Strong foundations or shiny features? How to make sure your charity CRM is built to last

We know what it’s like. When your targets are high, and pressure is mounting, it’s easy to see the appeal of shiny quick fixes. But progress — real, sustainable progress — doesn’t always work that way.

When it comes to your CRM, it is very possible to do too much too soon. Customisations can start to stack up, automations become hard to untangle, and your data becomes a little ... unwieldy.

Suddenly, the clarity and efficiency you craved starts to slip away. The CRM that promised everything becomes so heavy that no one has the time or patience to use it.

And when internal clarity disappears, donors and supporters feel it too. 

In our experience, the most successful projects aren’t always the most complex — they’re the most considered. They start with a strong core and grow steadily over time.

It might feel counterintuitive, especially when there’s a host of jazzy features to play with. But when it comes to choosing and setting up your CRM, we always advise charities to:

Tip #1: Think outcomes, not features

When choosing your CRM, make sure you stay true to your fundraising and organisational strategy. Don’t just go for the biggest brand name, or the tool with the most features. Choose the tool that’s the right fit for you and your team.

To do this, ask yourself the following questions: 

• What are your one, five and 10-year fundraising goals?
• To do this, what decisions does your team need to feel confident making?
• What information would make this easier?
• Are there any repetitive tasks eating up time that technology could help with?
• Which applications and integrations are non-negotiable?

If we didn't use every feature from the get go, would our fundraising suffer? Answering these questions will help make sure you’re zooming in on solutions that align with — and genuinely enhance — your fundraising.  

Tip #2: Strengthen your core

You wouldn’t run before learning to walk. The same philosophy applies to your CRM.

Start with the core functions and build complexity slowly. Only add customisations when there’s a clear reason to. And remember: using preset templates and automations isn’t cheating — they’re there for a reason. 

A one-minute plank might leave you shaking, but strengthening the core of your CRM isn’t nearly so difficult. It usually comes down to a few key things:

• Agreeing on a clear, consistent way to label and record supporter data
• Defining a core set of donor journeys and pathways
• Designing a small number of high-impact automations
• Establishing a core reporting framework aligned to KPIs, not curiosity
• Limiting integrations to those that remove the most tedious manual work
• Documenting processes so knowledge doesn’t sit with just one “CRM guru”

Do this well, and you create a system people understand and will use. 

And that’s what long-term success is built on. 

Tip #3: Introduce a “sanity pause”

Of course, when you’re setting up a new CRM, it’s likely you’ll have to customise a couple of features. The key is to show restraint and make sure that every tweak helps improve the fit.

Before making any changes, ask yourself (and your team)

• Will we actively use this data in the next six months?
• Does it support a real decision, process, or relationship?
• What happens if we don’t add it?

If the answers are “probably not,” “no one,” and “nothing much,” it’s likely you’re adding a layer of complexity you don’t need at this point.  

If you build your CRM with clarity and intention, you’ll soon have a system that’s ready to go the distance.

An essential part of your team, the right CRM really can: 

• Bring clarity to your donor data, so that you can really get to know them
• Create clean, coherent donor journeys, so communications feel thoughtful and timely
• Streamline processes, so your team can spend more time on what counts
• Make progress visible, so you can track, refine, and grow your income.

Because when the systems behind your fundraising are built to last, everything levels up: your income, your organisation, and the support of your donors.
 
It’s a return the team at Operation Smile experienced first-hand.  

Raising more than a smile 

Every year, Operation Smile raises millions of pounds to fund life-changing surgery for children born with cleft lip and palate. Managing income from individual donors, regular givers, campaigns and major gifts, they needed a CRM that could keep up, but that wouldn’t become overly complex.

Donorfy offered the best of both worlds: powerful features, integrations, and customisations where they mattered — and structured simplicity where it was needed. 

Today the team are using their CRM to build faster, smarter workflows, generate reliable financial insights, and deepen donor relationships. 

That’s just the start. With Donorfy firmly embedded, they're now working to grow their regular giving programme with better donor insights and launch a face-to-face fundraising campaign.

It’s the perfect example of a team that started small, and have built over time, as their needs have grown.

Read their story

Are you looking for a CRM that’s built to last, too?

The strongest CRM systems aren’t always the ones that just have the longest feature lists and all the bells and whistles activated. They’re the ones people trust, understand and use every day. The latter point being important - why have a CRM, if nobody will use it?

That’s why we design charity CRM solutions to support your team, rather than overwhelm it. Because in modern fundraising, success isn’t about switching on every feature or configuring every possibility. 

It’s about building something solid and sustainable.