Best CRM for fundraising and investor relations in 2024

Whether you’re building a smart investor database, running a fundraising campaign, keeping track of grants and investments – you need a CRM that can keep up with you and scale as you grow. 

In this blog, we unpack features you should look out for that will help you streamline your workflow and create transparency across your multiple projects and do a thorough comparison of the best CRMs that have a specific focus on investor relations. 

Let’s get into it.

Why you need a CRM

With multiple business relationships to manage, a CRM is essential for busy founders looking to streamline operations and enhance customer relationships.

Challenges without a CRM

Managing important fundraising and investor relations without a CRM can lead to numerous challenges. Here are some common issues:

• Disorganization: Important contact information scattered across various platforms.
• Missed opportunities: Inability to track leads and follow up effectively.
• Inefficient processes: Manual data entry and repetitive tasks consume valuable time.
• Lack of insight: Difficulty in analyzing customer data and making informed decisions.
• Inconsistent communication: Uncoordinated interactions with customers leading to confusion and dissatisfaction.

Benefits of a CRM

Fortunately the right CRM can help you address these challenges and provide some extra benefits.

• Centralized information: All customer data in one place for easy access and management.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automation of routine tasks saves time and reduces errors.
• Improved customer relationships: Personalized interactions and better customer service.
• Better decision-making: Data-driven insights to guide business strategies.
• Increased sales: Effective tracking and follow-up of leads and opportunities.‍
• Consistent communication: Streamlined and coordinated customer interactions.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With a lot of CRMs in the market to choose from, it can be hard to figure out which CRM is best specifically for your fundraising and investor relation needs. To help you with your decision making process, we've put together these top tips.

1. Define your requirements

Start by identifying the key features you need. Do you require robust contact management, sales pipeline tracking, or marketing automation? Consider your business's unique needs and prioritize functionalities that will enhance your operations. For instance, if following-up in time is a priority, look for a CRM with built-in notes and reminders. Clearly defining your requirements will help you narrow down your options and find a solution that fits your needs perfectly. We suggest starting with these top features.

Top 6 key features in a CRM that will help streamline fundraising efforts

Look out for the following features if you’re after a CRM that can help you streamline your workflow, foster collaboration and create a single source of truth.

• ‍Team collaboration: Look for a CRM that will allow you to add new users easily and create notes on contacts collaboratively so that you can build a single source of truth. ‍
• Automation: This can help you minimise the time and effort you spend on manual tasks such as creating new pipelines, grouping contacts, ‍
• Contact enrichment: Noticed you have missing contact information? Instead of manually going back to check, contact enrichment will help you fill in the blank in moments. ‍
• Email marketing: With all your contacts in one place, a good CRM should also provide you with email marketing support so that you can access contact lists you want to send email campaigns to efficiently. ‍
• Custom pipeline views: If you have multiple use cases for your CRM, it should be able to support this with custom pipeline views. This means you should be able to create pipelines easily across investing, fundraising, partnerships and sales.
• ‍User experience: Avoid a CRM that tries to do it all. This often results in a steep learning curve and clunky designs.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment is crucial when choosing a CRM. Evaluate the potential ROI by considering how the CRM can streamline your processes, improve customer relationships, and ultimately boost sales.

3. Selection process

The vendor selection process involves thorough research to ensure you choose the right CRM provider. Begin by reading reviews and testimonials from other startups. Compare the features, pricing, and customer support of different CRM vendors. Reach out to vendors for demos or free trials to get a firsthand experience of their platforms. Additionally, consider the vendor's reputation and how long they have been in the market. A reliable vendor will offer excellent customer support and continuous updates to keep their CRM competitive and effective.

4. Get a demo

Before committing to a CRM, it's crucial to understand how it will fit into your small business operations. Scheduling a demo can provide you with a firsthand look at the features and functionalities of the CRM. This allows you to ask specific questions and see how the tool can streamline your processes. To see how folk can benefit your business, get a demo here.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage, it's all about getting familiar with your new CRM as quick as possible. We suggest ticking off these three things in your first few weeks with your new CRM.

1. Import data into your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM involves migrating your existing data. Start by exporting your current data as a CSV file. This will ensure a smooth transition and help maintain continuity in your customer interactions. And you won't have to add contact information manually which can be rather time consuming.

2. Create your first pipeline

Setting up your first sales pipeline is a critical step in using your new CRM effectively. For startups looking to fundraise, this pipeline could include stages that reflect your process, such as lead generation, initial contact, proposal sent, negotiation, and closed deal. Customizing these stages to fit your specific business needs will help you track progress and manage customer relationships more efficiently.

3. Onboard your team

To make the most of the benefits of your new CRM, it's essential to onboard your team effectively. Provide training sessions to ensure everyone understands how to use the CRM and its features. Encourage team members to explore the tool and ask questions. A well-trained team will be more likely to adopt the CRM and use it to its full potential, leading to improved productivity and better customer management.

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A comparison of the best CRMs for your fundraising and investor relations

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folk

folk is an all-in-one CRM that can help you build a smart investor database, run fundraising campaigns, and support you in keeping track of investments and grants. 

Key features

• Custom pipeline views
  folk supports multiple project databases so that you can build shared contact lists across your investing, fundraising, sales and recruiting efforts. 
• AI support
  ‘Magic Field’ helps take the heavy lifting, saving you time when sending ultra-personalized messages to multiple recipients. 
• Contact enrichment
  It helps you fill in missing contact information in moments, so you no longer have to check manually. 
• folkX
  folk’s Chrome extension, allows you to import search lists and individual profiles into folk without having to leave the page.

