Every organization has opportunities to improve and evolve, and becoming more data-driven is often at the top of the list. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to deepen your efforts, success depends on more than good intentions. Just as with any meaningful change, having a clear plan in place is essential for making progress that lasts.
Our team recently authored a white paper called Assessing and Improving Your Data Landscape in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In it, we shared a maturity model for your organization’s data landscape – including technology platforms, documented policies and procedures, and behavioral norms around the use of those tools. Based on your self-evaluation on the maturity model, we recommend developing a data plan that moves your organization forward. A data plan will define the key activities and people involved in your 2025 objectives and specify metrics and targets for success. Here’s the template!
One of the key areas we want to highlight in the data landscape is Moves Management. A strong system requires clear policies and procedures for using the CRM to move donors intentionally through the pipeline. Here are a couple of common findings when assessing our clients on the maturity model, and how we address them in their data plan.
I. Portfolios are tracked in the CRM, but former staff are assigned and current staff have a hard time “letting go” of prospects.
In this scenario we recommend an analysis of staff portfolios to assess engagement and capacity of each prospect, and use this data drive a detailed portfolio rebalancing process. To ensure that the data stays fresh, we recommend drafting prospect management policies that define agreed metrics and targets for prospect movement through the pipeline (e.g., 4 qualification outreach attempts in a 6-month period, no response is considered disqualified and dropped from the portfolio).
II. Prospect status and proposal/opportunity stage are used interchangeably.
Here we recommend an audit of the values for each field (and the creation of separate fields if they are not yet available). Prospect status should reflect the donor’s overall relationship, whereas the opportunity stage should provide more detail about the status of their solicitation(s). This allows the team to have a clearer sense of how the relationship is progressing.
III. The Moves Management system works well for individuals, but institutional prospecting is tracked entirely outside the system.
Eliminating the use of shadow databases is a critical objective for the data plan in this scenario. CRMs have different capabilities for grant tracking, but every one of them can be set up to support the needs of the foundation and corporate teams. We recommend taking steps to define the field values that will accommodate the unique steps associated with this work (e.g. LOI submitted), ensuring these are reflected in the system, and importing data from offline systems into the CRM for historical records.
Ready to build a stronger data strategy? We’re here to help! Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions—and remember, you don’t have to do everything at once. As the sector continues to grow more data-reliant, this work is a journey, not a sprint.
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