How Can Workflow Automation Help Streamline Productivity? 

What are some of the challenges nonprofits face? 

Donor relations, workforce planning, grant management recruiting and keeping top talent, nonprofit compliance, and funding distribution and monitoring are just a few of the operational challenges that nonprofit organizations face.

By implementing workflow automation, nonprofits can improve their operations transparency and visibility of assets, staffing levels, finances, and other areas. 

Nonprofit organizations must have visibility into their finances, resource assets, staffing levels, and other aspects of managing grant applications properly. Processes can be automated with grant management workflow automation software, improving tracking against project and mission impact reporting and enabling greater transparency.

Another problem for nonprofits is workforce planning, frequently leading to mismatched availability and underutilized skills. Nonprofits must also have procedures and plans to draw in, keep track of, and retain key personnel, which presents another difficulty.

Workflow Automation For Non-Profit Organizations

Workflow automation for non-profit organizations allows workforce management from a single location, improving employee data control and freeing people managers to concentrate on their essential work.

For nonprofits to succeed, they must precisely track and distribute funds, so financial stability is crucial. With the help of detailed tracking and visibility, nonprofit organizations can guarantee that their funding is returned where required and that underutilized funds are appropriately used. 

Automation Benefits For Nonprofits

A non-profit organization's operations entail numerous approval levels and substantial paperwork. State regulations must be followed for NPOs to operate efficiently. Cultivating donors in non-profit organizations is drawn out, including multiple follow-up rounds, touchpoints, and thorough documentation.

Relationship management with donors takes a lot of time and work. For employees and volunteers, routine tasks like reminders, follow-up calls,s, and acknowledgments occupy a significant portion of their work hours.

The NPO may suffer considerable financial losses if donor correspondence is missed or delayed. For the NPO staff, a typical workday includes updating donor information, searching for new donors, and writing follow-ups. NPO employees become distracted from the long-term goal while catching up on these daily administrative duties. 

Non-Profit Efficiency

Workflow automation allows non-profits to concentrate on their mission instead of ordinary administrative duties. Workflows can be easily created to automate time-consuming manual tasks that are burdensome for employees and prone to needing to be noticed. Workflow automation for non-profit organizations increases workflow efficiency and streamlines repetitive tasks. By automating their workflows, internal processes such as donor engagement and data maintenance can be carried out effectively. Workflow automation allows Employees to devote more time to the organization's long-term goals. Workflows can save a lot of money and time. Data updates and consistent communication are guaranteed when data maintenance workflows are automated. Workflow automation can significantly increase donor engagement. More revenue is generated when donor relationships are improved. 

Key Benefits of Workflow Automation for Nonprofits

Time-Saving

Nonprofit workflow automation simplifies your team's administrative duties, saving you 30 to 40 hours each month. Workflow automation becomes the cornerstone of successful nonprofit operations, encompassing everything from managing resource allocation to team task coordination, manual data entry, and streamlining donor and volunteer registration procedures. 

Cost Efficiency

Workflow automation offers significant cost savings because it streamlines procedures, reduces the time spent on manual labor, and eliminates the need for additional staff to perform these tasks. Automation can assist in scaling operations as your company expands without necessarily raising overhead expenses.

Additionally, improved resource allocation and process optimization by workflow automation can result in lower operating costs. An appealing long-term strategy for sustainable growth is automation, which can increase your company's return on investment. 

Improved Transparency

The foundation of workflow automation consists of well-defined business rules and tasks. Usually, some rules outline the order of the functions and the expected results for each one. The workflow also identifies the stakeholders in charge of carrying out each task. Workers know precisely what they must do and what each task entails. Automation significantly boosts transparency and visibility into process operations. 

Enhanced Collaboration

Workflow automation tools frequently include collaborative features like real-time updates and shared dashboards. These tools help team members communicate efficiently, access information, and monitor progress all in one place. This transparency and accessibility encourage better coordination and teamwork, guaranteeing everyone is on the same page and pursuing the same objectives. 

Applications of Workflow Automation in Nonprofit

Workflow automation improves workflow efficiency by the following application cases. 

Donor Management

Automation is an essential tool for giving nonprofits structure and organization. By automating processes, a nonprofit can interact with donors, raise more money, and manage funds more effectively. Process automation makes it simple for nonprofits to keep track of monthly contributions and preserve donor relationships. 

