UK Charities: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a CRM

A strategic, step-by-step framework to select the right system for your mission, budget and future.

Introduction: Why This Choice is More Than Software

I’ve seen charities with great causes and committed teams fail. Not because of poor fundraising, inadequate marketing, or ineffective programmes, but because they made the wrong choice at the wrong time when it came to technology. They bought, or committed to, a CRM – a constituent relationship management system – that overpromised, underdelivered, and became an organisational albatross: a complicated expensive box of trouble that consumed time and resources and held them back.

On the flip side, I’ve seen charities with limited reach and scale punch well above their weight because they got this decision right. The right CRM isn’t just software; it’s an investment in impact and a force multiplier for mission delivery. It lets you better understand and nurture your supporters, optimise your operations and free up resources, and scale up to do more of what you do best. The wrong one? It’s an expensive millstone, a black hole for effort that depresses morale and creates friction everywhere – most critically between you and the people you’re trying to help.

After two decades working for UK charities, in roles ranging from community projects to national institutions, I’ve had to make this decision more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve learned hard lessons. And I’ve developed a framework for this process that works. There are plenty of lists of the “top 10 CRMs for charities”, but they’re all just sales brochures dressed up as journalism and a frustrating waste of your time. This is a strategic, practical guide.

The UK Context: Why Our Challenges Are Distinctive

Charities in the UK face a unique and intensifying set of pressures. We are competing harder than ever for a fixed and probably shrinking pool of charitable giving. We have to operate within an increasingly burdensome regulatory framework, from the Charity Commission itself, through HMRC’s Gift Aid scheme (essential but administratively complex) to the world’s most restrictive data protection legislation in GDPR and PECR. We are expected to be more and more accountable for impact whilst working with budgets that would make commercial sector managers wail. Add these together, and it’s unsurprising that operating a charity can feel like you’re juggling while unicycling.

Your CRM sits at the intersection of all these pressures. It’s the point at which donor data and Gift Aid claims meet, where GDPR compliance and marketing comms intersect, and where volunteer management and service delivery reporting come together. Get it wrong, and you have software frustration and staff groans. Get it really wrong, and you risk losing your Gift Aid payments from HMRC, incurring a regulatory fine, or getting something on the front page of the FT.

Core Thesis: Strategy Before Software

So what will this guide do? Let’s be clear about what it’s not, because that will help frame what it is.

It is not:

• A feature comparison spreadsheet. The NHS GP at Hand app has over 250 functions. No charity CRM comes close to that. Every system out there has the headline features to seem compelling, and every sales team knows which buttons to push to make you think their solution does what you need. However much the vendor marketing teams try to squeeze into two columns, you don’t need an Excel cut-and-paste job that will be out of date before you start using it to make this decision.
• A list of vendor and product names. I include some pointers on navigating the market, but you will see a lot of solutions that aren’t on this list, and many on it that you will never hear of in the normal course of your day job. Let’s be real: by the time you are seriously considering CRM options, you already have a shortlist, and most of these products don’t apply to you or your context. Don’t let any marketing team tell you otherwise. What matters is how you think about your choices, and why.
• A vendor shopping guide. Too many of these already and full of crap. This guide will help you interrogate vendors more rigorously than a vendor shopping guide can. It’s better to be vendor-agnostic (a rarity in our sector) than to buy some boilerplate vendor recommendations and accidentally end up with a vendor shopping guide in front of you.
• A list of vendors that donate to charity. Thanks for your attention and business, but I don’t need your incentives to take this seriously. Buy what you think is best for your organisation, not because some salesman throws in a snazzy tote bag or holiday. (Do these things even still exist, or is it all just cookies at the Cheltenham Festival?)
• A plug for paid-for support. You can totally buy this guide in hard copy, but if you really want that you should subscribe to Linked In Learning and take the full e-course. Seriously: watch this space and grab some bespoke consultancy before you start the process, not at the end of it. You’ll save yourself a lot of effort and hassle if you do, trust me. That’s the bit of this that is built on paid work, rather than two decades of unpaid suffering.

Choosing a UK charity CRM is – at heart – a strategic decision, not a technical one. You first need to understand your organisation’s current operating reality, and to be really clear about your future ambitions. You need to evaluate your internal context, not the vendor market. Only then can you turn the question round and look for the technology partner who will help you make your vision a reality.

So that is what this guide aims to do.

