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.

Without value, a cost is just a cost

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from a potential client who seemed quite surprised that I couldn't give him my hourly rate.

I mean, if I had one, I would have told him. But the work I really like to do — and honestly, the work I like to hire outside help for — isn't at all about how much time it takes to complete a task.

• When I take my truck to my favorite mechanic, I don't care how long it takes him to do the work.
  I just care how long I need to be without my truck, and whether it gets fixed right.

• When I visit my dentist or my doctor, I don't care how long they spend on keeping me healthy.
  I just care that what they do does help keep me healthy.

Heck, I'd gladly pay them both more if they could provide the same results more quickly. That's less time for me without my primary transportation, and less time sitting in an exam room with the doctor.

For this person who called me, this all seemed hard to understand. My impression was that what he really wanted was an easy way to compare the cost of hiring me with the cost of hiring someone else.

But there are two problems with this approach:

1. Hourly rates aren't a real reflection of cost. After all, what is an hour of work? How many hours will a given project really take? Does anyone really care how many minutes I spend puzzling out a complex workflow, or typing geek-speak into a code editor?

2. Cost is only part of the equation. Expected value is at least as important. No matter how little it costs to have my mechanic replace my brand-new tires with other brand-new tires, that's not an outcome that I'm willing to pay for.

Or, for a more salient example:

You could hire someone to make your "donate now" button more visible, but I'm guessing that's not really what you're after. Probably what you really want is to measurably increase your online donations. That's an outcome that has real value.

Here's the thing:

When it's time to hire outside help with any of your systems, take a moment to consider what it is you'd really like to achieve, and what that's really worth to your mission.

With that, you'll have a notion of what constitutes a reasonable investment toward that value.

Without that, you just have a cost. And even the lowest cost — hourly rate or otherwise — is still just a cost, if it's not getting you something of measurable value.

All the best,
A.

What problem are you solving?

This week I've been at CiviCon 2025, where we've heard about an amazing number of new extensions, core features, and inspiring stories of organizations getting great results with CiviCRM.

But in the face of all these wonderful new ideas, one presenter asked a smart question: "What problem are you solving?"

It's a smart question because it can help you avoid the classic problem known as Shiny Object Syndrome — a variety of the "mispaced priorities" problem — in which you can find yourself trying lots of new solutions because they look awesome, without pausing to consider what you're actually hoping to get for your efforts.

If you're remembering to count the value first, you're probably less susceptible to Shiny Obect Syndrome, because you've made a healthy habit of

• defining the problem;

• defining the value of solving the problem — in other words, the cost (in funds, time, good will, or lost opportunity) of doing nothing about it;

• and only then considering solutions which can resolve that specific problem with an investment that's less than the expected value.

Count the value first, and the cost second. And always be able to define exactly what problem you're trying to solve.

All the best,
A.

The symphony

"No one can whistle a symphony. ..."

I've tried without much luck to figure out who coined the phrase. But it doesn't matter.

---

This week we've completed final preparations for CiviCon 2025, the first CiviCon since the bad old days, when the big virus scared us all into hiding.

The Admin Training portion starts on Monday.

It feels a lot like opening night: Are we ready? This is gonna be awesome. Will they like it? Let's go! Should we run through it one more time?

One thing I've seen: It's a team effort.

Just like the work you're doing every day.

Everyone's working hard. Everyone's trying new things.

And when it's time to launch — the new program, the big event, the grand gala — we're all there to wince at the flubbed notes and celebrate at the crescendos.

No one person could make this happen.

"... It takes an orchestra to play it."

All the best,
A.

“Making it up as we go along”

Friend of the list Rose L. writes in with a response (shared with permission) to my email “Wishful thinking” from a few days ago.

---

I had said:

• Complex systems are hard to master.
• The future is hard to predict.
• Donors who don’t feel appreciated don’t return.
• Members want substantial value in return for dues.
• Staff need training, support, and leadership.
• Every improvement requires an investment of time, attention, and funds.

But unlike gravity, these simple facts of life are still not understood and accepted by many of us grown adults. It’s easy to imagine that we could — if not for these pesky realities — truly change the world for good without so much effort.