Volunteer Coordination

Workflow automation ensures proper role assignments and communication by streamlining volunteer onboarding scheduling and tracking with automated systems. 

Grant Management

Workflow automation ensures that deadlines are met and procedures are thoroughly documented by automatically routing grant applications for review approval and reporting. 

Event Planning

Workflow automation assists in automating the event planning process, from vendor coordination to approvals and logistics, to save planning time and enhance event execution. 

Top Workflow Automation Tools for Nonprofits

Zapier

One of the best workflow automation solutions with robust integration features is Zapier. Its simplicity makes it appropriate for non-technical users and lessens the need for manual intervention. The platform offers numerous learning resources to assist you in effectively creating customer workflows if you become caught up. 

Artwork Flow

Artwork Flow is a potent AI-native workflow automation tool that helps you create and manage intricate workflows at scale, simplify tasks, and maintain project progress. When a task is finished and prepared for review, the automated workflow alerts you.

It also assists in locating any potential obstacles, if any. You can finish projects more quickly, receive trigger notifications on the status of your tasks, and work together with internal and external stakeholders seamlessly. The best thing about this workflow automation software is that it allows you to customize workflows using a very visual and flexible workflow builder.

You can also integrate Artwork Flow with Figm, Dropbox, Google Drive Teams Monday Dot Com Slack, and many other tools that will be available soon. Your data is protected by Artwork Flows' strong security features, including encryption and user access control. It is ISO-certified and SOC-2 compliant. 

Monday

Monday helps you stay on task by visually organizing your workflows. Blocks can be created using the workflow builder and associated with particular workflow elements.

For example, you can make a block that automatically screens resumes to weed out applicants who dont fit the minimum requirements if you're having trouble finding talent. It all comes down to doing the initial work. The platform takes care of the rest.

The best part?

Regardless of workload or team size, its implementation benefits your entire team, including marketing, IT, and HR. 

Onspring

One workflow management software that boosts productivity by eliminating the need to navigate spreadsheets is Onspring. Thanks to its ready-to-flow plans, teams can automate and visualize tasks with little effort. The team assists you in creating custom workflows from scratch if you need something else.

As the platform automatically alerts teammates to take action, manual intervention and frequent check-ins become less frequent.

Furthermore, it facilitates the creation and collection of survey data with little effort, making tasks like conducting surveys easier. 

How to Implement Workflow Automation in a Nonprofit Organization

1. Choosing a Trigger

This step allows users to select a trigger. Some triggers include creating a pledge donation account, membership registration, and a fundraising page. 

2. Choosing Targets 

The targets are chosen according to the trigger. The workflow will target only the records that the user specifies. The filtering criteria are determined based on the trigger. 

3. Incorporate Automated Processes 

The configuration of the automated actions is the last stage of workflow setup. Automated actions include assigning prospects, creating an activity, adding to the volunteer group, and sending an external email. Workflow automation for non-profit organizations that can be automated includes assigning prospects and activities to employees, automatically updating custom fields on accounts, and sending drip email campaigns based on custom triggers. 

NPOs can automate their essential workflows with OPS Check’s robust workflow automation software. OPS Checks visual workflow, and form builder makes creating forms by dragging and dropping them simple. 

Workflow Automation Boosts Nonprofit Growth

With effective workflow automation, you can stop letting your technology control how you run your company and instead concentrate on identifying the technology that best fits your preferred approaches. Additionally, it helps you streamline your workflows rather than rely on outdated methods still in use in your company. By integrating your favorite tools with APIs and other automation tools, you can reduce the amount of manual work you do. 

Value Your Employees by Creating a Productive Workplace

FAQs

What are the main benefits of workflow automation for nonprofits?

Increased efficiency, accuracy, enhanced donor relationships, transparency, and cost savings.  

What are some common workflows that can be automated in a nonprofit?

Donor management, volunteer management, grant management, event planning, and marketing.

What are some key considerations when selecting a workflow automation tool?

Ease of use, integration capabilities, reporting and analytics, security, scalability, and customer support.

How can nonprofits ensure successful workflow automation implementation?

Clear communication, comprehensive training, addressing employee concerns, and continuous monitoring.  

What are the potential risks associated with workflow automation?

Job displacement, dependence on technology, and the need for ongoing maintenance.