to dunk on Salesforce. It’s great that they have a nonprofit program and want to help organizations. The problem is the data being collected. With Salesforce it’s an endless amount.
And the vast majority of nonprofits don’t need that much data and they certainly won’t put it to good use.
Think of the forms on your website: Donation form, volunteer form, event registration, sign ups, downloads and more. Want people to fill it in and submit? You need to be careful not to ask for details and items you don’t need.
The more friction you add to a form, the fewer people will fill it out.
Ever try to fill out an online form where they asked for everything, including your blood type and Zoom ID? Did you finish filling in the form or give up halfway thru?
I know your organization (or maybe just the CEO/Board Chair) wants to collect as much info about each person as possible. The question is: What are you doing with all that info?
Is it being put to good use (personalization, segmentation, building relationships) or are you collecting just so you have max data in your CRM?
Unfortunately I see too much of the latter: Collecting data for data’s sake.
Doing that will net you fewer and fewer conversions. Fewer people will fill in and submit your online forms.
You’re wasting their time and you’re not getting as many donations and sign ups as you want!
As year-end approaches and you work on your 2026 plans, you should be reviewing your online forms and removing any fields which add friction to the process.
Let’s take a look at an example I just received so you understand what I’m referring to.
Fix your forms
The plan can be awesome but if the execution stinks the end result isn’t great.
Reminds me of one of my alltime favorite sports quotes. John McKay was the coach of football’s expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They stank their first few seasons of existence.
After a bad game, a reporter asked Coach McKay what he thought of his offense’s execution. He replied, “I’m in favor of it.”
One of your jobs is to create a two-way street with your supporters and audience. Provide them with value, educate them, build a partnership.
The American Kidney Fund did just that announcing an upcoming webinar, “Understanding and navigating challenges with insurance.” An EXCELLENT topic! During the webinar, attendees will learn more about common insurance terms and barriers to receiving treatment coverage while living with chronic kidney disease.
Great idea. This is a perfect way to build that two-way street.
I clicked the CTA button so I could check out the webinar registration form. And here’s what it looked like:
Let’s consider two groups of people filling out this form: Those who are current/past supporters and those who are interested in the topic. The latter group could include people who are not even on the organization’s mailing list- someone may have forwarded them the email (because it applies to them) and now they want to attend the webinar.
The above form?
1️⃣ Last name: If the person is a supporter, you probably have their last name and you can match it in your database to their email address. If they’re new, last name isn’t needed right now for personalization etc. In both cases, this field should be removed.
2️⃣ Zip code: My assumption is they want to send content (advocacy especially) based on where you live (better segmentation). I’m in favor of that but that’s not explained on the form. Some people may wonder why zip code is needed and in fact may not want to give it. Less people submitting the form.
3️⃣ Age: Maybe they need it because they can personalize info (the older a person gets, the health information changes). But again, no explanation. Would you willingly give them your age?
4️⃣ Gender identity: This is for a free webinar. Why are they collecting this info???!!!
5️⃣ Race/ethnicity: See above. (Now you might say that certain races are maybe more prone to getting kidney disease than others. Fine, get that info. But not on this form!)
6️⃣ What is your connection to kidney disease: Every time I see this on a form I go nuts. They make this mandatory- what if I don’t wanna say???!!! There’s no checkbox for “I’d rather not say.” They do have checkboxes for I have kidney disease, I’m on dialysis, I am living with a transplant, A friend/loved one has kidney disease and a few others.
Yes, one could argue that all the above data points are important to the organization’s ability to connect and engage with people. All good. But not on the registration form for a free webinar!
Go take a quick look at the signup form for your enewsletter on your website. If you’re asking for more than first name and email address, I guarantee you’re losing sign ups. And not just a few!
Your forms should only be asking for critical info and nothing more. The goal is conversions! To do that you need to have as little friction as possible in the process.
Collecting data just to have it is costing you donations, sign ups, registrations. Is it worth it to lose a donation because you “need” to know a title before a first name? Should you give up on a potential gift because you need as much data as possible about each person who fills in your forms?
No. Stop collecting data for data’s sake. Collect only what you need and nothing more.
(Which reminds me of this scene in Spaceballs.)
