7 Signs Your Organization Is Ready for an Enterprise-Scale CRM

As a tech leader at a growing social impact organization, you know that migrating to an enterprise-scale constituent relationship management (CRM) system can be a daunting proposition. While you may be aware on a general level that your CRM platform is becoming a headwind to your organization achieving its fundraising goals, the prospect of migrating vast amounts of data, retraining staff, and committing the money and resources required for a successful upgrade can make it tempting to say, “Let’s make do for another year.”

But your growing pains can’t be ignored much longer. So, what are the specific signs that your organization has reached a tipping point and needs to consider moving to an enterprise-scale CRM?

7 Key Indications You’re Ready for a CRM Upgrade

Here’s how to know if your growth demands action on a CRM upgrade sooner rather than later.

1. Your Fundraising Goals Are Materially Increasing

As your organization grows, so do your fundraising goals. At some point, you will realize that more staff and more budget can take you only so far. Your technology has to keep pace, too. An enterprise-scale CRM can provide advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, so you can gain a deeper understanding of your fundraising performance and identify areas for improvement. This allows you to make data-driven decisions that can help you reach your targets more efficiently.

2. Your Database Has Outgrown Your Current System

An expanding database of donors and prospects, multiplied by an ever-increasing set of associated activities and transactions, can overwhelm a CRM that’s not built for that level of data growth. An enterprise-scale CRM is designed to handle large volumes of data, ensuring that you can manage your records and maintain required data hygiene. This scalability is crucial for maintaining accurate and up-to-date information, which is essential for effective donor relationship management and communication.  

“We’ve been able to heavily scale the amount of information we’re capturing on constituent records without increasing the actual amount of time it takes to capture this information,” said Jeff Hill, associate vice chancellor for Campaign Management and Marketing at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

3. You Want to Get the Most from AI Innovation

AI has seemingly limitless potential to revolutionize the fundraising process by prescribing the actions with the most impact for your fundraisers. AI deciphers the patterns and relationships in your data but using data that doesn’t contain adequate detail or granularity means your AI tool simply won’t be as effective. If your organization is ready to enable more AI innovation, you are going to need a CRM with a robust, granular data structure tailored specifically for the needs of social impact enterprises. The kind of large, clean data sets AI systems require has historically been a point of weakness for nonprofit organizations.

How does an enterprise-scale CRM provide better data for an AI application? It is a single source of truth for all constituent data, including interactions with different teams and campaigns within your organization. This comprehensive view enables you to:

• Track and analyze constituent behavior
• Gain a better understanding of constituent preferences
• Identify engagement touchpoints, allowing you to personalize outreach and improve donor retention

Detailed and organized data allows AI algorithms to identify patterns, make accurate predictions, and provide actionable insights at each stage of the major donor funnel. For example, with granular data on donor interactions and preferences, AI can predict which donors are most likely to increase their contributions and suggest personalized engagement strategies. On the other hand, if you have system limitations, you might have to lump constituent attributes and related interactions and activities into a limited number of buckets. Result: you have a paucity of data points to analyze so that even the most effective AI tool will struggle to generate the best recommendations. 

As the oft-quoted British data scientist, Clive Humby, said: “Data is the new oil.” If left unrefined, it’s effectively useless.

Bottom line, there is more to AI than just having it write emails for your fundraisers. You can only realize your AI-informed future with the right data in place.

4. You Need to Customize Your Workflows and Integrate Systems

Growing fundraising teams typically want to leverage custom workflows and integrate with related software systems like those used by finance and digital marketing. System integration cuts down on manual processes and allows organizations to maintain a consistent, unified database.

But for most nonprofit enterprises, data continues to be fragmented or siloed. In fact, 55% of nonprofits in the Data Empowerment Report from NTEN say their systems are not aligned with workflow or needs, and 72% of nonprofits report using three or more systems that don’t talk to each other.  

An enterprise-scale CRM offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tailor the system to fit your specific requirements. Additionally, it can connect with other systems, such as accounting software, email marketing platforms, and social media tools, ensuring your data is uniform and accessible, providing a holistic view of your operations.

5. You Need to Automate Common Processes (While Retaining Oversight)

According to the 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report, 75% of nonprofits cite “improving inefficient processes” as critical to their tech investment decisions. This makes sense because inefficient procedures—such as manual gift processing—can be among the most time-consuming and error-prone processes for nonprofits. An enterprise-scale CRM can automate these processes, saving you time and reducing the risk of mistakes.

At the same time, an enterprise-scale CRM provides the necessary controls and oversight to ensure that all transactions are handled securely and in compliance with your organization’s policies. Robust capabilities for related processes, like allocating revenue credit among multiple entities, offer compelling reasons to consider moving to an enterprise solution.

6. You’re Managing Complex Engagements with Major Donors

Major donors often require a high level of engagement and personalized attention. An enterprise-scale CRM can help you manage these complex relationships by providing tools for tracking interactions, setting reminders, and coordinating or automating activities across your team. This ensures that you can provide the level of service and attention that major donors expect, ultimately strengthening these valuable relationships.

UNC-Chapel Hill, for instance, used major donor data from its CRM to develop and curate high-quality invitation lists for its campaign road show.

“We’re no longer just chasing people we know,” Hill said. The team is “conducting proper analyses to determine which donors have the capacity to give.”

Investing in advanced technology offers a significant return. Recent data from the Blackbaud Institute’s report, The Resilient Nonprofit, shows nearly 60% of early technology adopters experienced increased success with major donors, compared to only 35% overall.

7. You Require Sophisticated Segmentation

On average, large fundraising organizations depend on 15-17 revenue streams. Fundraising effectively across a growing array of channels requires targeted communications. You need technology that allows you to send the right message to the right donors while avoiding duplicate or inappropriate contact.

An enterprise-scale CRM offers segmentation capabilities that allow you to create distinct groups of constituents based on various criteria, such as giving history, interests, and engagement levels. In turn, this information enables you to tailor your messaging and asks to each group. Deep understanding of your constituents’ capacity and preferences is especially important when it comes to carefully nurturing major donors to maximize their contributions to the mission programs and services they care about most.

The University of Georgia uses an enterprise-scale CRM to help the advancement team build loyal relationships with constituents.

“With so many multidimensional relationships to manage, we rely on our CRM solution to provide a 360-degree view of those relationships to keep supporters informed, engaged, and connected to the institution,” said Greg Harmelink, senior direct of advancement services.

Could It Be Time to Upgrade to an Enterprise-Scale CRM?  

Recognizing the right moment to upgrade your CRM system is crucial for maximizing your organization’s potential. If the time has come to consider an enterprise-scale CRM, learn more about Blackbaud CRM, the world’s most powerful fundraising management system, purpose-built for enterprise-scale nonprofit, higher education, and healthcare teams.