Imagine you’ve just joined a nonprofit and are responsible for some level of fundraising. You start getting acquainted with all of the tools you have at your disposal, and you quickly realize that your CRM lacks the capabilities you need to execute high-level fundraising strategies and meet your goals.
Or maybe you’ve been at a nonprofit for years and are constantly running into limitations with the technology you have, trying to find workarounds because you know it will be a hassle to convince your organization to change.
Can you relate to either of those scenarios?
I can; I’ve literally been in this position. My name is Carly Berna and I spent the past decade as a fundraiser at a $30M nonprofit. I recently transitioned out of my role as the Chief Marketing and Development Officer. I now spend my days helping other nonprofit leaders leverage technology to scale their fundraising efforts.
I’ve been in your shoes. I landed a job where I needed to increase our fundraising, but I knew the tools we had were not going to be able to get us there. When I was asked what our “requirements” were, I didn’t know where to begin. Without a good starting point, I simply opened up a blank Excel sheet and started to list things we needed.
It would have been so helpful to have a resource that guided us through this process and helped us think about different areas that may be needed or useful. Otherwise, it can feel so overwhelming to start from scratch and try to guess if you are covering everything or forgetting incredibly important features, especially when you are considering a massive technology change that will impact the entire organization.
Talk about anxiety!
In case you are in this situation, I wanted to share this tool that I wish I had previously. It’s a quick guide that lists different areas of a CRM that may or may not apply to your organization. You can scan it and check the areas that may be needed, so it at least gives you a starting point to figure out how to take steps forward as you consider different CRMs.
I hope this helps eliminate some of the fear and anxiety that comes with technology changes. In addition, it’s always important not to lose sight of the end goal of getting better technology so you can improve your fundraising and reach your organization’s goals. I hope you find this helpful in your role.