It will:

• Help you reframe your mindset, to see a CRM not as an IT cost line to be deplored but as critical infrastructure to your mission
• Provide you with a framework for conducting rigorous internal discovery before you speak to your first vendor
• Give you the confidence to navigate the UK charity technology market with purpose and critical evaluation
• Walk you through a selection process to surface the right solution for your context
• Help you build an unignorable business case, and then go on to implement successfully

Reader Promise

This is your ticket out of the dark ages of Excel and spreadsheets, or from a dysfunctional old system to one that genuinely works for you and helps you scale your mission. If you take away one thing from this guide, it should be: when you’ve worked through it, don’t start looking at products and vendors. Don’t even start talking to people in your organisation about what features you want to see. That’s premature, will waste your time, and you will end up with the wrong system. Do the internal discovery and clarity work first. Then start vendor conversations.

When you get to the conclusion, you’ll know what to ask internally, how to challenge vendors and critically evaluate against your needs, what pitfalls to watch out for, and how to build unstoppable momentum for successful implementation. That applies equally whether you’re a small charity choosing your first proper database, or a large organisation replacing a legacy system that you all hate.

It should also adapt to your context. I do not expect every reader to complete each step with equal intensity and focus, because not every context requires the same approach. But you should be prepared to do more internal discovery in a small organisation than you might in a larger one, and be more rigorous when you’re deciding as part of a team and not just signing up to a solution for your own department. If in doubt, go deeper. Or bring a consultant in and save yourself some hassle and time.

So let’s get started. But let’s start with mindset, not software.

Part 1: The Foundational Mindset Shift

1.1 From strategic wasteland to mission multiplier: reframing CRM as the mission critical technology it really is.

In too many trustee meetings and senior leadership conversations, I have heard CRM projects framed as “necessary evils”: unsexy but unavoidable costs that subtract from, rather than multiply, the organisation’s ability to achieve its mission. This framing is not just unhelpful – it is simply incorrect. That framing leads straight to underinvestment, to hasty decisions, to systems that fail to deliver value. Let’s reframe this.

Your CRM is not an optional add-on or an IT cost line to be minimised: it is strategic infrastructure, enabling your organisation to:

• Maximise every pound donated – better donor retention (a 10% uplift can increase lifetime value by 200%), more effective segmentation, and personalised stewardship to build better, longer-term relationships.
• Recover significant revenue – automatic **gift aid software** can recover 25p for every pound donated by UK taxpayers. For many charities Gift Aid represents 15-20% of voluntary income. A system that makes this process frictionless does not cost money, it makes it.
• Multiply staff effectiveness – how many hours does your team waste on manual data entry, searching for information across spreadsheets, or report preparation? A good CRM can save 20-30% of admin time and let skilled employees focus on relationship-building and programme delivery.
• Enable evidence-based decision making – when you have accurate, real-time data, you make strategic choices based on hard evidence, and instinct and magic and pixie dust just don’t come into it. Which campaigns are working? What donor segments are growing and which declining? Where should you invest? Your CRM should answer these questions instantly.
• Ensure compliance and reduce risk – GDPR fines can reach £17.5 million or 4% of annual turnover. A CRM with good consent management, data retention policies, and audit trails is not a luxury, it is essential risk management.

I could go on, but the point should be clear. When you frame this decision in this way, the question is no longer “Can we afford a proper CRM?” but “Can we afford not to have one?”

1.2 Understanding the ‘Charity CRM’ Difference: Why Generic Solutions Often Fail

Years ago, at the start of my career, I witnessed a well-meaning trustee – a successful entrepreneur – persuade our charity to move to the same CRM his business used. “It’s brilliant for us,” he enthused, “and I’m sure we can get you a nice discount.”

Ours was not, it must be said, a very sophisticated or demanding client by the standards of CRM vendors. We had a simple data model, basic service design, and a very junior tech team who relied on vendor support (providing we could get it) for most system configuration and reporting. His pitch was powerful. The founder of a successful international charity was putting in a personal request to a vendor we already knew. There were discounts in it. What was not to like?

What we got was a nightmare.

The core of the platform was built around sales pipelines, not donor journeys. It had no concept of Gift Aid, nor any tools for volunteer management, membership schemes, or legacy giving. Tailoring it to our needs would have been costlier than starting from a purpose-built charity solution. We limped along for eighteen months before deciding we were wasting more money and time and starting over.

Charity CRMs are different because our relationships are different. Fundamentally, at the heart of the two types of CRM is a very different data model of who we work with and what those relationships look like:

In commercial CRM systems (Salesforce in its native form, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics in all its glory), the basic unit of the system is transactional: lead → opportunity → sale → customer. The relationship is first and foremost financial, often adversarial (how much can I extract from this customer?). Contracts are made by salespeople, user journeys are funnelled and optimised for purchases.

