Review of CRM Systems

Fundraising Magazine and Charity Finance jointly surveyed 509 charity subscribers and contacts in March as part of their annual CRM survey, now in its 17th year. It was found that almost half of those surveyed are reviewing their CRM system in the next 12 months, with 45% expecting that they will be making a change.

The survey looked at the benefits and barriers that charities might face by changing CRM, these have been noted below:

• A good CRM system can help charities to connect and nurture their relationships with supporters, as well as optimise regular giving and Gift Aid. This in turn will strengthen income streams, which is essential to survive.
• With better data systems and increased automation, the charity will have more opportunities to support large groups of people in a variety of ways. Less time could be spent on the manual inputting of information.
• Changing CRM system can be time-consuming and daunting to implement. It can also take some time for staff members to learn how to use the system to its fullest potential. The initial warming up process can be inconvenient to the day to day running of the charity.
• It may be difficult to contact all stakeholders and get them set up on the new system. They may need to be incorporated individually to the new system, which may be a large project to contact and confirm their regular donor or member information.

Some 68 charities said they have changed package in the last year, with over three-quarters saying they were satisfied so far and a further 19% saying it was too early to tell. Just over four in 10 found the process smooth while more than a third experienced “some or huge” disruption.