5 CRM Tech Trends to Shape the Future of Your Enterprise Organization

To make faster and more intelligent business decisions, close to 70% of organizations plan to continue or increase their investments in CRM technology in the coming year, according to Kate Leggett, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester. She is a leading expert on CRM strategy, maturity, benchmarking, and return on investment. Blackbaud recently hosted a webinar featuring Leggett as a guest speaker. This blog post is a summary of our takeaways from the webinar.

“What are organizations looking for in a CRM? Data at Forrester shows that CRM platforms are increasingly being used and being purchased to help increase operational efficiencies and the productivity of your teams,” she said. “With automation and AI, a CRM focuses teams on activities that matter, allowing you to increase innovation and gain a competitive advantage.”

Forrester research shows a clear correlation between a mature CRM operation and a great customer experience, which influences top-line revenue and next-level growth.  

“That translates into increased donations and fundraising success,” she said.

Here are the top 5 CRM tech trends Leggett says enterprise fundraising organizations should pay close attention to in the coming year. If you evaluate them carefully and implement them strategically, these trends could well shape the future of your enterprise organization.

Top 5 CRM Tech Trends

On this list, Forrester research provided the data behind each trend, with Dwight Dozier, CIO of Georgia Tech Foundation, providing the details on how the CRM trend is playing out in his institution’s fundraising operation.

1. Migrating to a Cloud-Based CRM

Moving to a cloud-based CRM platform is a trend that’s gaining momentum. Just a quarter of CRM deployments right now are on-premise, according to Forrester data. Also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CRM, cloud CRM uses secure data centers operated by a third-party provider to store data. Shifting to a cloud CRM lowers overall costs, allows access from anywhere, provides for easier maintenance, improves collaboration, and enables seamless information sharing.

Why does the trend to a cloud CRM deserve your attention now?  

• Strengthens data security and regulatory compliance: The vendor (with its legion of engineers) is responsible for security issues, instead of just a handful of IT professionals on your site.
• Increases IT resiliency: Forrester reports that 25% of companies say cloud deployments allow IT to expand its focus beyond managing data centers, shifting resources from server maintenance to innovation and differentiation.
• Boosts innovation: New features can be delivered automatically and adopted first (and sometimes only) on the cloud version.  

At the Georgia Tech Foundation, there have been obvious benefits of moving to a cloud CRM from an on-premise CRM, which required considerable infrastructure and attention from IT. Especially notable has been the improvement in that all-important user experience, said Dozier.

“Instead of just making sure the infrastructure is solid and maintained, we’re repurposing our technical people so that our platforms can interface better with our users and our donors,” he said.

Dozier also appreciates that with a cloud-based CRM, security and compliance are no longer solely an inside job.

“It’s been something of a comfort to know I don’t have to focus on that anymore,” he said. “I can focus on the business at hand.”

2. Upgrading to a Purpose-Built CRM

Forrester reports more organizations are moving to enterprise CRMs purpose-built for the needs of their industry. For instance, CRMs designed specifically for fundraising organizations are built to support regulated infrastructure and compliance. Purpose-built CRMs have more complex data models and offer end-to-end workflows. They are designed for what fundraisers do every day: segmentation, engagement, peer-to-peer campaigns, events management, and volunteer coordination. Advancement terminology is even built into the solution.  

Why does the trend to purpose-built CRMs deserve your attention now?  

• Integrates with your tech stack: Data can flow without error or manual manipulation between the CRM and accounting systems and payment processing, so you gain both consolidated and granular views of activity.
• Provides more value, more quickly: SaaS companies that sell purpose-built CRM are experts in best practices and methodologies so you can be up and running immediately, without spending IT resources.
• Allows you to adopt capabilities over time: Although purpose-built CRM delivers out-of-the-box workflows and experiences that make sense to your team’s way of working, Leggett says they’re componentized, so you don’t have to deploy every function or feature from the start.

Some organizations attempt to delay migration to a purpose-built CRM by trying to customize their existing horizontal CRM. Dozier, in fact, considered crafting a data model himself for Georgia Tech Foundation, by building on a standard, non-industry CRM. But he immediately saw the limitations.

“I only knew what my internal stakeholders knew, which was dangerous,” Dozier said. “I would have had a limited perspective. The purpose-built data models lend themselves to best practices.”

