What to do in a CRM crisis

I recently spoke to a nonprofit organization that is part of a national network. They’re at the “bleeding edge” of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software transition. The last time I spoke to them, I knew the CRM implementation was a little behind schedule.

I had no idea it was this bad.

They have been operating almost six months from Microsoft Excel based on data from the old CRM they shut down only to find that the data wasn’t mapped correctly to the new CRM. Yes, you read that correctly. They are running a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign out of spreadsheets.

Fortunately, there are now a ton of AI tools that can help in the “ETL” category: extract, transform, and load. These are AI-enabled, low-code or no-code ETL software solutions that can pull out the old data, clean it, map it to your new system, and load it seamlessly.

“AI-enabled” means that they use artificial intelligence to do things like identify fields that should be mapped together, clean up email addresses, get rid of duplicates, and all of the other functions you really want to do before you migrate old data. “Low-code” or “no-code” means that you don’t have to write complicated queries in languages like SQL to do it.

You might still need a consultant to help, but the entire process should cost a tiny fraction of what an entire CRM transition might cost you. We’re talking about $5,000-$10,000, not $500,000.

Timing is critical. The longer you rely on paper or spreadsheet-based systems, the harder it may be to reconstruct the work you did in between losing the last database and starting the new one.

For nonprofits, this often means moving a lot faster than you’re used to moving. To move at this speed, at a minimum you need:

• CEO-level support;

• At least one person who will drop everything and oversee the process;

• Constant, organization-wide communication about how high this priority is and why;

• Absolute assurance to the people working on the transition that they should move fast and not fear punishment for failing to get permission;

• At the same time, constant reminders to the people working on the project to get input where they need it;

• Executive team level time dedicated to cutting through red tape.

I have found that nonprofits often underestimate the growth potential of a properly functioning, updated CRM. Trust me: It’s will be worth the money you spent on avoiding the crisis.