How to Find the Best Case Management Software for Your Non-Profit?

Non-profit organizations are perhaps the only selfless community that puts others’ needs first. They have helped quite a few communities and been quite successful in making a difference in society. However, this task is not as easy or simple as it sounds.

A lot of management and tracking is required to get the results you mostly see with successful non-profit organizations. Handling such heavy data manually can often lead to an increased chance of human error and inaccurate data. With more popularity, this data only keeps increasing, making processes harder for professionals.

This is when using non-profit case management software becomes absolutely important. With any case management software, you will be able to track your cases better, analyze success, spot trends and also secure data. Before you learn how you find the best available software, it is important to learn what it entails.

What Do You Understand By Case Management Software?

In the preliminary years of a non-profit organization, there are not many donors or acclaim in the industry. For the few donors and events, they plan, using paper files or a spreadsheet suffices. However, once they start becoming popular, more and more donors want to be a part of their organization.

This also means communication, tracking and assessing donor information becomes a lot tougher. Spreadsheets often fail to meet the requirements of a non-profit organization in such times. A case management program is basically a modern and more efficient alternative to that. It is specifically designed for non-profit procedures and ensures more fluidity in management.

It will keep all your data, irrespective of the platform, on one source, making it easier to access. Simply put, it aims at making scheduling events easier and enhances collaboration efforts between volunteers and staff. The best software will always prioritize the specific needs of your organization, helping it reach its full potential.

Features To Include In Your Case Management Software

The several positive implications a case management program can have on your organization have significantly increased its demand. This has further led several old and new players in the game to come out with their products and services.

While such a varied list of options ensures you will find what you are looking for, pinpointing one becomes tougher. That said, there are some necessary features that you should miss out on. Further here are some of the features you should always include in your search.

• Security Is Of Prime Importance:

Donors often have to provide sensitive and personal information to a non-profit organization to conclude their donation. This is what makes security an essential feature in all case management software. Any leak or compromise in the data can have several negative impacts on your non-profit’s reputation and name in the industry.

Any good and reliable software will always be PIDEDA and HIPAA compliant and offer industrial-quality security. The majority of countries have laws that protect the privacy of both personal and health information. Making sure you have a well-secured case management program will ensure that you are adhering to it.

An easy way to tell if your software offers great security is by how much control they offer you regarding access level. Any secure software will often let you control each aspect of the different levels for members, staff and volunteers alike.

With these access levels, you can promptly regulate how much information is accessible to each of your staff. For instance, you might not have a problem with them viewing the donor’s name or contact information, but case notes should only be accessible to case workers.

• Ability To Keep Track of Client History:

Another feature you should always check for before finalizing case management software for a non-profit is history tracking. It should allow you to track the entire documented history of your client without hassle.

This is a critical feature as it not only keeps your clients engaged but also ensures no information is lost. A client who has been donating or working with you for several years is deserving of better treatment. With the track data, you can easily sort out who those clients are and assign them more personable and welcoming staff.

It also helps you recognize clients who have only been involved with you intermittently. For when they return, you will have a record of their preferences and history, hence offering them a better service. The ability to quickly search and filter also allows the organization to save a lot of time. With the client’s entire history at your disposal, your staff can easily find the following:

• When the client got admitted
• Which staff members were previously assigned to them
• All their case notes
• Every kind of treatment and service they got

With such ease, you will allow your staff to deliver and focus on providing better services while also supporting the clients.

• Customization Options Included:

Although non-profit organizations fall into a broader category, no two organizations are alike. They will have different causes to support, will be in different phases of their growth and hence have different needs.

This is also why the non-profit case management software you choose should be customizable and adaptable. It should come with enough tools and features to aptly fit your organization’s ultimate mission and unique programs.

Any software that comes with standardized fields which cannot be renamed or removed will most likely not fit your organization as perfectly. Try to choose software that allows you to customize different fields with your specific client records. More so, you should always check how much effort and time customizing these fields usually take.

If you see it is taking more resources that are not feasible, you already know you should look elsewhere. The best software will allow you to make any and all changes without adding any separate expenses or complexity.

• Automation Should Be A Priority:

As it is, non-profit organizations are working with limited resources. This makes it integral that you look for places you can automate the process, including service deliverability and case management. Any good case management software will allow your organization to find such efficiencies and automate processes. Some necessary automated processes include:

Wait-Listing and Scheduling

• Adding notes and defining tasks
• Scheduling volunteers and staff alike in one calendar
• Creating reminders for tasks and appointments

Automated Reports

• Get all reports delivered directly to the staff inbox regularly
• Automatically run reports and save staff time
• Ensure reporting is not missed out on
• Recognize and implement service delivery trends

Custom Action Plans

• Automating reminders keeping all staff on track
• Developing custom plans for needs evaluation, screening, aftercare, etc.
• Streamline case management with custom action plans

These are the three most important features in case management software for a non-profit that makes it efficient and effective. Make sure you see these features in whichever software you are choosing.

In addition, you should also consider your budget, product reviews and the overall profitability of such software. Finally, one thing that most people forget is customer service. You should only partner with a service that has your best interest in mind and can offer prompt service.

With all that in mind, it is easy to determine how a case management program can help your organization. It will ease out a number of processes that earlier used to take too much time and effort to manage or track. Rest assured, with great case management software, your organization will become more efficient and increase funds as well.

Always choose a software provider that is a well-known service in the industry and checks all the right boxes. The kind of features they offer should fit right into your organization and help it grow further. With some of the best reviews in the market, they should be the top choice in the industry.