Someone to ask

This week I got a nice variety of questions from my coaching clients. Here's quick sampling of them:

• How do I get out of my job / hand-off CRM management to subordinates or successors?

• How are your other clients tracking contributions by board members?

• How can I list Groups, Membership and Board Relationships in a single view?

• Can we start looking at SearchKit together, maybe starting with relationships?

• Can you help me clear out extra message templates, and determine what's not needed?

• How can I monitor dkim/spf status for good email deliverability?

• We've been getting a lot of spam submissions — how can we identify them and clean them up, and how can we prevent more of the same in the future?

• We've got a relationship type that's not configured properly, and it's going to make our reports/searches difficult. How can we clean that up? Or is it even worth bothering with at this point?

• My users are getting a "white-screen-of-death" (fatal error showing only a completely white screen) on some searches. Can you help me debug that?

For each client, we were able to get to most of their questions in our sessions.

Some were longer than we had time for, so we priortized them, tackled the important and urgent ones first, and left the other for a future session.

You can see it’s a pretty broad scope, but they all have one thing in common:
Working efficiently in the CRM to effectively support the mission.

Sometimes the questions are technical.
Sometimes they’re strategic.

Many of them could be answered with a little trial-and-error or web searching.
Some are more human and open-ended.

But all of them are worth asking about, worth discussing with an experienced advisor.

Here’s the thing:

If you’ve got questions you’ve been nooding around with for a while, and not getting to an answer on your own, then ask yourself:

Who could you talk with to get some traction and start moving forward?

Find that person, and ask. You’ll be glad you did.

All the best,
A.

The guide

A couple of people responded to yesterday's email, pointing out that exploration in a new city or a big park is something of a dying art.

After all, you've got a map in your pocket that covers virtually every pathway on the planet.

Indeed. That's the other way people get where they're going: They have a trusted authority to guide them.

Most anyone in a hurry to find the Bethesda Terrace Fountain in New York's Central Park will just pull out their cell phone and follow the blue line.

But that's only because of one thing:

They've found an authoritative guide, and they trust it.

So here's the question:

Is your organization an authoritative guide for your people? Do they look to you for answers?

Because here’s the thing:

The more often you understand their needs and answer their questions reliably, the more they'll look to you first for guidance.

If you can do that, there's no better position to be in, for helping your people find their way.

All the best,
A.

There are no straight roads.

If you want your people to find their way, expect to help them at every turn.

---

Today I walked a few blocks to meet a friend for lunch. There's construction downtown, so it wasn’t as easy as I expected.

But it reminded me of an important truth about the way people navigate new situations or spaces:

We don't navigate in straight lines.

Of course, when we know the terrain and have a clear destination, we do aim for the shortest possible path.

But think about how you find your way in a big park or a new city, even if you've decided on a destination (assuming you don't have your head buried in your smart phone):

• If you're trying to find the famous fountain with the angel statue, you can't just head right for it. You go out of your way to look at signage or to peek around a stand of trees.

• If you're trying to get back to your hotel after dinner, you don't just cut through any parking lot or slip around the corners of buildings. You step out to the curb and peer down the street, or make your best guess using whatever landmarks you can find.

If you’re just looking for “something interesting to do,” you’re not even navigating anymore. You’re exploring, and that’s even more roundabout.

Here's the thing:

When your people are interacting with your organization — whether through your website, or events, or mailers, or anything else — they won't just make a beeline for your call to action.

They explore. They test. They feel their way.

Even if they know where they're trying to go (and very often, they don't even know that).

They will never navigate in a straight line.

It's up to you to provide the hints, the landmarks, and the incentives to help them find their way from one valuable waypoint to the next.

At any juncture, they may get turned around, or decided it's too much trouble, or be distracted by any sparkling object.

Do you know where you want them to go?
Are you helping them stay engaged until they get there?
Have you thought about what motivates them to move from one step to the next?

If you can get those things right, there's a good chance they'll get there.

Most of them actually want to.

But they need your help.

All the best,
A.

Videos from CiviCon 2025

Did you miss the chance to attend CiviCon 2025?

Here’s a little good news: You can see videos of the presentations online.

