How to Conduct a Charity CRM review

Your CRM is one of the most important assets in your fundraising toolbox. Used effectively, the right system can completely transform your organisation and provide valuable insights into what makes your supporters give. It also makes it easier for you to create deeply personalised comms journeys, from someone's first donation to a final legacy gift.

Our new step-by-step guide, How to Conduct a Charity CRM Review, walks you through the process, helping you to highlight any gaps in data and identify improvements. It’s also a brilliant check and balance when you’re deciding whether to optimise or upgrade your existing system.

What do you need to think about?

An effective CRM can help you unlock efficiencies across all departments, as well as identify major giving opportunities and reduce operational risk. However, used inconsistently or ineffectively, a CRM can be frustrating at best and disastrous at worst. It can lead to misinformation around eligible Gift Aid claims, breaching GDPR with your Major Donors or missing 6-figure philanthropic investment opportunities. Our new guide to reviewing and improving your CRM, is designed to help not only grow your fundraising income, but free up staff time and make sure you avoid the pitfalls of poor management.

Case Study | akt, LGBQT+ Youth Homeless Charity

In 2024, Gifted began working with the LGBQT+ homeless charity, akt (Albert Kennedy Trust) at a time of great transition. We undertook a forensic examination of where akt's fundraising potential lay which included a full CRM and wider systems audit.

“We were able to identify flaws in the various CRM, email client and fundraising platforms, which weren’t communicating effectively together. We then implemented a series of changes to focus akt’s communications and allow segmentation and targeted messaging in line with the findings of our fundraising strategic review,” says Gifted Senior Consultant, Konna Beeson. ‘Sweating the charity’s database’ in this way led to a vastly improved communications plan and the whole team now use their CRM daily. This also led to discovering up to 60 potential new legacy donors, 50 major donor prospects, and £30,000 in potentially back-claimable Gift Aid.”

“The work Gifted has completed for us has given us real clarity and confidence for the way forward - we now have a direct plan for both the short and medium-long term, with realistic and achievable goals. We are sure that the deliverable recommendations in the report Gifted produced will have a huge benefit to us as we grow the charity over the coming years.”  (Amy Heritage, Director of Marketing and Communications at akt)

If you’d like to find out more about our CRM Review package, get in touch with one of our Directors. You can also learn about the full range of fundraising services we offer at giftedphilanthropy.com and request a complimentary copy of our popular handbooks, Gifted Asking and Gifted Fundraising.