Choosing a CRM for your charity
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms can be used to manage interactions with donors, volunteers, and can help you streamline your internal processes. A well implemented CRM can save your charity time and money, but how do you decide if a CRM is right for you and which one to choose?
In this resource, we’ll guide you through a step-by-step process of selecting and implementing a CRM. We’ll cover:
The importance of defining your objectives
Taking stock of what you already have
Understanding the needs of your audience and team
Developing a set of requirements for your CRM system
Assessing what platforms could work for you
Piloting potential platforms
Getting the right resources to set-up your resources
Onboarding your team
Before you start, it’s important to remember that your organisation’s resilience is deeply connected to the digital confidence of your team. Your digital tools are only as good as the confidence and skills of the team members who manage them. You need to take the time to involve your whole team n the decision making process when selecting a CRM.
Step 1: Define your objectives
The CRM you need will depend on your organisation’s mission and daily activities. You might think that you need a CRM platform when a case management system would be a better fit.
Start by thinking about why you need a CRM and don’t make any assumptions on the type of platform you need. Do this with your team - including those who are directly involved in delivering the work that you do and communicating with your service users.
Focus on the following questions:
What do we need to do? Focus on what you need to do as an organisation - your goals and objectives
Why do we need to do this? Start with 'so that' to link the goal or objective to the purpose, the 'why'
For example:
We need to....build strong relationships with donors...so that we can....maintain and increase fundraising targets.
You can use tab 1 of this template to help with this activity.
Step 2: Think about what you already have
When introducing a new CRM system (or other technical tool) you should think about the systems and platforms you already use. You might be able to use some of the tools you already have, or integrate new tools with your current ones to create more efficient processes. This will also help you consider whether the systems you’re using still work for your organisation.
You can use tab 2 of this template to help with this step.
Step 3: Understanding your organisation and audience needs
Take your time to:
Define who your audiences are
Bring your team together to map out the journey you want to create
Ask your audience groups what they want and expect when they engage with you
Tools which help with this:
Personas
Journey maps and process maps
Surveys / consultations
Remember to include your whole internal team when creating your - for example e.g.your programme team, finance, staff responsible for monitoring and evaluation etc. Revisit the goals you’ve defined so far and consider how they map to the needs of your team.
You should also think about how different team members feel about using technology, as this can help you to consider what training you might need and what system to choose.
Note: Don’t skip steps 1-3. It might be tempting but without these steps you’re more likely to have resistance further down the line with difficulties in setting up and sustaining the new system.
Step 4: Create your requirements based on what your team needs
What are your requirements? Requirements are basically what you need the CRM to do. You can write some of these yourself, but you should speak to your team members about their own areas of the business.
Some examples:
As a Fundraising Manager, I need to see how much each donor has given in the past year
As an Operations team member, I need to see who my team is communicating with
As a service user, I need to provide my details in an accessible way, using a computer or a phone. I might need an option to provide this information on a paper form
As a finance manager, I would like the link the accounting system to the CRM so we have up to date reporting
As the data protection officer, I need to ensure the data is secure and can be regularly backed up. Please note that CRMs are not inherently GDPR compliant, and you must ensure that the data you have within your CRM meets these requirements.
Step 5: Assess what platforms would work for your organisation and budget
Before you commit to a platform, you should research platform providers and associated costs. Use the steps below to assess what platform would work for you.
Send your requirements to potential providers and have an initial discussion
Research costs and create your budget
Prioritise which requirements are most important
Get a sense of how much support the platform provider will give you to set up the platform and support you to onboard your team
Engage support here if needed - if it’s the first time you’ve selected a digital platform it might be useful to engage a consultant experienced in selecting digital platforms or using a service like Digital Candle for help.
CRMs price their systems in different ways, here are a few things to consider:
Does the cost relate to the number of contacts/records you store?
Does the cost relate to the number of users who access the system?
Does the cost relate to the type of features you need?
How will these costs change as your charity grows its service users and internal staff?
Make sure to ask whether the platform provides any discounts for nonprofits and charities. Here's a list of questions you can use to run through with each provider.
Step 6: Pilot possible platforms
At this stage there are probably two of three platforms that meet your needs. You might need to make a trade off - as there is rarely a perfect platform to suit your exact needs. Take the time to pilot a potential CRM or two if possible.Usually, off-the-shelf platforms offer a free trial phase - take advantage of this to test out functionalities and work out if this platform will work for your team and organisation.
Make sure your team knows this is an experiment - create the space for open feedback and be open to things not working out as you expected. This is useful information you can take into the next phase.
Step 7: Make a final decision and engage staff
After piloting a CRM, you should be able to make a final decision. If you piloted a platform that didn’t work for you, go back to step 5 and take a look at other platforms.
When you set up the platform this is really the first step of a longer journey to sustaining and maintaining the platform within your organisation. Consider the following:
Which team members need to be involved within your organisation?
Do you need any external support to set up the system?
Will you need to migrate any data from elsewhere?
How can the platform provider support you to set up the platform and train staff?
Note on data migration:
Data migration is the process of selecting, preparing, extracting, and transferring data from one system, or a number of systems, to another. This process can be time consuming and you may need to budget extra support to carry out the migration. Sometimes the CRM provider might be able to support this, so discuss the migration needs you have when selecting your provider.
Step 8: Onboard and train your team
Again, recognise that this is all about your tech and teams; ensure there is time to onboard team members to the platform, building their digital confidence by training them in the skills needed to manage the platform effectively. The platform provider should support you in this step. Consider the following:
Who is responsible for maintaining the platform?
How will you routinely check in on what's working and what isn't and make small changes to improve?
Who will put in place the appropriate procedures to keep the data secure and clean?
Final top tips
Put your team at the centre of your decisions and thinking when it comes to technical change
Be prepared to prioritise and 'trade off'
Take the time to prepare your team and their requirements - this will save you time in the long run!
Investigate charity discounts
Recognise that there is no magic platform - some CRMs will strongly support fundraising needs, other CRMs will focus more on creating loyalty and engagement
This process can take anything from 6 weeks to 3+ months to complete - it depends on the availability of your team, how quickly you can access the required budget and external support and the responsiveness of the CRM platform provider.
Interested in support on how to set-up a CRM for your organisation? Get in touch.