Here’s what’s available so far (all but the first two are short “Lightning Talks” of 10 minutes or less, so probably worth a quick look):

• 20-Plus Years: Colaborating for Good — CiviCRM co-founder Dave Greenberg

• Make New Features for CiviCRM Instantly With No Code — Coleman Watts, CiviCRM Core Team

• How CiviCRM Powers the NY State Senate — Nate Frank, New York State Senate

• New SearchKit Batch Import Display — Coleman Watts, CiviCRM Core Team

• Stepwise Workflows: Multi-Step Forms for CiviCRM — Allen Shaw, Joinery

• CiviCRM Relationship Advice — Gena Dellett, Skvare

• Must-See Extensions for CiviCRM — Jon Goldberg, Megaphone Technology Consulting

• Resource Management with CiviCRM — Lena Jukna, Systopia

• Using Composer with CiviCRM + Drupal — Mark Hanna

• Automating CiviCRM with Rules — Matt Wire, MJW Consulting

Really, I think it’s worth a moment of your time to give them a quick look. For easy reference, they’re all in linked here in a single YouTube playlist.

Of course, that’s not everything, not yet.

The all-volunteer CiviCon video team is doing some very nice editing on these videos, which presumably takes time.

There are around 20 or so still to be released.

But no need to wait! if you missed out on CiviCon, you can still learn a lot from this collection of short talks!

All the best,
A.

Pulling together

In the part of the world where I live, today is a holiday.

For me it's a day to think about the community I live in and my role in shaping it.

Most of my friends are, like myself, imperfect bundles of conflicting desires.

My country, my town, my family, we're all like that.

On the bad days, we get confused about it. We waste a lot of energy moving an inch in every direction and going nowhere.

On the good days, we have our priorities straight and give up the one thing we want for the other thing that we want more.

And usually, we find ways to work together.

On this day about halfway through the year, I hope the same for you:

Making smart trade-offs.
Remembering what you really want.
Finding like-minded folks who, though they're certainly not perfect, understand the value of pulling together.

Happy 4th. And 5th. And all the rest of them, too.

All the best,
A.

Why I'm offering the CRM Strategy Sessions

Yesterday I mentioned the availability of a few no-fee CRM Strategy Sessions, and I’ve had a few thoughtful replies already — clearly it’s something people are thinking about.

But some folks are wondering: Why give away these sessions at no cost?

To be fair, it's not entirely altruistic. Here's the deal:

I'm offering these spots to list members because you're the kind of people I enjoy working with: leaders who care about their mission and want to keep learning to move that mission forward.

And frankly, this is the kind of work that matters.

Not just learning your tools, or collecting new features. But getting real clarity about who your people are, what they need and want, and how you can align your goals with theirs so you can move forward together.

I've been helping my clients do this "by the way" for ages. But that kind of offhand support only goes so far.

These sessions are a way for me to dig deeper into that kind of work and to begin making it more of a primary offering in my services.

What I learn from these sessions will inform my own process. And what you learn will inform your process in the important work you're doing.

That means this isn't a prelude to a sales call. You should expect to walk away with a clear and actionable plan, whether we work together again or not.

If this feels timly to you, there’s still time to claim a spot.

Because after all, it doesn't matter how fancy your tools are, if you're not clear on what you're really trying to build. (And I’m just guessing here, but your mission is probably not to build a fancy CRM system.)

All the best,
A.

Announcing: CRM Strategy Sessions

This is a special offer for list subscribers. Read on if you'd like help sorting out your CRM strategy.

---

Yesterday I hinted that getting great results is not so much about knowing your tools as it is about knowing your plan.

That means:

To get the results you really want, you need to to be able to articulate clearly:

Who you're trying to reach,
what you want them to do,
and how you can encourage them to do it

If you don't happen to know that, you're not alone.
But it’s not a great place to be.

Now, you may be able to get a handle on it by just sitting alone and thinking it over.
Or through some healthy dialog with your team.

But if you haven't had success with it by now, there's a good chance you need something more.

I'd like to help you with that.

Starting on July 15th, I'll be offering a limited number of one-on-one CRM Strategy Sessions, in which I'll walk with you through a process of clarifying exactly the who, what, and how of helping your constituents go from wherever they are now … to where you want them to be.

