In recent years, I have published two books on How to Buy Fundraising Software and Charity CRM Systems. I am now making these free – although if you find them useful (and I hope you do!) then it would be great if you would like to make a donation to either of the two charities detailed on the download page. Both books contains a collection of tips for charities who want to buy a new fundraising database or CRM system. They are compiled from a number of articles I have published on my blog […]

Last week, Civil Society reported that "almost 40% of charities are considering reviewing their current CRM system with the launch of the FPS [and] GDPR." My message to such charities is: hang on, wait a minute, do you really need a new CRM system or fundraising database? Buying and implementing a new system is complicated, expensive and takes up plenty of your resources. So before you do that, there are a number of things you should do first: Talk to your current database supplier. This has […]

  My second post in an on-going series of blogs on lessons we can learn from commercial sector technology implementations. A recent article on TechRepublic shows how Toyota supplier, AW North Carolina (AWNC) spent $1.2m on new Cisco equipment, which has led to significant savings for them. Few charities will invest that amount in a new CRM system, but some of the approach which AWNC took provides us with very useful ideas for the benefits which charities may get from new CRM implementations, […]

  This is the first blog I am planning in an occasional series on lessons we can learn – good and bad - from commercial/public sector system implementations; looking outside the charity sector for best practice and alternative approaches we might take. On Computing's website last week, there was an interesting article which says how “Accenture 'underestimated the complexity' of failed [£50m] national IT system for Police Scotland”. Whilst this is clearly on a different scale to all […]

I have updated my free ebook, What Small Charities Need to Know About CRM Systems. Buying a new CRM system or fundraising database can be a daunting experience for any NFP organisation, let alone a small charity. So although I publish a lot of information on my blog which I hope is useful for all charities, this book contains some points which I think smaller not-for-profit organisations need to particularly be aware of or specifically consider. As before, this book has been produced for […]