Using Your Fundraising CRM Software to Its Full Potential

As the senior manager of digital and data at the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation, I’m always looking for new ways to eliminate friction between our organization’s mission to prevent osteoporosis and my team’s ability to realize it.

In the past five years, we have exceeded expectations. Our first achievement: we no longer have duplicate records. This might sound like a dream if your team is dealing with them constantly, and from what I hear, having a completely clean database is unheard of. But we’ve done it. Duplicate-free records have improved our ability to fundraise, reach our constituents, and maximize the time and energy spent by our small staff. Optimizing the use of our fundraising CRM gives us room to take on new projects and adopt new features without a daily struggle against our own databases. Of course, it hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies, but our team is organized, and our systems and processes are delivering the first-rate work our constituents deserve.

Over the long term, optimizing how you use your CRM will help you achieve more of your objectives. Digitally mature nonprofits are, in fact, 3.5 times more likely to hit their mission goals compared to peers with low digital maturity. You definitely want to be in that “digitally mature” group, so allow me to share my perspective and experiences so you can use your fundraising CRM software to its full potential too.

Make Progress and Stay Organized with Project Management

When I joined the foundation in 2019, I met Warren Campbell, a wonderful database consultant and project manager with Campbell Consulting LLC. We had similar methods of writing weekly “data check” maintenance queries in our CRM, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®. In minutes, a data check query can bring me up to speed with a spreadsheet containing all the organization’s CRM goals, projects, and training needs by category. This living document for project management has been the collaborative point of focus for our database team.

Today, we continue using this spreadsheet to collaborate in biweekly meetings that include major stakeholders: our Chief Administrative Officer, Director of Development, Direct Mail Consultant, and yours truly as Database Manager, the one spearheading our efforts. Together, we discuss new and old business, hold each other accountable, discuss the need for proper buy-in from other staff members, and track our progress. And, since we like each other, generally we have a good time for about 30 minutes. Researchers say that the healthiest nonprofits create structures where autonomy and accountability can flourish, and that’s what’s happening in these short meetings.

This formal approach to project management pays dividends because our default position is ever forward-looking. Each meeting, my team members and I expect progress from the meeting we had two weeks ago. How can you use these sessions to identify ways your CRM software could be better utilized?

• Could you have more accurate data fields?
• Could your work be more in line with best practices?
• Are there challenges coming, and how will you approach them?

With project management and a commitment to the idea that things can and should be better, you can turn ad-hoc ideas into a successful blueprint for the year. Every completed project gives you and the team a win, and these wins can be used to get your staff fired up about the database and its impact on their work. Our spreadsheet has a “Completed” tab, and if I described just how satisfying it is for us to move projects to this tab, I would exceed my allotted word count.

Empower Your Database Manager (Then Expect Results)

The built-in advantage for my organization is that we have a database manager position in the first place. As the self-starting trained expert of your CRM, the database manager has the knowledge and organizational mandate to help you make the most effective use of your fundraising software’s full capabilities. They will have the resources and willpower to, for example, merge all your duplicate records. With their expertise, you’ll be able to use the best order of operations for making big database improvements, stay up to date on the latest features of your CRM, and be aware of the latest opportunities in technology. Your staff will thank you too, since the database manager will keep them trained and informed.

This is important because a recent Blackbaud report found that 41% of early adopters of new technology say their organizations exceeded fundraising goals, compared with 31% overall. Nearly 60% of early adopters reported higher total revenue, compared with 45% overall. Especially with the advent of AI, things are shaking up right now in CRM tech. When making decisions about your tech stack, loop in your database manager. It will pay off!

With a smaller organization, your team may not include a database manager yet. A fine alternative is to get your development associate to pitch in under supervision. If you’re a larger organization, though, it pays to invest in a dedicated CRM manager position with a competitive salary and high expectations. You’re hiring them to take care of the databases, so those databases had better be 100% spotless!

What’s a reasonable timeline for a new database manager to begin working their magic? After I was hired at BHOF and got the lay of the land, we started talking about and executing on coding cleanup projects. I began the work of merging our duplicate records, and this took me a couple of months. You might have a larger number of duplicates, or a faster rate of incoming records, but the point is that if you have someone willing to put in the effort of a big database overhaul, it shouldn’t require magic—just focused attention and purpose-built fundraising software.   

Getting Your CRM to Next-Level Optimization

Not all organizations are as innovative and results-oriented as BHOF. More often, organizations are relatively satisfied with the status quo, and they underestimate just how much a disorganized, unoptimized CRM can hurt their bottom line. Only 23% of nonprofits have a long-term vision for how to use technology, and in my experience, that tracks. By doing some basic things like empowering your database manager and assisting them with project management, innovative solutions are inevitable. Your fundraising CRM software could also be configured to do the following:

• Automation: No-code and low-code automations are easy to launch for repetitive tasks such as proposal writing, generating prompts for fundraisers’ next actions, gift acknowledgments, and renewal notices.
• Connecting fundraising and financial systems: Your organization can eliminate the divide between the two sides of the house by integrating your CRM and accounting systems to streamline operations, reduce errors, and create a single source of truth.
• Integration with other platforms you use: You can use pre-configured integrations with third-party applications, such as email or online auction tools, to extend the power of your CRM. This often leads to interesting possibilities for greater efficiency.

These innovations are game-changing for your whole organization, reducing errors, providing better fundraising results, improving efficiency, and resulting in greater transparency. It has taken a lot of work, but our CRMs are now close to immaculate. This is a constant source of comfort for our staff. They trust the records are clean, and this frees them up to do the real work of fundraising and reaching our constituents.

Sometimes the Fundamentals Matter More

In order to harness the incredible power of your fundraising CRM software, get the basic conditions in place. Following best practices, collaborating, and using the easy-but-innovative tools at our fingertips have made all the difference for us. The same can be true for your organization. When your CRM serves your team at a high level, your organization can put more energy into reaching donors and fulfilling your mission.