There's no fee for these sessions, and you should walk away with a clear and actionable plan.

And after all, if you’re like most of the small non-profit leaders I've talked with, the problem is not with putting in the work. It's in deciding where to invest.

I'll announce more details on the 15th.

But openings are limited, and it's first-come-first-served.

If you'd like to know more or reserve your spot, shoot me an email, and I'll save you a seat.

All the best,
A.

Why do you have a CRM?

Indulge me for a moment in a game of Let's Pretend.

Imagine ...
that you had ...
no CRM software at all.

Somehow ...
you just had a bit of magic ...
that would give you ...
any information you needed about your constituents ...
instantly.

Got it?

Now ...

What would you do with that information?

Who would you reach out to?
What would you encourage them to do?
What would you say, do, or offer to help them take that step?

Do you know?

If you do ... then that's the foundation of your communications strategy. That's what you should be trying to use your CRM for.

If you don't ... then no CRM software in the world will compensate for that.

Here's the thing:

Your CRM software is just a fancy tool with a lot of features. And like any tool, it can be sometimes fun and sometimes frustrating.

But focusing on the tool does not, by itself, lead to great outcomes.

On the other hand, getting the tool to do what you want ... can lead to great outcomes.

But only if you know what you want.

All the best,
A.

Configuration sprawl? Start here.

If your CRM has some configuration sprawl — and let’s be honest, most do — you don’t need a full audit to start making things better.

The mess didn’t happen all at once. And the cleanup doesn’t have to, either.

You just need a few good ways to begin:

• Start documenting.
  Even a simple Google Doc can go a long way. Start listing custom fields, tags, groups, or profiles—what they’re for, who uses them, and whether they’re still relevant.

• Mark things as disabled.

  Start with custom fields, profiles, tags, or price sets that are clearly outdated. Don’t delete them—just hide them from daily use.

• Use naming conventions.

  When you create new fields, groups, or other configured entities, make it obvious why they exist. A little clarity now prevents a lot of confusion later.

• Add notes where you can.

  Some CRM objects (like groups or profiles) let you include a description for your own future reference. Use them to explain intent or history.

• Make a “maybe” list.

  Not ready to remove something? Add it to a cleanup list to revisit later. Uncertainty is fine—as long as you track it.

None of this is flashy. Some of it seems tedious. But it’s how clarity begins.

You don’t need to fix everything this week. You can start small.

But if you don’t start, can you really expect this clutter to go away on its own?

All the best,
A.

Why messy systems stay messy

Once you start noticing configuration sprawl in your CRM, it’s natural to think about cleaning it up.

But most people don’t, at least not right away.

Not because they don’t care, or because they’re disorganized. Just because it’s genuinely hard to know where to begin.

You might be unsure whether that custom field is still in use.
You’re not sure who created that tag or what it was meant for.
You see multiple profiles with similar names, but no documentation to explain the differences.

And with every example like that, the risk of “breaking something” feels a little higher.

So instead of cleaning it up, people work around it.

They create new fields instead of sorting out the old ones.
They duplicate price sets with yet another similar name.
They rename things instead of deleting or disabling them.

It’s understandable.

But over time, those workarounds add up. And the system becomes even harder to navigate, understand, and maintain.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about a few ways to start cleaning it up without breaking things — and without getting overwhelmed.

All the best,
A.

Sprawl: It made sense at the time

When my wife and I were house-hunting a few years ago, we saw a lot of places with what I’d call... creative floorplans.

• A bedroom you could only reach by walking through another bedroom.

• A laundry closet in the bedroom.

• A master bathroom that opened directly into the kitchen.

You could tell these homes had been added onto over time. And I'm sure none of these homeowners actually set out to design a confusing house.

A project here, a tweak there. Each change solved a real need in the moment. But over time, the structure started to wander.

Your CRM might feel a little like that.

• An event-related custom field added directly to all contacts.

• A one-off profile for a past event that’s now also being used for contributions.

• A new tag when no one remembered the old one.

• Mailing-list groups that overlap in confusing ways.

