Alongside your CRM

When you work in a fundraising organisation your data never sits still for long. It's moving between your CRM and all your other platforms, it's going back and forth with external partners, and sometimes it needs a bulk update right where it is.

You end up with more admin work than you can handle, or a CRM that's always lagging behind. All the extra overhead can hold you back from implementing the programs you need to keep driving engagement and conversion.

Using Modern Excel alongside your CRM, you can automate a lot of these problems away. It's fast, flexible, and gives you full control of your data.

Getting data in and out

CRMs do a lot of things well, but most of them expect you to do things their way. Either they don't give you the flexibility to do what you need with your data, or their customisation tools are more trouble than they're worth.

But all you really need in order to clean, combine, compare and update every kind of data is a way to get it out of the CRM, and a way to get it back in. An Excel automation can sit in the middle and do all of the bulk updates in a way that's fast, reliable, and completely in your control.

Just about every CRM lets you export your data to CSV files one way or another. It doesn't matter how clunky or unwieldy the file is  –  as long as it has the data, Excel can handle the rest. A couple of clicks to run an automation, and you'll have a fresh file with all of the new or transformed data ready to import back in again.

Moving between platforms

When you start out with a new CRM it probably does most of what you need. You build your processes around it, and it works well enough for a while.

Over time though, you start coming up against limitations and you have to find workarounds. Different platforms offer new or better functionality  –  maybe you want to do crowdfunding through Raisely, petitions in Do Gooder and email campaigns in Mailchimp.

Getting data out of a system is easy, but bringing it back into a CRM that has its own unique format and structure can turn into a headache. Imports that should be done daily only happen weekly. Reports get out of date. Supporters call up with an issue and you have to look in three different places.

Worse, if you're handling the data manually mistakes can be made. One file gets missed, another one gets imported twice. A formula points to the wrong row, or a copy paste goes awry. Making sure nothing goes wrong can take as long as doing the job itself. If something does go wrong, fixing it in the CRM can take a lot longer.

That's the kind of process that Power Query in Excel is built for. One click to convert the data to exactly the format you need, cleaned and ready for import. And you'll still have complete visibility and control of the data along the way, to handle any unexpected situations.

Working with external partners

As your organisation has grown it might have started exchanging data with external providers, and there might be more to come  –  a mailing house, telemarketing agency, lead sharing group, and others.

Each of these exchanges usually comes with its own format requirements, and its own set of challenges. It might only happen a few times a year, but if finding the time to get it right puts you under pressure, automating the process can take a lot of that away.

Filling the gaps

There are always going to be smaller gaps in functionality, things that your CRM isn't able to handle. Other CRMs might have those tools, but it's usually not practical to change CRMs every time something better comes along. That leaves you handling some things manually, or going without.

Direct mail campaigns can be a big job when not well supported by the CRM, and mistakes can have real costs. Getting the segmentation and exclusions right, implementing ask ladders, removing duplicates and cleaning the data  –  all things that matter.

Reporting might be lacking, with only the most basic filters and groupings and none of the nuance you need. Supporter analysis might end at a LYBUNT list and the rest is up to you.

You might not need a new CRM just yet, but if there's a gap that's costing you time, an Excel automation can often fill it.

Continuity

Like a lot of non-profits, your organisation might run pretty lean when it comes to staff and roles  –  a small number of people getting a lot done, with not much room for overlap. It mostly works, until the one person who understands that key process leaves. Turning those complex processes into robust automated tools keeps all of the logic in one place, and usable by anyone.

When building these tools in Excel there's no black box. The logic is all visible and accessible, so whoever picks it up next can see how it works and make changes to meet your changing needs. We're happy to keep supporting everything we build, but you won't be dependent on us to keep anything running.