Annual Report 2022/Story: A new CRM for fundraising and membership work

Möjliggörande

2022

In this story, we focus on how our work with finding a CRM system is progressing. A CRM system can help keep the costs down as our fundraising efforts increase, but it turned out that implementing one is more complicated than we previously thought. That's why we've listened to other associations experiences and are going to learn from them.

A CRM system kan make communication with members and donors easier and more effective.

We worked on finding a CRM system for our association throughout 2022 and we will continue in 2023. We see a CRM system as an important resource now that we'd like to increase our fundraising, as it will help us simplify and streamline our processes. A well-functioning CRM system will it easier for us to manage the data of our donors and members and to communicate with them in a secure way, following best practices and ensuring high quality without using too much resources.

As we increase our fundraising efforts, this means that more personal records (from our members and donors) have to be entered into the database, requiring Wikimedia Sverige to invest additional resources in handling personal data. The data has to be secure and handled according to current guidelines and laws. Furthermore, more people in the system makes the communication/feedback more complex. With a CRM, the association can simplify that work while our fundraising can grow.

In 2022, we put in some more work into compiling a requirement specification for a CRM system. We made some clarifications, building upon the lessons learned from other Wikimedia organizations and Swedish civil society organizations. By talking to them we were also able to get a better insight into the kind of resources we need to invest into implementing a CRM, the previously unknown costs we're going to face and the requirements we will have to put on the future provider. Additionally, our discussions have also allowed us to learn about the benefits some organizations have reaped by implementing a CRM system.

Some important lessons learned have been that we need to set aside more time than expected for implementing a CRM. In order for the switch to a new system to be as smooth as possible, we need to involve more people. Furthermore, we need to plan for a period of system testing, as well as keep in touch with the supplier while getting all the processing in place.

In 2023, we are going to contact more suppliers and implementation partners. We might get in touch with our previous suppliers that we've already talked to again, and we're going to ask questions based on our new learnings.