It's not as if it were designed wrong. It just wasn’t designed all at once.

And maybe for the people who made those changes, it still feels fine — as I'm sure it did for the folks who were (finally) selling those houses.

But if you’ve inherited the system — or even just come back to something you configured a year ago — you’ve probably felt the strain.

Here’s the thing:

The more things get patched up incrementally, the harder it becomes to understand, use, and trust the system day-to-day.

And if someone new ever has to take it over? That’s even harder.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about why cleanup is so tricky — and why most teams put it off as long as they can.

All the best,
A.

Living things are messy

If your CRM has been in use for a few years — especially by a busy team — you’ve probably seen this:

• Multiple fields that capture the same thing, but no one’s sure which is current

• Profiles created for one event, never reused, but still hanging around

• Price sets with unclear names or duplicate purposes

• Tags that aren’t used in searches or reports anymore

And you might also have started to see the problems that can come out of it:

• You start seeing similar fields with slightly different names.

• You forget which group is used for what.

• You build a report, and it misses data — because you pulled from the wrong field with the right-sounding name.

In other words: confusion when things accumulate:

One-off fields, extra profiles, overlapping tags and groups.

It's what I call "configuration sprawl."

It happens in systems that are alive — because living things grow, and growing things get messy.

This week, I want to share some thoughts on unpacking that sprawl: how it happens, why it’s hard to fix, and what you can do to prevent it from getting worse.

Because here's the thing:

Not every CRM needs to be pristine.

But every CRM deserves to be understandable.

All the best,
A.

“Irreplaceable”: not as great as it sounds

Today a long-time client called to let me know she’s retiring at the end of August. Not much more than five weeks to go.

And she's ready ... almost. Except for this one thing:

What happens to all her work when she's gone?

She’s been at her organization for 18 years. In all that time, she's been the one running the CRM and slowly working for its improvement.

She knows where things are, how it all fits together, and what’s been tried before.

She knows how it fits with the overall mission and strategy.

And it got me to thinking ...

At some point, all of us step away. Sometimes it’s planned — retirement, a new role, a vacation. Sometimes it’s not — health, family, life.

But the work continues. The people we're working to serve still need things to run smoothly.

And stepping away isn't just a logistical challenge — it’s an emotional one.

It’s easier to let go when you know what you’ve built will keep working. When you know someone else can pick it up and carry it forward.

So maybe now’s the time to ask: Could someone else step in and make sense of your CRM system?

If not — what small steps could make that easier?

Because here's the thing:

Of course, none of us is truly replaceable. We'll always bring our own personality and perspective to the table, and that always leaves with us if and when we're gone.

But this isn’t about being "irreplaceable."

It’s about building systems that can carry the work forward — whether or not you’re there to carry it yourself.

Ensuring your CRM system will work without you is not just smart.

It’s generous. And it's liberating.

All the best,
A.

Does your team feel welcome in the CRM?

Yesterday I mentioned what happens operationally when only one person truly understands the CRM.

But operational troubles aren't the only impact. It also creates an emotional impact.

For the person managing it:

• It can feel like pressure. Responsibility. Isolation.

• They know too much — and they’re afraid no one else can take it on.

For everyone else:

• It can feel like walking on eggshells.

• Afraid to try something. Afraid to ask the “wrong” question.

• Or worse — afraid to admit they’re confused.

That’s not a software problem.
It’s a culture problem.

But here’s the thing:

It’s totally fixable.

You don’t need everyone to be an expert.
You just need people to feel safe asking, trying, and slowly learning.

A strong CRM system is one that invites participation — not just protects it.

All the best,
A.

Whose CRM is it, anyway?

I’ve seen this a few times now:

One staff member builds out the CRM. They know the data, the quirks, the workarounds. And without meaning to, they become the only one who really knows how it all fits together.

It works — until that person’s out sick. Or on leave. Or moves on.

That’s when everyone else realizes:
We don’t just have a system. We also have a dependency.

Here’s the thing:

This isn’t about blame. It’s just a reminder that the more shared the knowledge, the stronger the system.

If you want your CRM to keep serving your team — even through transitions or growth — it helps to invest in clear documentation, role-sharing, and regular check-ins.