But it’s no use.

The realities are there, and there’s little value in trying to wish them away.

Rose replies:

… maybe this reflects my current state of mind (!) but I read it as something like “despite being grown adults, we often keep our head in the sand when something is difficult or complex”

and maybe it’s the use of the term ‘grown adults’ –

as kids, we assume that becoming an adult means we know what we’re doing but that’s pretty far removed from the truth.

Most of us are making it up as we go along, giving the impression that we confidently know what we’re doing!

So I’m thinking:

Oh yeah, I’m totally making it up as I go along (no kidding), for a lot of things.

And that’s part of the fun of it.

When I was 8, I was excited to mow the lawn.
That got old soon enough — just about the time I learned all there was to know about cutting grass.

Fortunately for all of us, there’s always something new to learn.

Fortunately for the people we care about, there’s usually a way to harness that learning for everyone’s benefit.

All the best,
A.

Metrics are not goals

When a metric becomes a goal, it ceases to be a meaningful metric.

---

A friend of mine jokingly hypothesized today that you could measure the popularity of a professional sports team by noting how many of its fans go to jail the night the team wins the championship.

It's a little funny, but there might be something to it: “Fans were so excited for the win that an estimated 83% of revelers were arrested for disturbing the peace, local police said today.”

But even if we decided it was a useful metric, imagine how meaningless it would become if fans began trying to prove their loyalty by striving to increase their team’s “Jailed Fans at Championship Win” rate.

Developing a fanatical fan base may be an important objective for team owners.

But surely their real goals have more to do with profitability and long-term sustainability of the organization.

Instigating a campaign to get more of their fans arrested probably isn't exactly fruitful.

Here's the thing:

When metrics become goals in themselves, we get an effect commonly known as “gaming the system.”

Because we’re all influenced by incentives, and having great results in one metric or another is a quik way to appear successful.

Think about this in other ways:

• Your email open rate.

• Event, participant satisfaction surveys.

• Time spent to complete a common task.

All of those can be useful metrics. But they’re not actually goals.

If they were real goals, you might be justified in arguing for sensational and deceptive subject lines to get that open rate up. In truth, that’s probably counter to your real mission goals.

It’s the mission that matters.

The metrics are just one measure of early successes on the way to the actual mission goals.

All the best,
A.

“Who should we get to manage our CRM?”

I got this great question yesterday from someone at an organization that’s just now launching their new CiviCRM system:

Our team is not especially technical, and we’re completely unfamiliar with CiviCRM. Who should we get to manage our CRM? Is that something we can hire you or someone else to do?

That’s paraphrased from memory, but it’s pretty close.

My answer:

This is a job for a staff member: One person, internal to your organization, who can build mastery of your CRM system and, if needed, coordinate the work of others to fit your organization’s goals.

Sure, sometimes you’ll need specialized technical help. Big complicated problems, creation of new features, strategic consultation on how best to leverage CiviCRM’s broad feature set. That’s a good time to think about hiring an outside specialist.

On a day-to-day basis, it’s a different story. The person who should be managing your CRM day-to-day is someone who first of all understands your organization.

The CRM is just a tool. A skilled person can make it perform very well for a very wide variety of needs.

But deciding how it should be used requires someone who really understands your programs, your policies, your people, your business goals, your funding model, your mission priorities.

Will they be a CiviCRM genius right out of the gate?

No. But a system like CiviCRM is designed to be manageable by non-technical folks. It’s a skillset they can learn. People do it every day. (I know. It’s my job to help them do it.)

On the other hand, will an outside provider ever come to know your organization’s dynamic, unique, intricate needs as well as someone who’s internal to your team?

That’s just not very likely.

Here’s the thing:

Technical skill is neither uncommon nor unatainable.

It’s also not a substitute for personal care and intimate organizational knowledge.

Given a choice between two people who have one or the other, you can either:

• Teach the technical skills to the person who knows and cares for your mission; OR

• Teach the nuances of your mission work and organizational culture to the person who has the technical skills.

I believe you’re far better off with the first option.

All the best,
A.