DRM system “Prod”

In 2024, me and my colleagues at the Continuation Foundation started mvp of a new product — a DRM system (Donor Relationship Management) that takes into account the specifics of work and processes in NPOs.

Initially, the main tasks of "Prod" were NPO verification, analytics based on income through the Continuation catalog, preparation of grant applications and a report builder. Later we expanded the idea of the product: we wanted to give NPOs a unique system for all basic tasks.

Competitor analysis

For the analysis we considered the main payment systems, boxed solutions for NPOs (ready-made CRM-system solutions), plug-ins and full-fledged CRM-systems that are used by NPOs. We compared them by analytics parameters, contact segmentation parameters and integration parameters.

Tasks that "Prod" solves

• Automate data collection processes from different payment systems through integrations so that time is not wasted on collection and manual processing.
• Analyze donations in one structure to effectively track and make fundraising management decisions.
• Get information about each donor to build a customized approach and segment contacts by parameters.
• Download bank statements and other financial documents to see full analytics of all donations.
• Work with end-to-end analytics to track the effectiveness of NPO website user experience.
• Track appeals to respond to donors in a timely manner or accept requests from beneficiaries.

Analytics

In this section NPOs can assess, for example, the number of one-time and regular donors, the number of unsubscribes and the dynamics of donations. This is necessary for smart planning of work and impact on the income flow.

Analytics are customized for the selected period. The users can compare the data of the selected period with a similar previous period. For example, March with February, or 2024 with 2023. In the analytics settings, users can choose periods by months, quarters, years, exact dates or for the whole time.

Dialogs

Dialogs are used for all basic communication and document exchange between NPO employees and curators. Users can choose a topic or create their own by starting a new dialog.

Report constructor

A public report is an organizational transparency tool, a story about the NPO's work during the reporting period. It informs beneficiaries, employees, and supporters about how the organization realizes its goals.

The constructor helps NPOs to create a report without involving other specialists. It's based on the donations data: all information is automatically filled in the right places. The user only has to choose a design, upload photos, report on projects and expenses, and we generate a pdf-file from this data. It can be downloaded and published on the NPO's website.

In the report, the organization can tell about its missions, goals, objectives, programs and projects; about quantitative, qualitative and financial indicators of its work; about its mentees, supporters and partners.

Donations

This section displays list on donations. For example, users can filter payments by amount, commission, transaction status, payment method, donor geography, etc. The columns can be customized as well: all possible data about donations are available for displaying in the table.

The main function of the section is to view details and export donation records by a customizable list of parameters. Users can set the time period or select concrete payments, choose the type of donations and the file format for export. Export file generation takes place in the background.