Agony & Ecstasy: Switching To New Online Fundraising Software

Clinton O'Brien Chief Operating Officer Engaging Networks

Jen Maceyko Client Services Director Firefly Partners

Walid Haddad Director, Development Operations Human Rights Watch

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What We Really Think:

- Plenty of Ecstasy

- Not so much Agony

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Purpose eCRM migration case study

Knowledge sharing & preparedness

Outcome Successful eCRM migration

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E-mail Broadcasts (e-newsletters, e-solicitations)

E-mail Signup

Donation Forms

Event/Dinner Registration Forms

Petitions

What is an eCRM? (Online Customer Relationship Management)

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Ease of Use

Friendly user experience

Flexible

Non-US centric/ International

Support

Why a new eCRM?

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Items to consider before migrating!

Who is going to use it?

Ease of use

Staff/Expertise

Support

Migration Support

Migration Schedule

Work continues

Backup System

Cost/Budget

Learning curve

& training period

Stay Focused

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Identify Stakeholders & Form a committee

Stakeholders Survey

Request For Proposal (RFP)

Review 6 RFPs, identify 3 for demonstration

Select the eCRM Vendor

eCRM Selection Process

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Phase I Nov. – Dec.

Identify your Stakeholders

Conduct a Survey

Draft an RFP

Migration Budget Approval

Phase II Jan. - Feb.

Identify eCRM Vendors

Send RFP

Phase III March - April

Review RFPs

Select 3 vendors for Interview & Demonstration

Select Finalist

Phase IV May - June

Selection Timeline

Contract Vetting & Negotiation

Sign Contract

Identify Consultant/Help

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10

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Phase I July - Sept.

Strategize

Audit

Roles & Responsibilities

Timeline & Go Live

Merchant Processors

Database Cleanup

Phase II Oct. - Dec.

Import Database

Learn the tool

USD Donation Form

Email Template (newsletter)

Phase III Jan. - March

Int’l Donation Forms

More E-mail Templates

Connector w/ Database

Phase IV April

Migration Timeline

Archive Old eCRM

Monthly Sustainers Migration

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Identify primary decision maker(s)

Develop project plan A, B, and C

Expect unknowns

Assess, understand, adjust

Let people talk to each other

Migration (Project) Management

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Asked them about their experience of

selecting and migrating to new eCRM

software

Nine responses (n = 9)

All migrated to Engaging Networks

within the last 18 months

Survey of Engaging Networks clients

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Question 1:

Did you allocate enough time for selection & migration?

Allocated justenough time

Did not allocateenough time

Allocated moretime thanneeded

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Question 2:

What were the biggest challenges you encountered?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Migrating data

Migrating live pages to new platform

Integration w/ another database

Selecting new software

OTHER

Creating new templates, building pages

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Quality Assurance (“QA”) – needing to test things before

they go live

Working through internal barriers, and transitional issues

Needed to figure out legal implications of operating in

different countries

Turned out we could not migrate some items such as

email reports from our old eCRM

Question 2:

What were the biggest challenges you encountered? (The four “Other” responses)

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Heeded consultant’s advice to pick software providing flexibility, to create fields as we dreamed them up

Set detailed requirements for integrating with our primary database

Created a thorough RFP that asked detailed questions of all vendors

Invited several providers in early, to see a wide range of capabilities

Did deep research on all alternative databases. We decided that ability to sync easily w/ Raiser’s Edge was our most important criterion

Made a huge chart to compare what each vendor could offer, for each feature

Significantly reduced our cost to send emails to supporters

Question 3: What went well during software selection process? (Things that our nonprofit did right)

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Did not make our detailed requirements fully understood

Did not spend enough time documenting our marketing needs for in-

depth reporting – this would have enabled us to set up our systems a bit

more intentionally

The time from RFP to implementation was painful

We had too many requirements at first and needed to scale back to

what was actually reasonable and within our budget

Did not realize that EN has such great capacity for developing custom

features, but thought it was more “plug-n-play” than it actually is

Question 4: What did NOT go so well during software selection process? (Things we did wrong or poorly)