In charity CRMs, at a bare minimum, the model is relational, and nuanced:

Donors who might give once, or regularly, or leave a legacy
Volunteers who give their time and skills
Beneficiaries who receive our services
Members who join a community
Advocates who campaign on our behalf
Corporate partners who engage with our organisation in a variety of ways

Rarely will a single individual occupy just one of these roles at a given time, and your CRM must cope with that complexity. Where our standard CRM process is welcome and stewardship, theirs is purchasing.

But it’s not just the complexity of the data model. Charity-specific systems also understand our unique processes:

• Gift Aid claiming and tracking. Not just recording that someone is a UK taxpayer, but managing Gift Aid declarations, tracking when each claim period expires and a new one must be requested, generating fully HMRC-compliant claims reports, and supporting the intricacies of sponsored events, membership subscriptions, and small donations schemes.
• Fundraising campaign management. Tracking an appeal across multiple channels and offline giving, attribution rules, matched giving, and calculating true ROI when including volunteer time.
• Volunteer coordination. Scheduling, skills tracking, DBS management, logging hours for impact reporting.
• Membership administration. Renewals, tiered benefits, managing lapsed members.
• Event management. From your village fete to your large fundraising ball, with ticketing, attendee management, and post-event thank yous.
• Grant management. Applications, restrictions, and reporting.

I’m not saying that Salesforce and others are unsuitable for charities. Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is widely used and, if configured and run well, does a lot of this (although not all!) through third-party apps. However, platforms like Salesforce are not designed with our data model and our processes at heart. They need extensive configuration, ongoing maintenance, and consultant support to work. This is fine if you have these things (see Gift Aid tracking above: Salesforce plus app is, to my knowledge, the only way to handle UK Gift Aid in a robust way). But for many UK charities – small and mid-sized organisations in particular – charity purpose-built platforms have better value and faster time-to-value.

1.3 The Rule of Clarity: Internal Consensus Before Vendor Contact

Here’s something I’ve noticed about the pattern in CRM decision making in UK charities: someone (often the fundraising manager or IT lead) is tasked with finding options. They request demos from three or four vendors, all of which are impressive in their own way, and emerge with the team more confused than when they started. Unable to agree on a choice, they defer. And time passes.

You cannot buy the right solution until you define your own needs. You cannot meaningfully evaluate until you have an internal agreement on the problem you are trying to solve and the future you are trying to create.

This should be obvious, but it is, I would wager, the most commonly skipped step in the process. The vendors are only going to show you the good bits. Without a clear and agreed set of requirements and priorities, you’ll be swayed by whoever you saw last or who most closely matches the preconceptions you came in with.

Before you contact a single vendor, you should have internal consensus on:

• What problems are we solving? Be specific. “Our current system is rubbish” isn’t actionable. “We can’t segment donors effectively so our appeals are generic and response rates are declining” is.
• What does success look like? In measurable, concrete terms. Not “better donor management” but “increase donor retention from 45% to 60% within two years” or “reduce time spent on Gift Aid claims from 3 days per quarter to 4 hours.”
• What are our non-negotiables? These are your must-haves, the features or capabilities without which a system won’t work for you.
• What’s our realistic budget? Including not just the subscription cost but implementation, data migration, training and ongoing support. We’ll come to that later, but what matters is the total cost of ownership over three to five years, not “annual subscription.” (See annual subscription, above.)
• Who needs to be involved in this decision? And crucially, who has veto power? I’ve seen organisations waste months on a selection process only for a key stakeholder (usually Finance Director or a trustee) to reject the chosen solution at the last minute because they hadn’t been consulted.

This internal clarity takes work, and it requires a structured process, which brings us to Part 2.

Part 2: The Internal Discovery Phase (Pre-Vendor Contact)

2.1 Assembling Your Project Team: Who Should Be Involved?

Choosing a charity CRM is not an IT project. It’s not a fundraising project. It’s an organisational transformation project that touches almost every function. Your project team needs to reflect that reality.

Core Team Members:

• Project Champion (Required)
  The project champion is the individual who ensures the project continues to move forward and maintains momentum. They have the authority to make decisions and escalate issues quickly. The best project champions are senior leaders in your organisation – someone like a Director of Fundraising, Operations Director or (in smaller charities) the CEO. They needn’t be technically minded, but they must be committed and have enough influence to see the project through.