Pros

• Track engagement
  Easily track last interactions with investors and create reminders so you know exactly when to follow up. 
• Team collaboration
  Adding teammates and creating notes on the same contact is easy. This transparency means everyone is on the same page with last interactions and conversations. 
• Contact sync
  Gather contacts from multiple platforms including LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and more into one place.
• Automation
  You can automate the creation of new pipelines, contact categorization, workflows and reminders that will send you a notification whenever it is time to follow up with an investor.
• User experience
  folk is loved for its Notion-like features and intuitive design. It’s one of the easiest CRMs to use on the market. Unlike other CRMs, you can get started with folk from day one without having to block out days for training.

• You can try folk for free with a 14 day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.
  • Standard: $20 per user, per month
  • Premium: $40 per user, per month
  • Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month

Cons

• Email sequencing is not available yet, but it’s on folk’s radar. 

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Irwin

Irwin is an investment management software with some CRM capabilities.

Key features

• Manage investor relations activity
  Keep track of investor interactions including emails and events in Gmail and Outlook.
• Investor relations activity reporting
  On outreach efforts, meetings and event outcomes.

Pros

• Manage investor conferences and roadshows
  Using Irwin’s project management tools that allow you to prepare itineraries and tear sheets. 
• Report template library
  To help report on your investor relations program.

Cons

• Irwin’s Investor CRM platform is not a traditional CRM. It can help you track last interactions, but you won’t get the mainstream features you’d expect to find in a CRM. 

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Backstop Solutions

Backstop Solutions is a CRM and investment management software. Its investor relations CRM makes up one-sixth of their products. 

Key features

• Portfolio management, monitor portfolio activity and performance across multi-asset investments.
• Tailored reporting, get industry benchmarks and analytics.
• Pipeline tracking, manage investment timeline to optimize the portfolio.

Pros

• Specialized focus
  Designed specifically for investor relations, providing a targeted and relevant toolset including portfolio holdings, and performance history.
• Data-driven insights
  Customizable reports offer deep insights into investor behavior, helping with strategic decision-making.
• Efficient document handling
  Efficient management of investment documents, enhancing productivity and investor service.

Cons

• Lacks traditional CRM features
  Key features such as contact sync, contact profiles and email marketing are missing. Every feature is geared towards data insight and portfolio management.
• Cost
  As an industry-specific tool, you may need to buy a separate CRM to nurture relationships.

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Juniper Square

Juniper Square is a CRM and investment management software designed predominantly for real estate. Its investor CRM makes up one-fifth of their services.

Key features

• Integrated systems and workflows, including team activity tracking, emails and contact management.
• Investor portal, provides a dedicated investor portal for easy access to investment information, documents, and reports.
• Automated reporting, generates automated, customizable reports for investors, providing transparency and regular updates on investment performance.

Pros

• Specialization in real estate
  Tailored specifically for the real estate investment sector, to give insights to real estate investment managers.
• Fund administration
  Supports the entire investment lifecycle with fund accounting, treasury and investor services.
• CRM capabilities
  Supports contact management, lead management and custom fields. 

Cons

• Too industry-specific
  While beneficial for real estate, it might not be as suitable for other industries.
• Cost
  As a specialized solution, Juniper Square may come at a higher cost compared to general CRM systems.
• Limited CRM capabilities
  Juniper Square’s CRM only accounts for one-fifth of their product. So its features provide a clunky user experience that is not as intuitive as full CRM products.

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Conclusion

When choosing the best CRM for fundraising and investor relations teams, it’s clear that each solution—folk, Irwin, and Backstop Solutions has its strengths. Irwin excels in capital markets and investor relations with powerful tools for targeting and stakeholder engagement, while Backstop Solutions is tailored for institutional investors, offering robust investment management and reporting capabilities. However, folk stands out for its flexibility, simplicity, and adaptability. It offers teams the ability to fully customize their workflows, automate tasks, and collaborate seamlessly without the complexity that can overwhelm other CRMs. Whether you’re managing donor relationships or cultivating investor connections, folk’s user-centric design ensures that you can tailor the system to fit your exact needs. For teams seeking a powerful yet easy-to-use CRM that can grow alongside them, folk is an excellent choice that strikes the perfect balance between functionality and usability.

Try folk today, free. 

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do fundraising and investor relations teams use as a CRM?

Fundraising and investor relations teams typically use CRMs like folk, Irwin, and Backstop Solutions. These tools help manage complex relationships, communications, and workflows efficiently. folk stands out as a flexible CRM designed for relationship-driven teams, making it great for fundraising and investor relations. Its adaptability helps teams organize contacts, track interactions, and automate follow-ups.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, if you're in fundraising or investor relations, a CRM is essential for staying organized and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. It helps you:

• Centralize communications: Track all your interactions with investors, donors, or stakeholders in one place.
• Automate tasks: Set reminders, follow-ups, and streamline your workflow, saving time and ensuring consistency.
• Analyze relationships: Identify key relationships, monitor engagement levels, and assess overall progress.

How does folk's CRM help fundraising and investor relations teams?

folk’s CRM is designed to streamline how fundraising and investor relations teams operate by:

• Customizable workflows: You can create unique workflows for tracking investor relations or fundraising efforts, from initial outreach to closing deals.
• Collaborative features: Teams can easily collaborate, sharing contacts and notes, and stay aligned with real-time updates on progress.
• Automation: folk helps automate repetitive tasks like follow-up reminders, email outreach, or updating records, freeing up time for high-value activities.
• Data-driven insights: The CRM helps track performance metrics, providing data on how your fundraising campaigns or investor relations are progressing, helping you make better decisions.

Its flexibility and user-centric design make it a popular choice for teams who need a streamlined, customizable tool.