Your digital tools look great — but are they doing any good?
Your charity/social enterprise is up-and-running, some event sign-ups are coming through and you’re pretty pleased with the look of your new newsletter. Things are looking good. But are your digital tools doing any good? And by that, I mean, are they talking to each other? Or are they just working in silos like some of your colleagues, creating unnecessary duplication and leading to missed opportunities?
Hello ‘good old boring tech’!
Through my work with Digital Brighton & Hove and Tech for Good Brighton, I’m often approached by local charities keen to start using digital technology in their organisation. They’re not always sure why or what for but they are excited by the opportunities that digital can offer. And before I’ve even been able to enquire about their service user needs, they make it clear that a new app is what will solve all their problems!
So early perceptions of digital technology are often associated with ‘shiny tech’. Except more often than not, effective digital tools are often quite dull — it’s the ‘boring tech’ that, initially, can make a big difference to how you work. The ‘good old boring tech’ will make your staff happier. Now there’s a tagline for your trustees!
CRM really stands for Getting Your Activities to Talk to One Another
Take the Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). That’s far from shiny — a CRM is as dull as it gets. But the joy you’ll get from it when doing your reporting, evaluation and impact measurement is unprecedented. Stay with me now…here comes the serious bit.
An integrated tool such as a CRM system is an essential cog for any charitable or social enterprise wanting to grow its network, community or customer-base. Unless you want to keep adding plug-ins and waiting for tech updates to keep joining the different dots for you, the use of a bespoke CRM system is the one tool which can streamline and integrate your organisation’s activities into one efficient central hub from the off.
Eventbrite, Mailchimp, Google Docs, Airtable etc. are all great tools that will nurture your small enterprise and accompany it through its first steps towards adulthood — no doubt. I use them all the time to kickstart new projects. But just remember that their snazzy look and user-friendliness mask some limitations. Where they look great and talk a good game, strategically-speaking they don’t necessarily make for the best companions as you’re looking to grow.
As boring as they seem compared to their young digital cousins, bespoke CRM systems will help scale up your organisation arguably more than a lovely newsletter with great content. They’re just not very sexy so we don’t like talking about them much. And yes, it’s true, they will initially cost more to set up than an annual Airtable or Mailchimp subscription!
CRM systems are not just useful for business-to-business or sales account management. Tools like CIVICRM, Nationbuilder or Salesforce are designed to help your charity, social enterprise or startup grow your community of beneficiaries and donors. They will take care of email blasts, events registrations, client/community relationships, financial records, etc. all in one portal.
Finding the right tech solution for you — what do your beneficiaries need?
With plenty of bespoke and ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions available, introducing the right kind of CRM system to your organisation can be overwhelming. It requires a clear understanding of who your beneficiaries are, what data you need from them to run your operation and how such a tech tool will help both you and the along the way (if at all). Assumptions aren’t enough. Once you’ve ascertained that much, you need to dive into the research phase to find the right tool that matches those needs.
So where do you start?
With your beneficiaries, supporters, members, customers — your people!
Then…
The Charity Catalogue is useful place to start as it gives you a quick overview of the different products out there.
The Conversation Menu is also useful once you start talking to tech experts who soon find out you don’t really know what you’re talking about (don’t worry, none of us do).
Previously, I have also found some useful pointers from colleagues on Fair Say’s eCampaigning Forum, an open group mailing list. Just get ready for lots of emails!
This exploratory phase will feel laborious and no doubt you’ll feel like you have much better things to be doing. But in the long run, it’ll beat the endless plug-ins, excel sheets and lists saved on your colleague’s old desktop that always needs a restart.
If it’s good enough for your stakeholders, it’s good enough for you
And one last thing: don’t stick to what everyone else is using. If it’s totally leftfield but meets your needs, give it a go — you’ll get free trials for most products. Be bold!
For one of my previous clients, we ended up going for a good value membership package from Canada integrated with WordPress. As well as moving everything to the cloud. We also dumped the old desktops and invested in Macbook Pros. No more dubious and costly IT support bills. No more unreliable equipment. No more spreadsheets. And all together, more cost effective!
While good people and good content no doubt create purposeful work, integrated digital tools can help people and organisations create more and better impact. It sounds boring. But imagine this: all the data in one place, accessible from anywhere on any device!
So, I’ll ask again — are your digital tools doing any good? If not, start fixing it right now.
If you’re a Brighton-based charity or social enterprise that needs help fixing this, while I can’t do it for you right now, we’re building a community of smart people who probably can. Find out more here. Then come and say hi over here.
