Patrick Shaw’s Weblog

My colleagues at NonProfitCrm have a terrific post explaining many of the factors associated with using a CRM. Here at NPower Seattle, that CRM is most often Salesforce.com - the Salesforce Foundation provides 10 free licenses to nonprofits - and that means we can focus our energy on making crucial customizations that work for your nonprofit rather than on building from scratch!

You should read the posting - it’s pretty short - 10 minutes or less. Some of the items they mention may not match your nonprofit. For instance - on our smaller projects, we don’t invest in a series of “how does this look?’ with our customers, because that can be expensive - I call that “moving the house around the couch”.  Some quick highlights - in no particular order!

• Data migration - getting you old data cleaned and in one spot for import. This can be the most expensive part of the process!
• Defining your business needs - how do YOU define a top donor? A certain amount of lifetime giving? A certain amount in the past 18 months? We need to know that answers to these questions before we start!

Here’s my two cents, though. Make sure you plan first. You can do a lot of homework on your own, and a small investment in planning before you implement will save you time and money and will result in a better outcome!