Tip #4: Check for Charity Pricing

Sometimes it's hidden in the small-print, other times you have to ring up and ask, but 90% of the time, software companies will have some kind of non-profit or charity price discount.

Whether you're subscribing to online software (SaaS: Software as a Service) or paying a one-off software licence fee, most companies are happy (-ish) to provide a disount to charitites or non-profit organisations. Sometimes they'll require that you're officially registered with the Charity Commission or they might want to visit your website and have a look for themselves. In any case, software companies know that they can attract long-term customers with a discount that recognises the work charities do and your non-profit status.

Tip #3: Your Domain Name is your most important asset

You might remember back in Tip #1, I mentioned using your domain name to redirect people to your LMS, ensuring that the address they use and remember is yours, not whatever system you're using at the time. Well let's look a bit closer at that.

Your organisation's Domain Name (MyCharity.org.uk) is your most important digital asset. Seriously!

Tip 2: CRM isn't software - it's CULTURE

Customer Relationship Management systems for managing your donors, volunteers, fundriasers, and all your working relationships, can get very technical. But if you concentrate on the software, you're missing out.

My tip for today is to think of CRM not as that one piece of software you're paying quite a bit for, and aren't sure you're making the most of, but instead as a culture that you need to embed in your organisation. That's how real change happens.

If you approach CRM as a tool some people have access to, and depend on it to tell you how to work, you'll always be dictated by the whims of the software company behind it. Instead, forget the software for a bit, and take a look at how you work.

Tip 1: Make sure your learner's relationship is with you, not your LMS

When we think about the learners who sign up and take our courses, we think of them as having a working relationship with us, the organisation. But if we changed LMS (Learning Management System) providers, how easy would it be to ensure we could take our learners with us?

My tip for today is to consider creating a gateway your learners have to pass through to get to your e-learning - a gateway you control. This could be as simple as running your e-learning course catalogue through your own newsletter, hosting it on your own website, or on a purely technical level: using redirects to point to your courses - so you direct learners to YourCharity.org.uk/introduction-course, which automatically forwards them to your chosen LMS at something like LMSprovider.com/yourcharity/introduction-course.

The point is that you and your platforms should be the first point-of-contact when learners want to access your e-learning, not whichever LMS you happen to be using.