Because one day, someone else will need to know how it works.

And it’s a gift to them if you’ve already made that easier.

All the best,
A.

Reports are not strategy

I’ve worked with teams who chase better reports as if better data could create better direction.

But a report is just a mirror.

If you don’t already know what matters, no report will tell you.

CRMs can measure. They can track. They can visualize.
But they can’t decide.

Strategy means naming your outcome — and what it takes to get there.

Only then do reports become useful: To show where you’re starting, and how far you’ve come.

Here's the thing:

If you’re staring at a dashboard wondering what to do next …
The problem probably isn’t the report.

Go back and examine your strategic plan. You do have one of those ... right?

All the best,
A.

Human

Every week, I get questions about CiviCRM configuration, permissions, or integration issues.

But the trickiest problems are rarely technical.

They’re human.

What happens when one team member controls the system and won’t share access?
Or when different departments disagree on how to track something?
Or when nobody feels empowered to make a decision?

Software is messy — but it’s predictable.
People are messy in ways that no feature can fix.

Here’s the thing:

Your CRM should reflect how your team works.

But first, your team has to be able to work together.

If that’s not happening, the issue isn't about data systems.

It’s about leadership.

All the best,
A.

When "just CiviCRM" isn't just CiviCRM

A client asked me last week on a coaching call:

We have this WordPress site that only exists to run CiviCRM. So do we even need WordPress? What about CiviCRM Standalone?

It’s a great question. If your WP (or Drupal) site exists only to access CiviCRM, then yes — CiviCRM Standalone could be a better fit.

Leaner. Fewer updates. Fewer moving parts.

But: You might be losing more than you think:

No donation landing pages. No CMS plugins. No page builder. No easy user-switching tool when you want to see what your team members (or your constituents) see.

There are ways around all of that, but they'll need your attention if they matter to you.

Here’s the thing:

Standalone is great if you’re truly only using CiviCRM.

But if you need your site to serve the public — or even your staff — in richer ways, your CMS might be doing more than you realize.

Before you rip it out, it's wise to ask:

What exactly is your CMS handling right now that you’d have to rebuild — or do without?

Because sometimes, "invisible" features are still doing real work.

All the best,
A.

Custom needs aren’t wrong. They’re just … custom.

A client called me yesterday with a membership question (paraphrased for brevity):

Can you make it so that if someone renews on June 10 this year, their membership will run through the end of the month — June 30 next year?

Right now, they’re doing it manually — editing expiration dates by hand after every renewal.

The short answer: Yes, I’m sure we can find a way to do that.

The longer answer: CiviCRM doesn’t offer such a setting out-of-the-box. It’s not an unreasonable need, but it’s uncommon enough that most orgs don’t require it. So you’ll need to think about whether it’s worth making CiviCRM handle it automatically.

Here’s the thing:

CiviCRM is built for nonprofits. It gets a lot of things right, right out of the box. But it’s probably not built exactly for all of your quirks.

That’s fine — because it’s also amazingly flexible. As an open-source tool designed for extensibility, almost anything is possible. If you decide it’s worth the investment.

If your organization has a custom policy — like how membership renewal dates should behave — you’ll need to choose how much effort, time, and expense it’s worth to you.

Manual editing is one path. Automation is another.

Neither option is wrong.
But either way, there’s a cost.

In the end, your job isn’t to find a “perfect” solution.
It’s to decide what tradeoffs you're willing to make.

All the best,
- A.

SearchKit is for mortals (yes, even you)

I used to think SearchKit was too complicated for most non-technical organization staff.

But last week, I walked a client through a simple segment they needed—a list of all Organization-type conacts who don’t have a “Primary contact” relationship to an Individual.

They were bracing for a spreadsheet mess.
I was bracing for eyes-glazed over.

Instead, we built it in ten minutes.

They didn’t need a developer. They didn’t need a training manual. They just needed a little guidance — and the nerve to try it.

Tools like SearchKit look intimidating—until you see how quickly they can give you exactly what you want.

So if there’s a report or list you’ve been wishing your CRM had… maybe it already does.

Just takes one click to open the door.

All the best,
A.