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Took it slowly. One page at a time

Developed a content inventory and prioritized it

Gave ourselves a long time for process – double what was suggested

Hired a consultant to help with migrating. A definite plus and a must. Also we kept our old eCRM running as a backup

We did not rush it

We took advantage of training classes on the individual features

Utilized Josh Miller (Client Support Director); he’s a wealth of knowledge

Spent time with Charles Garner, our main Client Support contact

Question 5: What went well during software migration? (Things that our nonprofit did right)

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Exported data out of FirstClass, which is an email software.

It would not export all fields or categories that we used. This

required weeks of extra effort and workarounds. We never

did get it all

Did not allocate enough of our resources

It was difficult to stay on top of QA, and to ensure very

thorough QA of the key pieces before iterating them

Question 6: What did NOT go so well during software migration? (Things we did wrong, or poorly)

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A few items in our internal process that lingered on

months after migration was complete

Lack of staff to see the project through. Not enough

leadership, consultants and plain old help to make this

major change less stressful

I wasn't as involved as I could have been to verify all data

was migrated correctly with existing fields. Plus we

changed administrators at the end of the selection

process, just before the implementation process started

Question 6: What did NOT go so well during software migration? (Things we did wrong or poorly) - cont’d

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Delegate to a tech expert. Don't do it yourself. The learning curve is too

steep

Make sure that whoever is “in charge” is full-time on the project until

completion. Trying to fit it in with your regular (or expanded) workload

leads to not enough attention paid to either one

Take time internally to inventory your current systems and document your

needs and wants. Then resource the migration properly. Take the

opportunity to clean up bad data and build a robust sync. Have fun!

Make sure you are very clear about your reasons for switching software,

and check with three users of the new software to confirm that it really

meets your goals

Question 7: What is your biggest piece of advice for nonprofits considering switching software?

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Do your homework. Make sure you know what the software needs to do,

and ask questions about each platform to make an informed decision

Give yourself ample time. Make sure there are dedicated staff (more than

two people) to make it happen. Make sure your leadership is involved

Take your time in making a decision, be inclusive, and listen to opinions

and suggestions from all stakeholders

Discuss it with industry peers. Everyone will give you their 2 cents on

which platform is best. The one you choose may be unexpected

Make sure that you have a complete data map of all your existing data

and you know exactly how it should be mapped to the new system

Question 7: What is your biggest piece of advice for nonprofits considering switching software? Cont’d

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Our standard onboarding timeline is 11 weeks.

Many clients go over that, but we've done other

on-boardings in as little as three weeks. The

clients who on-board faster are the ones who

have had a lot of internal discussions in

advance, figuring out which data they want to

move over and assigning roles in the process.

Even before choosing our software, they've

asked us which payment gateways we integrate

with -- and started to figure out which gateway to

pick (if they need to change to a new one). I

highly recommend doing the internal research in

advance. It takes time, sure, but it's going to

take time no matter when you do it. Better to

take that time before you start implementing the

our software.

Advice from Amanda Foster

Director of Account Services Engaging Networks

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It's never too early to starting thinking

about data. Things like …Do you want to

bring over previous transactional data?

Or just static data? Is the data clean? Do

I want to keep records of former

supporters who have unsubscribed?

Thinking about those things will help

make the process go more smoothly.

Advice from Josh Miller

Director of Client Support Engaging Networks

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Q & A

Agony & Ecstasy: Switching To New Online Fundraising Software

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Agony & Ecstasy: Switching To New Online Fundraising Software

Clinton O'Brien Chief Operating Officer Engaging Networks email: clint@engagingnetworks.net

Jen Maceyko Client Services Director Firefly Partners email: jenm@fireflyparnters.com t: @fireflypartners

Walid Haddad Director, Development Operations Human Rights Watch email: haddadw@hrw.org t: @WalidGHaddad