Last week I mentioned that our team was working with a church network non-profit who wanted an easy way to gather weekly attendance, salvation decisions, and baptisms from the churches in their network. I did a little research and discovered that 7% of our clients are non-profits that work with but are not a local church. We have never marketed to that ministry sector. Almost all of these found and chose us through a referral of a pastor or ministry admin who uses Churchteams. 
1. To organize and easily access information about people.
Of course this starts with things like address, phone, email, birthday, marital status, and gender. These are basic and almost any contact management tool can help with these. But you also have staff roles, education, training, credentialing, coaching, and other unique attributes to track.
Check out this screenshot of a group view that has been converted to a credentialing dashboard for a B2B non-profit. Just by viewing this group, the training team can see exactly where everyone is in the process. It's similar to a spreadsheet, but uses the data in your contact list directly so that you don't have to enter data multiple times or go to different environments to see different information.
Here are some notable highlights that make this group as a spreadsheet or dashboard idea so compelling:
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- The credentialing folder is an attribute hyperlinked to other documents.
- Color coded responses to each credentialing attribute indicate progression (red - orange - yellow - light green - green).
- Click on a color coded attribute to update it.
2. To create and manage organizational structure.
Both B2B and B2C non-profits have several sets of constituents that they work with. For example: active churches, church plants, training events, fund-raising events, donors, volunteers, leadership teams, administrative needs, and clients. We have some that further organize these based on geography and/or purpose.
Our groups structure is perfectly designed to manage each subset of people in your organization using your language. Often the process of identifying this language and these ministry areas helps non-profits get a clearer picture of how their ministry has evolved and changed over time. This helps them align their structure to better reflect their strategy for accomplishing their vision. Here is the organizational structures for Metrolina Baptist Association and Community Garden Kitchen. 
3. To track conversations & follow-up tasks.
Non-profit staff and volunteer leaders or coaches constantly engage in significant conversations. Pastoral, prayer, and coaching notes need to be kept for future reference and follow up. We've made this super easy with email and text reminders. But, the App takes even that to a new level.
Here's an example of a Note created on 2/21 with a due date of 2/29. All the contact information is right there and the note clearly summarizes the interaction and needed follow up.
Network and mission focused non-profits have been a critical part of God's working since the founding of the church. Paul visited his network headquarters in Acts 15. Next week we'll look at how we help communication, volunteer, and donation management for these organizations.
Continue to part 2 of this 2 part series.
