The best charity CRM is the one your whole team will actually use

There comes a time in every charity when it decides it needs a CRM system. It might be to support its growth as an organisation, to enhance supporter journeys, or simply to make internal processes easier.  

Deciding on which CRM system may seem like the hard part, requiring hours of research, demos, and discussion among your charity leaders. But the next stage is often where charities trip up: introducing it to the wider team. The technology works, the data is ready, but few people are using it. Everyone else is still on their spreadsheets.  

Indeed, CRM systems are often seen as the domain of one department in a charity. Fundraisers use it, but it remains unacknowledged elsewhere in the organisation.   

But what if the CRM system could illuminate opportunities outside of the fundraising team? What questions are other teams missing that their CRM system has the answer to?  And what sort of difference could a CRM system make to a charity when used organisationally, as opposed to in siloes? 

In this article, we explore why charities need to change how they think about their CRM systems and explain why accessible data is essential to powering their impact, with insight from charity CRM providers GoodCRM.  

GoodCRM has worked together with charities to design a purpose-built system that works for the sector and its unique challenges. You can find its free guide to successful CRM adoption, as well as other helpful resources, on the GoodCRM website (or by clicking the button below).  

Download the guide  

Who are charity CRMs for? 

Charity CRM systems come with a wealth of dazzling features that satisfy the procurement checklist, yet fail to translate when applied to the way the charity actually works.  

And when a system doesn’t reflect how an organisation works, it doesn’t change anything. It results in more disparity: a CRM that one team uses properly, several teams use occasionally, and some teams don’t use at all. If only half your organisation is using the CRM, it simply becomes another system sitting alongside the spreadsheets you were trying to replace. Its usefulness shrinks.  

When a CRM is flexible, adaptable, and works for everyone, however, its usefulness knows no bounds. It makes data more accessible, makes decisions more informed, and empowers each team to find the solution to their unique challenges. The people who care about your supporters, members, donors, and participants aren’t all sitting in the same department. To get the most out of a CRM, we need to take a fundamentally different view about what – and who – a charity CRM is actually for. 

“No two charities work the same way, and no two roles within a charity work the same way either,” explains GoodCRM. “At GoodCRM, a CRM built specifically for charities and non-profits, we made a deliberate decision to design around the people using the system, and how different teams use data in different ways. It’s designed to be managed by the people who actually use it. Small charities don’t have a database admin sitting somewhere else in the building and they shouldn’t need one.” 

In practice, this means that the language in the system is user-friendly – no more confusing jargon that obfuscates meaning rather than clarifying it. It means not requiring a degree in data analysis to make better decisions for the future of the charity. A good CRM gives entire organisations a single, connected view of every relationship. Not just who has donated, but who attended, who’s a member, who volunteered or who came to a workshop. When everyone is working from the same picture, you start spotting the people and opportunities you’d otherwise never see. 

“Your CRM should give you a 360-degree view of the people who interact with your charity, and understand what relationship someone has to your charity, at a glance,” GoodCRM explains. “A charity CRM that’s genuinely adopted across your organisation looks like this: staff log in because it makes their work easier, not because they’ve been told to. Data is consistent because everyone is contributing to it. And when someone leaves, the relationship history stays, it doesn’t walk out the door with them.” 

How can we make CRMs work for everyone? 

There will be many features on a charity’s shopping list when looking for a new CRM. The ability to process Gift Aid, segment supporters, and take digital payments, to name just three.  

But it’s not just what it can do – it’s what it can tell you. It’s the culture of collaboration and shared information it creates. Everyone is able to find the information they need to do their jobs effectively. In a sector with limited time and resources, a CRM system that makes data accessible can make all of the difference. 

So we need to think not only about features, but about training. Different teams have different digital challenges. Some teams will be more used to CRMs than others and some will need tools that others simply don’t use. Charities should look at the level of support on offer when choosing their CRM provider, considering how they can practically adopt the system across the organisation when expertise may vary.  

Of course, even with training and support, it will take some time for a charity to fully embrace a new CRM system. Charities need to keep an eye on their progress and know the signs to look out for to ensure they’re on the right track. GoodCRM’s guide to CRM adoption offers practical questions charities can ask themselves to evaluate their progress. From initial adoption onwards, the guide helps charities have clearer conversations on what the right CRM looks like and how they can make the most of it.  

To understand more about what good CRM adoption looks like in practice, download the free guide below. 

Download the full guide