Fraternal organizations can transform the lives of their members by providing lifelong connections and engagement opportunities—but not without hard work on the organization’s part. After all, you need to organize member activities, track important financial information, and communicate with stakeholders.
If you’re to take one tip from this guide, it’s this—you need the right software to achieve your daily objectives and long-term goals. However, what qualifies as the “right software” varies from organization to organization based on different aspects (we’ll review them later). In this guide, we’ll break down the steps for finding the ideal software fit so you can future-proof your fraternal organization.
1. Assess Your Needs
As previously mentioned, you shouldn’t go for a one-size-fits-all software solution if there are more tailored options on the market. To set your software research up for success, determine foundational details like:
- Budgetary resources. How much is your fraternal organization able to spend on software licensing? You should also factor in additional costs, such as hiring a software consultant.
- Strengths and pain points. How will this software solution complement your organization? Conduct an assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats via a SWOT analysis to identify pros and cons.
- Implementation capacity. How much time does your team have to get trained on the software? What experience do they have with migrating data? While the example timeline will depend on the scope of your implementation, it will likely take months.
- Tech stack. Do you currently have fraternal management software, or will you be starting from scratch? If you have tools already, you might be able to leverage integrations that streamline data transfer to your new system.
- Timeline. How soon do you need the new software fully integrated into your workflow? More straightforward solutions won’t take as long to set up, whereas more comprehensive ones require all hands on deck for a longer period of time.
- Usage team. Which members will use the software, and to what extent? This helps determine how many seats your license will require and how extensive the training phase will need to be.
To leverage the most well-rounded and informed perspectives, include many people in this planning process. For instance, if you’re a national fraternal organization implementing a new solution for hundreds of your chapters, you should loop in five to ten chapter managers to get their input and prevent any surprises down the line.
2. Understand Key Features
After completing step one, your fraternal organization can translate these insights into a requirements document. Understanding available features (and how important they are for your organization) ahead of time helps to streamline the discovery process and keep all decision-makers on the same page.
While no two software solutions offer the same features, start by looking for these essentials:
- Financial management. Dues are likely one of your main sources of income, so ensuring you get them on time is crucial for your continued success. Choose a software system that can automatically collect dues and track payment records to each member’s profile.
- Communication tools. Keeping all of your members in the loop is one of the most challenging, yet important parts of fraternal management. Look for software that has messaging capabilities baked in so you can reach out to your members efficiently.
- Mobile app. Chances are, your members and alumni/ae use their mobile devices to manage many parts of their lives. A software system with a member-facing mobile app allows them to pay bills and communicate with leadership anytime and anywhere.
- Integrations with other software. As previously mentioned, integrations are extremely useful for transferring data between legacy systems. Also, it can help you scale up your software’s usefulness by providing access to new functionalities.
- Member data profiles. Membership information systems like CRMs or directories can connect members to one another and help you keep track of thousands of demographic data points and contact records in a straightforward way.
To determine the most important features for your organization, sort them into various categories based on their priority, such as must-have, preferred, and unnecessary. This prevents the likelihood of your organization overpaying for features that you ultimately don’t need.
3. Compare Available Options
Now, it’s time for one of the most exciting—and potentially daunting—parts of the selection process: narrowing down your software options. There are hundreds of solutions for you to choose from, so we’ll make it easy for you by discussing two of our top picks.
Favorite for HQs: Fonteva
Fonteva is a Salesforce-native enterprise member management software solution. It’s best for national-level decision-makers who need a more robust toolkit. These features help fraternal HQ decision-makers to:
- Empower members with a self-service portal
- Pay dues
- Sign up for events
- Engage with other members
- Manage events from start to finish
- Internally and externally communicate with ease
- Track and manage thousands of members at a time
Additionally, Fonteva is a fully scalable solution designed to grow with your organization. This way, you can avoid the cycle of outgrowing and implementing new software. To get started with Fonteva, reach out to our team to view a demo and get a custom quote.
Favorite for Individual Chapters: OmegaFi
If you’re a smaller fraternal organization, OmegaFi is the best option for you. Leverage essential management capabilities such as:
- Automatic dues collection
- Tax-filing assistance to avoid IRS penalties
- Member engagement data tracking, such as volunteer participation and event attendance
- Recruitment event planning and voting
Reach out to OmegaFi’s team to book a no-pressure demo today.
Wrapping Up
Once you’ve leveraged free trials, read third-party reviews, and consulted with decision-makers, you should have enough information to confidently choose the best solution for your needs. As you implement your software, 360MatchPro recommends collecting satisfaction data from users via a survey or engagement metrics. These insights help you understand how to sustainably support your fraternal organization as you scale up over time.