Checklist for Nonprofit Leaders: 7 Questions to Ask Your Database Manager

As far as your database manager is concerned, when your database is in rhythm with your organization, all is right with the world. Your team understands donors, tracks activity, and analyzes data for your fundraising operation. It’s so good. 

To an executive director, that all-day hum of activity means your CRM is doing what you expected when you signed the purchase order. But if you’re wondering if the database could be doing even more for your mission, who better to ask than your database manager? 

Checking in with the Person Who Knows Your CRM Best

When you plan a purposeful check-in (make it clear that it’s not a performance review), you’ll be showing support to the person who keeps your CRM in tiptop shape while learning more about permissions, data health, and reporting. You might even uncover a new feature or improve a CRM habit to help you get even more value from your database. The seven questions here will get the conversation rolling.

1. What are we paying for but not using?

Your database might have capabilities already in place that could make work easier or improve results, but they aren’t being used consistently. Your database manager usually will know where those gaps exist and what it would take for your team to start using more of the tools available. Examples of untapped potential: 

• New feature releases or product updates that could solve a specific problem for your team
• Tools the team tried once but didn’t return to
• Capabilities that could replace the workarounds everyone still uses 

You might not need new tools. You might just need to make time to explore and use what you already have. 

Follow-up question for your DBA: “What kind of air cover from leadership do you need to make these efficiencies happen?”

2. What can I self-serve starting now?

Leaders often rely on recurring reports or one-off requests to get what they need.

In many cases, that’s no longer necessary. Your database manager can help you identify:

• Where dashboards or reporting already exist
• What you could access directly on demand (and who else should have permissions) 
• What’s still being done manually out of habit

Faster access to information will reduce ongoing reporting work for your team. Also, asking the DBA’s thoughts on how to safely expand self-service to more of the staff sends a clear signal that you consider the database manager a strategic partner rather than an on-demand order taker for reports, lists, and record updates.

Follow-up question for your DBA: “Which report requests could move to self-service without adding extra cleanup or clarification from you?”

3. Can we trust our major gift pipeline data?

Your database should reflect fundraising efforts actually happening across your team. However, it can serve as an institutional source of truth only if activity is captured consistently. In reality, it’s often uneven:

• Some fundraisers log everything—every visit, call, proposal, and next step
• Others don’t use the system the same way, making the pipeline less complete or current even if the development work is happening as it should
• Important context, such as contact reports, donor preferences, proposals, or signed gift agreements, may never make it into the database

Asking about the trustworthiness of the major gift pipeline offers you an opportunity to set clear expectations for consistent use of the system across the team. Your database manager can’t do this alone. They need the message to come from and be reinforced by leadership. 

Follow-up question for your DBA: “What should every fundraiser be expected to record in the CRM after a donor meeting or proposal so our pipeline reports stay accurate?”

4. How “AI-ready” is our database?

If you’re in the consideration phase or early stages of using AI for fundraising, the quality of the data in your CRM should be of utmost importance. Here’s why: 

• Duplicate records can make it hard to see a donor’s full relationship with your organization 
• Inconsistent coding can affect how well AI identifies giving patterns, campaign results, or donor segments 
• Missing details can limit the usefulness of AI recommendations or prioritization 

Cleaner, more consistent data can make AI-supported insights more useful, such as identifying next-best actions or spotting giving patterns. Your database manager likely knows which cleanup projects would make the biggest difference. What they’ll need is more time and leadership support to move that work forward. 

Follow-up question for your DBA: “How can I best protect your time so you can prioritize data health work?” 

5. Who should (and shouldn’t) use AI tools?

As AI becomes part of everyday fundraising work, your first question might logically be What can AI do to help the team work faster? But your database manager is also thinking about who should have access, what information they should be permitted to see, and where a little structure might help everyone use these tools responsibly. You’ll need to define: 

• Which roles need AI-supported insights to do their work well
• What AI tools are permitted by your organization (AI built into your CRM should include role-based restrictions on kinds of donor and fundraising data each role can access) 
• What guidance will help staff understand when to use AI, when to rely on human judgment, and when to ask for help

Adopting AI should not create unnecessary risk. Your database manager can facilitate the right access, permissions, and expectations so your whole team is protecting the quality, privacy, and usefulness of your data. 

Follow-up question for your DBA: “Before expanding access to AI tools, who would benefit from additional training?”  

6. Where are our day-to-day CRM habits creating preventable friction? 

Every organization develops its own quirky ways of working in the database. Some create extra steps that nobody questions anymore: fields that people interpret differently or a process that depends on a single person “remembering the right way” to enter something. Here are some habits your database manager might need your help in addressing: 

• A recurring report may be trusted by everyone even though it always requires manual cleanup or extra interpretation before it’s shared 
• A small inconsistency in how staff enters actions, notes, or attributions can make everyday questions take longer to answer 

Your database manager can likely suggest ways to reduce friction caused by quirky methods, but it will be easier to break bad habits if everyone knows it’s important to you and the mission. 

Follow-up question for your DBA: “Would it help if I gave you time in team meetings to explain preferred methods?”

7. What do you need from me to make the database work better for the organization?

This may be the most important question you ask. Your database manager sees where leadership support could make daily CRM work easier and more useful. Ask how your influence could change things: 

• Offering support when a process needs to be followed consistently, even if it adds a small step for staff
• Allocating time to clean up, document, or improve CRM processes before they become urgent
• Establishing a clear path for raising concerns when a reporting request, access decision, or data habit could affect trust in the system

When your database manager knows they have your backing (and so does everyone else), they can help the whole organization get on board with best practices.

Follow-up question for your DBA: “Is there a request you often have to push back on where it would help to have a clear leadership-approved policy?”

Make Space for the Conversation 

Your database manager is already watching the daily life of your CRM in ways an executive director often can’t. They see when a report takes extra interpretation, when a helpful feature hasn’t had room to take hold, or when a small access decision could make work easier for the right person.

As an executive director, you’re operating from a different position: you’re feeling the pressure to make good decisions quickly, support your fundraisers, answer the board with confidence, and make sure the systems you’ve invested in are helping move the mission forward.

You don’t need a long meeting or a formal project plan. Start with one or two questions and you’ll discover opportunities to apply a little leadership attention that could remove friction, reinforce a good habit, or give your database manager the backing they need to make the CRM even more useful for the whole team.