Modern CRM software can support a huge range of your charity's work.
Talk to us today about how your CRM should be supporting you.
Charity CRM software: selection, implementation & integration
We help charities and nonprofits choose, implement and improve CRM software for fundraising, donor and supporter management, volunteers, grants, services and reporting.
We start with your users, processes and data, not a vendor demo. Then support CRM selection, configuration, data migration, integration, training and ongoing support.
Choosing and implementing a new charity CRM
If you're in the market for a new CRM system, we understand the importance of finding the right fit.
We always start by discovering what your organisation needs from your CRM and then select the right system, working with your people to configure and migrate your data.
We build partnerships for the long-term to ensure that your CRM continues to work for you rather than against you.
Improve or optimise your existing charity CRM
If you already have a CRM system in place but feel that it's not meeting your specific needs or maximising its potential, we can help. Our CRM experts are able to help analyse and adjust your CRM to better support your charity.
We'll conduct a thorough assessment of your current CRM, identify areas for improvement, and provide recommendations on customisation, integration, and process enhancement.
We were impressed by Suru's consultative approach and expertise. The project was a great success, completed on time and on budget. Six months later we’ve already seen many benefits with great insights from centralised data and improved supporter experience.
What can a charity CRM support?
Exceed the expectations of your donors by taking them on a personalised journey, and providing them with the information they need (like giving history and communication preferences) and want (like impact reports and project updates) at the right time — without them having to pick up the phone!
Increase your volunteer recruitment and retention through streamlined application processes, targeted operational communication and personalised acknowledgements. Cross-pollinate with your Giving teams to maximise engagement and provide a unified experience with your organisation.
Build close relationships with Trusts and Foundations by planning and tracking your grant applications and reports. Efficiently select projects that meet their requirements, and reliably apply and submit reports on time, every time.
Thinking about changing CRM?
Don’t start with a demo.
A polished demo can make almost any CRM look like the answer. We start by understanding your charity’s users, processes, data, reporting and integrations — and what the CRM actually needs to achieve.
We turn that into real-world scenarios and use cases, then test potential CRM platforms against them. That means you choose the system that best fits the way your organisation works, rather than the vendor that gives the best demo.
Our charity CRM selection and implementation process
CRM discovery & requirements
During this initial phase, the focus is on understanding your organisation’s vision and goals. This involves detailed discussions with you and your stakeholders to identify specific requirements and areas of focus. Based on this information, we’ll develop a clear project scope, outlining the objectives and deliverables. A timeline is established, allocating resources effectively to ensure a smooth development process.
Step
01
Step
01
CRM discovery & requirements
During this initial phase, the focus is on understanding your organisation’s vision and goals. This involves detailed discussions with you and your stakeholders to identify specific requirements and areas of focus. Based on this information, we’ll develop a clear project scope, outlining the objectives and deliverables. A timeline is established, allocating resources effectively to ensure a smooth development process.
CRM roadmapping & process mapping
Understanding how your organisation works and what a CRM needs to support is vital. Without this most organisations choose the CRM with the best sales people rather than the right product. We expand on the work from the discovery phase through stakeholder interviews, process mapping and analysis to establish a complete picture of how a CRM needs to support your nonprofit and to provide a clear set of scenarios and use cases to be used in a technology selection.
Step
02
Step
02
CRM roadmapping & process mapping
Understanding how your organisation works and what a CRM needs to support is vital. Without this most organisations choose the CRM with the best sales people rather than the right product. We expand on the work from the discovery phase through stakeholder interviews, process mapping and analysis to establish a complete picture of how a CRM needs to support your nonprofit and to provide a clear set of scenarios and use cases to be used in a technology selection.
CRM software selection
Checklists are banned. We choose technology based on real-world scenarios and use cases. We test out the solutions with vendors and ensure that the product we choose in this step is the right one for your organisation both now and into the future.
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Step
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CRM software selection
Checklists are banned. We choose technology based on real-world scenarios and use cases. We test out the solutions with vendors and ensure that the product we choose in this step is the right one for your organisation both now and into the future.
CRM implementation & data migration
Our expert team will do the hard work for you of configuring the chosen CRM software for your needs against the areas of focus, scenarios and use cases based on our in-depth understanding of your charity.
We will manage the migration of your data ensuring everything is brought through from any existing systems so that you aren’t starting from scratch.
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04
Step
04
CRM implementation & data migration
Our expert team will do the hard work for you of configuring the chosen CRM software for your needs against the areas of focus, scenarios and use cases based on our in-depth understanding of your charity.
We will manage the migration of your data ensuring everything is brought through from any existing systems so that you aren’t starting from scratch.
CRM integration
CRMs are often the beating heart of your organisation, holding the centralised data and being a source of truth. Integrating with other areas of your organisation is important whether that's simply through producing good reports for your trustees or deep technical integration with other digital systems such as your website, finance systems or marketing tools.
Suru have digital experience and development teams that can be called on for these further integrations.
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Step
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CRM integration
CRMs are often the beating heart of your organisation, holding the centralised data and being a source of truth. Integrating with other areas of your organisation is important whether that's simply through producing good reports for your trustees or deep technical integration with other digital systems such as your website, finance systems or marketing tools.
Suru have digital experience and development teams that can be called on for these further integrations.
CRM training & ongoing support
As with all new software, training is vital. However because we work hard to ensure your CRM reflects your organisation, training becomes much more straightforward, meaning your staff and volunteers will recognise their work in the software, and in turn this makes their adoption of the new CRM easier.
