What Corporate America Should Learn from Nonprofits
Or – Why DRM is DReaMy!
Corporate America can and should take a page or two from the handbooks of many nonprofit organizations, and if this Strange Bird has anything to do with it, some of them soon will.
I’ve already talked here [some might say rant] about CRM being CRuMmy [and I'm not done yet either] and for the most part I’m laying the blame at the feet of Corporate America. DRM, or Donor Relationship Managment is the nonprofit version and deserves some face time too but for very different reasons.
Sharp nonprofit professionals looked at CRM some years back and, looking at the ‘six-million dollar man’ that corporate had created, decided they could make it even bigger, stronger and faster while leaving out a few of they annoying sound effects. [Yes, I know I am aging myself with the Steve Austin references, but hey - I am proud of my hokie 70's television show upbringing.]
Well just like that DRM was born and nonprofit organizations had a few more initals, their own intials, to add to their bag of acronyms. But they did more than play alphabet soup… they overhauled CRM though a new lens, a donor-centered lens, a community building lens, a lens that focuses on building honest and healthy relationships that are based on shared values and vision. And they did it on a smaller scale than corporate America. A manageable scale at a ratio of one to hundreds at first and eventually one to thousands.
Early nonprofit adopters took CRM and created a kinder, gentler and yes [though my inner democrat hates to say it] a more compassionaltely conservative version. DRM is more compassionate from the outset for the very simple reason of its external aim.
DRM aims to build relationships with people who, being of like mind, wish to impact a community improvement need. Yes, shekels are still involved and the ultimate conclusion of good DRM is a cash or commodity transaction, but the bottom line is that a societal need is impacted for the better.
Some might say it is a simplistic view and to me that is a compliment. Understanding things sometimes starts with a basic beginning. Absolutely there are times when DRM crosses the line into the dark side, just like there are times when CRM works the right way. I’ll talk about both scenarios and more in future posts.
For today, let’s leave it at DRM is DReaMy.
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