Supporter relationships are the foundation your nonprofit is built on, and to manage those relationships, you need the help of a capable constituent relationship management (CRM) platform.

The right CRM will not only allow your team to keep track of your donors, but it will also help you improve operations across the board—from increasing fundraising efficiency to simplifying donor communications. However, making the move to a new CRM is a lengthy process that requires careful consideration. Before moving forward, make sure you take these steps:

Perform a Needs Assessment
Define Your Budget
Research Implementation Partners
Get Board Approval
Choose Your New CRM

Even if you already have a specific CRM or software provider in mind, it’s worth taking these steps to ensure you’re happy with your decision and prepared for the implementation process.

1. Perform a Needs Assessment

The first step is to evaluate your current CRM and determine what its challenges and pitfalls are. Common nonprofit needs that a new CRM could address include:

Disorganized or siloed data. If your donor data is housed in an inconsistent way or spread across multiple different systems, your team can have difficulty locating the information they need. To solve this problem, it’s helpful to have a centralized database that quickly gives you the full picture of every contact and how they engage with you, whether they are monetary donors, in-kind donors, volunteers, staff, partners, or a combination of multiple roles!
Difficulty sending and tracking donor communications. If you don’t have an efficient way to send invitations, donation appeals, thank-you emails, updates, and other important messages to donors, you might look for a CRM that can automate communication cadences. Or, choose a CRM with native automation add-ons like Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud to meet this need.
Inefficient grants management process. Nonprofits and foundations that disburse grant funding to other organizations need a streamlined way to track applications and the grants they award. Many CRMs designed for nonprofits include grant management features that allow you to easily consolidate and monitor this information.

Based on these needs, make a list of goals for what you want to accomplish with your new CRM. If you’re a new nonprofit and you don’t yet have a CRM, think about the main needs you want your system to address.

2. Define Your Budget

After outlining your needs, take a look at your finances and define your budget for the project. Follow nonprofit budgeting best practices, such as reviewing past budgets and defining specific activities within the project, to make it as accurate as possible.

For a CRM implementation project, your budget should include both initial and ongoing expenses, such as:

The software license, which is typically a monthly, per-user cost
Consultant services
Data integration costs
Training and support costs
Any additional add-ons or integrations you’ll need

If your budget is tight, consider doing additional fundraising or grant research to secure enough funding for this important project. Check out resources like Getting Attention’s list of nonprofit technology grants to find grants offered by corporations and foundations that support nonprofits’ technological growth.

3. Research Implementation Partners

Redpath’s Salesforce for Nonprofits implementation guide explains how trying to implement a complex CRM like Salesforce on your own can result in data loss, technical issues, and a low ROI. That’s why many nonprofits choose to work with an implementation partner, an outside consultant who’s a technical expert in the CRM you’re implementing.

These experts can guide you through the process from start to finish, providing you with services like implementation planning, data migration, and ongoing technical support. The right partner will get to know your organization and technical goals to ensure your new CRM meets all your needs.

As you research consultants to partner with, consider each potential partner’s:

Certifications: Some of the most popular CRMs for nonprofits, like Salesforce, have official certifications for technology consultants. For example, you might see a badge that says “Salesforce Partner since 2014” or a designation such as “Nonprofit Expert.” These certifications indicate that the partner has sufficient expertise to maintain official partner status.
Specialties: Some partners specialize in working with specific sectors or clouds. Ideally, you should seek out a nonprofit-specific software consultant who understands how nonprofits operate and how their CRM can support them.
Past work: Look at the partner’s website to find success stories and examples of their past work. Have they worked with organizations similar to yours? What kind of results have they achieved for similar nonprofits?

Choose a few good options that align with your needs and goals to present to your board. Then, schedule a consultation with your chosen partner to discuss your needs and their implementation strategy. Different consultants have different approaches to CRM implementation, so make sure that their approach supports your goals.

4. Get Board Approval

Since implementing a new CRM is a major project, you’ll need to get approval from your board and other key stakeholders before moving any further in the process.

Schedule a meeting and present them with the findings from your needs assessment, proposed budget, and implementation partner research to give them the full picture of what implementation could look like for your nonprofit. Gather input on anything else your board would like your CRM to have, along with any additional resources or restrictions that should guide your selection process.

For example, if your board is focusing on increasing community engagement at the moment, they might ask you to prioritize volunteer management features in your CRM selection or to find a system that integrates with your existing volunteer management platform.

5. Choose Your New CRM

Finally, it’s time to evaluate your software options and choose the CRM that’s the best fit for your needs. As you explore different solutions, consider:

The system’s intuitiveness. Based on your staff members’ technical experience, you may look for systems with faster setup and extra built-in support features.
Nonprofit-specific features. The best CRM options for nonprofits are those that were designed with nonprofits’ unique needs in mind. Look for systems with donor management, grant management, donation processing, and advocacy features.
Flexibility and customization. Some CRMs are more flexible than others in terms of how much you can customize the system to meet your exact needs. If you know you need to create a custom app for one of your programs, for example, you’ll need a more flexible system.
Support and training resources. Explore the resources available to support your team’s training. Is ongoing support included? How robust is the help community?

Along with these considerations, check the availability of add-ons, apps, and integrations that can support your organization’s goals. For example, Salesforce has a community AppExchange that features a wide range of apps for nonprofits, including wealth screening tools, matching gift search tools, and volunteer engagement solutions.

After taking these steps, you’re ready to get started! Your implementation partner should lead the way, beginning by discussing your needs and goals and crafting a comprehensive implementation plan. CRM implementations typically take multiple months to complete, so be prepared for the time commitment in advance. At the end of the process, you’ll have a new and improved solution for all your donor management needs.