3. Prioritizing CRM Data Trust and Security

CRMs are a repository for so many kinds of data: customer preferences, campaign response data, second-party firmographic data, behavioral data, voice of customer data, and more.

“Your CRM has to offer many layers of control to be able to protect and secure your data,” Leggett said.

Why does the trend to enhanced CRM security deserve your attention now?

Modern CRMs offer a range of data protections to safeguard the sensitive information used at enterprise-scale organizations:  

• Vulnerability management
• Disclosure
• Transparent database encryption
• Authentication
• Threat detection
• Cloud security
• Role-based access control
• Data masking
• Backup
• Auditing
• AI trust

Dozier said Georgia Tech prioritizes data security to avoid risks to the institution’s reputation, both with the public and with those inside the university.  

“Security is a foundational requirement,” he said. “When security is not there, the lack of trust happens even internally. We don’t want to have that hit on our reputation.”

4. Leveraging the Benefits of an Extensible Platform

Supporting your constituents on their end-to-end journey with your organization could require more data and more process than your core CRM can deliver. You might need to import data from second-party sources to enrich your CRM’s data.

“Your CRM has to have robust data import and orchestration tools,” Leggett said.  

It also should allow you to customize pre-packaged logic or rules so you can create automations and data model extensions specific to your team’s needs.

Why does the trend toward extensibility deserve your attention now?  

• Customization of the user experience: When your CRM comes with open APIs and packaged adapters to support integrations, you can offer donor portals, commerce systems, and seamless payment processing experiences.
• Holistic view of your system of record: In large organizations, certain departments may be reluctant to upgrade to a new solution or a different way of working; extensions can connect disparate internal data sources to create a single source of truth in your enterprise CRM.

Georgia Tech Foundation’s CRM integrates with more than two dozen applications to give fundraisers a complete picture of their constituents and a range of channels to communicate with them. These applications flow data from (and sometimes to) both external and internal sources.  

“Data feeding from our student system is an example,” Dozier said. “We have a robust and active environment in that (integration) space, including students, HR, athletics, alumni, and general constituents of the university. I count on the extensibility of the platforms we’re using.”

5. Enhancing Productivity with AI

“AI is going to make an incredible impact,” Leggett said. “If you are choosing a modern CRM, look for CRM technologies that have AI use cases baked into their product. You want AI tools to have material impact on outcomes, like better efficiency, better productivity, better customer experience.”

Why does the trend toward AI deserve your attention now? Forrester tracks usage of three distinct categories of AI, but each is constantly evolving, with innovations being applied almost by the hour. To stay competitive, institutions must keep up with trends in AI.  

• Predictive AI: Analyzes existing data and makes forecasts to help fundraisers make better decisions, especially in the “next best” approach (next best conversation, next best offer, etc.).
• Generative AI: Creates new content based on learned patterns using large language models; it is useful for creating summaries, engagement histories, or proposal drafts. It is also helpful for developing a narrative explaining a data trend, such as, “Why is engagement spiking?”
• Agentic AI: Performs tasks and autonomously makes decisions using rules, predictive AI, and generative AI; “agent AI” is a fast-emerging technology.

Early AI work in partnership with Blackbaud and Microsoft has produced remarkable results for Georgia Tech Foundation, including a record-breaking fundraising period in the month of December. Dozier said good data management made implementation of predictive AI applications possible.

“We screened all individuals in our database for contact information,” Dozier said. “We’ve now moved on from that basis of contact and demographic information to a larger segmentation of both wealth and employment, trying to uncover new prospects who can further elevate the outcomes of the institution.”

Good Data Is Not a Trend—It’s a Necessity for CRM Innovation

Leggett recommends a disciplined approach to CRM innovation, in the same measured way Georgia Tech Foundation approaches trends: one step at a time.

“AI agents are the topic of the day this year. Last year it was generative AI,” she said. “Don’t just pursue the shiny objects out there. Go back to basics. You need to invest in a solid, modern CRM system, then get your data, your core processes, and your core integrations in place before you start adopting any type of AI, even predictive AI. Because AI is only as good as your data.”

Having your data prepped, ready to be accessed, and correctly tagged with the ideal level of cleanliness is not a trend. But good data practices will help you ride the wave of any CRM tech innovation, now or in the future.

Learn more about Blackbaud CRM™, the most powerful fundraising management system purpose-built for enterprise-scale nonprofit and higher education fundraising teams.