We believe the key to the successful use of technology in nonprofits is partnerships not projects. Therefore we offer ongoing support to ensure your investment works for you into the future rather than quickly becoming a diminishing return.
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06
Step
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CRM training & ongoing support
As with all new software, training is vital. However because we work hard to ensure your CRM reflects your organisation, training becomes much more straightforward, meaning your staff and volunteers will recognise their work in the software, and in turn this makes their adoption of the new CRM easier.
We believe the key to the successful use of technology in nonprofits is partnerships not projects. Therefore we offer ongoing support to ensure your investment works for you into the future rather than quickly becoming a diminishing return.
What next?
CRM rarely works in isolation. We also help charities connect CRM with websites, fundraising platforms, finance systems, marketing tools, reporting and bespoke digital services.
App & digital service development
Undertaking user research and prototyping may inform and inspire the creation of new user journeys, digital products and bespoke systems.
Explore charity app & digital service development
System integration & cloud solutions
Modern technology platforms incorporate a range of digital platforms which require integration and design to ensure they bring the best possible value to your organisation. We evaluate design and configure these integrations to best meet you and your beneficiaries' needs.
Explore CRM integrations
User research & product discovery
Starting with a user-first mentality we help organisations find solutions and designs that are grounded in research, helping ensure your resources are used in the right areas rather than finding out the hard way.
Explore user research & discovery
Consulting & digital transformation
Suru Partners have a wealth of experience in guiding charities through the maze of options available to them from digital technology. We offer consulting on a broad range of areas from choosing the right CRM software to how best to structure your entire digital architecture. We’re here to help.
Explore charity technology consulting
AI in charity CRM: where does it actually help?
AI can make a good CRM more useful. It won’t fix poor data, unclear processes or a system your team doesn’t use.
We help charities work out where built-in or bespoke AI can genuinely save time or improve decisions, and where conventional automation is simpler, cheaper and more reliable.
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Reduce administration.
Summarise interactions, turn notes into structured information and help staff prepare follow-up actions. -
Support fundraising teams.
Help identify patterns, segments and opportunities across supporter data. -
Make data easier to use.
Assist with categorisation, data-quality checks and finding information across large datasets. -
Make reporting more accessible.
Use natural-language tools to help staff interrogate, summarise and understand CRM data.
Where AI is being used with donor, supporter or beneficiary data, we also consider privacy, security, bias, transparency and appropriate human oversight. AI should support good judgement, not replace it.
Contact Us
Whether you've got a particular project you want to discuss or simply want to learn more about our approach and how to get started, we're here to help.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your goals, explore solutions together, and determine whether we're the right fit for you.
024 7531 5926
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Our Work
Client case studies
We take pride in the impact we’ve enabled our clients to deliver through our innovative solutions and collaborative efforts, many of which have blossomed into long-term partnerships.
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Case Study • WECBuilding collaboration: A new CRM system to bring WEC’s teams together
We helped WEC replace a CRM that was not meeting its needs, select a new cloud-based platform and redesign the processes around it. The new system brings together donor relationships, volunteer and member onboarding, teams, HR information and communications, giving staff a 360° view of supporters and workers. It also costs less than the previous CRM while giving access to more of the organisation.
Read the full case study -
Case Study • SCIAFEnd-to-end fundraising visibility for SCIAF
We integrated Fundraise Up with Beacon CRM so SCIAF could see donation and supporter data alongside the rest of its CRM information in near real time. 100% reduction in manual work transferring donation data, a 30× improvement in data relevance, and real-time decision-making during live fundraising campaigns.
Read the full case study -
Case Study • Ben Kinsella TrustAI & data automation to speed up insight into knife crime prevention
We helped the Ben Kinsella Trust use AI and data automation to process handwritten feedback forms, automate reporting and make impact data easier to use. This saved more than 300 hours of staff and volunteer time each year.
Read the full case study
FAQs
A charity CRM is a central system for managing relationships and interactions with people and organisations such as donors, supporters, volunteers, beneficiaries, trusts and foundations. A good CRM can bring together fundraising, communications, activities, preferences and reporting so teams have a consistent view of their relationships.
Start with your organisation, not a list of software features. We identify what your users need to do, map your processes, understand your data and integrations, and turn those requirements into real-world scenarios. We then test CRM platforms against those scenarios before making a recommendation.
Yes. Replacing the CRM is not always the right answer. We can review your existing configuration, processes, data, reporting and integrations, identify what is causing problems and help you improve the system you already have where that provides better value.
CRM migration involves much more than moving records between databases. We identify and clean the data that needs to move, map it into the new CRM, preserve important history and preferences, test the migration and manage the final transition. We also configure the new CRM around the processes and users it needs to support.
A CRM will often need to exchange information with websites, donation platforms, finance systems, email and marketing tools, reporting platforms and bespoke applications. Depending on the systems involved, we use APIs, automated data flows or other integration approaches to keep information synchronised and reduce manual work.
The timescale depends on the complexity of your organisation, the quality and volume of existing data, the number of processes and teams involved, integrations and the amount of organisational change required. Our discovery and roadmapping work establishes a realistic implementation plan before major delivery begins. Simple organisations with low volumes of data and processes should expect around 6-8 weeks. But larger organisations with complex data and teams can take around 9 months.
