Ten CRM Case Studies for Charities

On the tenth day of Christmas, my truelove gave to me... Ten Useful Case Studies of How NFPs Are Using CRM Systems

Case studies are a useful way to see how charities and the NFP sector have implemented fundraising and CRM systems. The following are ten such examples (in alphabetical order):

• Access Group: Access thankQ CRM - Essex Herts Air Ambulance 
• Advanced Computer Software: Care NG - Woodland Trust
• Advantage NFP - Birmingham Royal Ballet 
• ASI Europe: iMIS20 - Rethink Mental Illness
• Blackbaud: Raiser's Edge - University of Glasgow 
• CiviCRM - Bloodwise (ex-LLR)
• Donorfy - Central London Samaritans
• Harlequin Software - Greatwood
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Midlands Air Ambulance
• Salesforce - Camfed

NB For clarification: this list in no way indicates that these are the ten best or the only ten systems you should consider. There are many more and you can see a more comprehensive list of Fundraising Software and CRM Systems on my website.

What now for Care, Integra, Donor Strategy...?

 

Advanced Computer Software, the latest owners of the Care/Integra/Donor Strategy/Charisma stable of CRM software systems for charities has been sold again, this time to US private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, in a deal that values the company at £725m. So what does this mean for the charities who use said products? After all, this is now the fourth time that Care, for example, has been sold in the last 9 or so years. Can charities continue to keep faith in the software?

A little bit of history repeating

To some charities, it must seem like deja-vous. For many years, Care Business Solutions was a ‘family-owned’ company and many large charities such as Marie Curie, WWF, Amnesty, PDSA and more have bought Care, and it was and remains a sturdy system. But in the last 9 years or so, Care has been sold first to the CS Group (mid 2000’s), then IRIS (in 2007), then ACS (early 2013) and now Vista. At the same time, Charisma was sold to Systems Group who then got sold to CSG and then, well, see Care. And sadly it hasn’t been plain sailing for all clients. If you talk to charities and consultants then certainly the time under IRIS was not perceived as a happy time, and that was reflected partly in new sales.

And on each occasion, unsurprisingly, clients have been promised “development plans”, “new investment” and “stability”. I don’t know how many think they have received that.

So does this matter?
I’m an independent consultant who really tries to present both sides of any story. And so I really want to provide a balanced analysis to show the pros and cons of such changes – but on this occasion I am struggling. I can certainly say that the key products listed above are still robust and operationally sound - which is something we should never ignore - and they have to a degree been developed (witness ACS’s NG development) and some of the staff from the various incarnations have stayed on. And of course there is nothing unique in such takeovers - it happens throughout the commercial sector and other NFP CRM systems have of course been bought and sold and continued or discontinued.

But at the moment I am wondering if such upsides are outweighed by the issues and possibilities which occur with such change: first there is continuity of investment (or not); then the continuity or otherwise of strategy/approach/technology for the clients and their ability to plan; indeed, consistency all round. And it is surely unsettling for the company’s staff (and although some staff have stayed, I understand that at least one of the buy-outs mentioned above caused considerable staff turnover); and also as mentioned above, the time under IRIS did not give Care/Integra users the best experience and certainly didn’t provide many significant new fundraising database implementations.

And now…?
So I guess I should start with the hackneyed but fair phrase: “time will tell”. That said… if you were currently looking for a new CRM system for your charity then where would you look? ACS already had competitors in at least Blackbaud, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics for their top-end fundraising solution (and more for some procurements), and thankQ for their mid to high-end NFP prospects; and their membership offerings had/have very strong competition from several Microsoft Dynamics ‘templated’ options as well as other vertical sector products.

So if a charity was to ask me what I thought was the future for Care et al then I would want to wait until we hear more from and about Vista. Basically, will it be different this time? Or will the 'acquisition tree' above continue to grow?

The 3 top reasons why you should still consider traditional fundraising software

 

So much is written now - by myself included! - about the (now not so) new CRM systems (I.e. MS CRM Dynamics, Salesforce et al) that you could be forgiven for forgetting that there are still other options. But the good ol' traditional fundraising database package is of course still going strong (e.g. Raiser's Edge, thankQ, CareNG, Advantage Fundraiser etc), and it is still selling well (out-selling CRM?) and there are clear benefits for at least considering it if you are looking at a new fundraising database solution.

These are my top three reasons why you should still consider the fundraising database package:

• The built-in fundraising functionality: this has to be number one. These guys have been selling fundraising databases before Salesforce was a twinkle in Marc Benioff's eye. And as such they have rich and comprehensive built-in functionality for fundraising. It's why they were created in the first place. And even the more thorough templates/apps which are now available for Dynamics and Salesforce are hard-pressed to match all the fundraising functions which the fundraising packages can offer - and some don't even claim to be more than a starting point. Some of them are getting closer of course...
• The suppliers themselves: This is almost as critical as the functionality - in fact, sometimes I would put it above the functionality for a reason as to why you should consider fundraising packages. Because the suppliers have years and years of knowledge of working with charities; they have staff who will have hundreds, even thousands of hours of experience which they have gleaned from the NFPs they have worked with; they have the heritage of working with the sector; and many have hundreds, even thousands of existing charity customers who already use the software, have provided feedback (good and bad) and who, believe it or not, may actually even like the software!
• Reduced risk of the implementation itself: Some of the more critical aspects of a fundraising database implementation are aspects such as direct debits, marketing selection processes, finance/donation structure, gift aid and so on, and these are the areas which the packages already have ticked and, as importantly, have implemented many times in many different environments. Even the better CRM systems still have limited exposure to such areas and are still learning. This does reduce risk. Equally, the wider functionality already available means you have a structure to the system and the implementation, you will be able to run your processes in proven ways and you won't just forget some functionality. Plus, the suppliers have done it all before many times and it's even quite feasible that some of your staff will even know the new system from other places they have worked.

All that said, and to keep things in perspective, I do realise that some of these benefits I am promoting could equally be seen as downsides by CRM suppliers, and some CRM suppliers could quite rightly point to their successes; so do remember I am just saying here why the traditional packages should at least still be considered...