Access the Podcast
Many charities invest in a CRM expecting it to transform fundraising, improve supporter relationships and deliver better reporting. Yet despite significant investment, many organisations still struggle to achieve the outcomes they hoped for.
In this video, Adam Sheehan is joined by Adam Wall and Jordan Woodward to explore why CRM projects often underperform in charities and what organisations can do differently. Together, they discuss the expectations charities place on CRM, why technology alone cannot solve underlying organisational challenges, and how fragmented data, poor adoption and a lack of trust in systems can limit success. They also explore why CRM should be viewed as a charity-wide capability rather than simply a fundraising tool.
Whether you’re responsible for fundraising, operations, service delivery or technology, this conversation offers practical insights into what makes CRM successful in practice. From creating a single view of supporter engagement and capturing meaningful data to building trust and encouraging adoption across teams, the discussion focuses on the factors that help charities get lasting value from their CRM investment.
Topics covered:
- Why charities often expect CRM to transform fundraising overnight
- Why CRM is an enabler, not a shortcut
- The risks of treating CRM solely as a fundraising system
- The challenge of fragmented supporter data
- Why CRM adoption is often harder than implementation
- How trust in data influences success
- The impact of teams working outside the CRM
- Capturing meaningful supporter engagement data
- What a well-used CRM looks like in practice
- The role of people, processes and behaviours in CRM success