• Fundraising/Development Lead
  Your CRM will most likely see the most use from your fundraising team. This team will know donor journeys, campaign management, and the nuances of the many different types of giving your charity might encounter. Buy-in from this team will be non-negotiable.

• Communications/Marketing Lead
  They’re going to use the CRM to run email campaigns, build supporter journeys, and integrate with social media. You need to ensure the CRM will play well with whatever other marketing tech you use. Do you rely on Mailchimp, Dotdigital or another provider for your mass marketing activities? This person’s needs must be met.

• Finance Representative
  The finance team needs to know the CRM will link easily to your accounting system (Xero for charities, Sage, QuickBooks), respect restricted funds rules, and produce the reports you need to satisfy auditors and trustees. They will also be instrumental in constructing the business case for investment.

• Service Delivery/Programme Lead
  If your charity provides direct services to beneficiaries, this person needs to ensure the CRM can track outcomes, manage case loads, and produce required impact reports. In my experience, this area is most often neglected during CRM selection, resulting in systems that work great for fundraising but terrible for service delivery and programme management.

• IT/Systems Lead
  Unless you already have a dedicated IT function in your charity, someone must understand your current technical landscape, data security needs, and integration challenges. Even if you’re moving to a cloud-based solution with minimal infrastructure requirements, this person can guide you on the technical feasibility of different options. In smaller charities, this role may be filled by an external consultant or a technically-minded team member.

• Volunteer Coordinator (if applicable)
  If volunteers are a key part of your charity model, someone needs to represent volunteer management needs.

Extended Stakeholders:

These individuals may not need to be on the core project team but should be consulted regularly:

• Trustees/Board Members, especially those with technology, finance, or charity sector experience. They’ll need to approve the investment.

• Front-line Staff who will be using the system day to day. Their input on pain points and practical workflow is invaluable.

• Data Protection Officer/Lead. They must ensure GDPR compliance is considered from the start.

A Note on Team Size: If you are a very small charity (say, fewer than 10 staff members) your “team” may end up being three people juggling multiple roles. That’s perfectly acceptable. What’s important is that all relevant perspectives are covered, even if that means one person must represent multiple viewpoints.

2.2 Mapping Your ‘As-Is’ Universe: Understanding Your Current Reality

Before you can accurately articulate where you need or want to go, you must have a brutally honest assessment of where you are now. This exercise is rarely fun; it often surfaces inefficiencies, workarounds, and sometimes years of unspoken frustrations. However, this painful reality-check is absolutely essential.

Process Audit: Document Key Workflows

Map out your critical processes, step-by-step. For each, write down each step, each system involved, and each handoff between people or departments. Pay particular attention to:

• Donation Processing:

  • How does a donation enter your system? (Online donation page, cheque, Direct Debit setup, cash in envelope, donation through fundraising platform like JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving, etc)

  • What happens next? (Data entry, sending an acknowledgement, capturing Gift Aid declaration, etc, accounting entry)

  • How long does each step take?

  • Where do errors occur?

• Donor Stewardship:

  • How do you segment donors?

  • What triggers communication (emails, thank you letters, impact updates, appeals, etc)?

  • How do you track past interactions and history of relationship?

• Volunteer Management:

  • How do volunteers register or sign up?

  • How are they matched to opportunities?

  • How do you track hours, skills, DBS checks etc?

  • How do you communicate with volunteers?

• Event Management:

  • How do you promote and market events? (Charity event promotion strategies are important here)

  • How do you manage registrations, ticketing, etc?

  • How do you track attendance, thank attendees, follow-up afterwards?

• Reporting:

  • What reports do you produce on a regular basis? (Trustee reports, funder reports, HMRC Gift Aid claims, Charity Commission returns, etc)

  • How long does it take to produce each?

  • How confident are you in the accuracy of data?

• Campaign Management:

  • How do you plan, execute and manage fundraising campaigns?

  • How do you track performance across channels?

  • How do you measure ROI?

This isn’t an academic exercise. Go watch your colleagues at work. Watch them. Time how long tasks take. You will be shocked.

Pain Point Catalogue: Where Are the Delays, Errors, and Frustrations?

As you work through the process mapping exercise, create a catalogue of pain points. Open a new spreadsheet and create the following columns.

• Pain Point Description. Be specific. “Data entry takes too long” is not helpful. “Entering a single donation with Gift Aid declaration requires data to be manually entered into three separate systems and takes 8-10 minutes” is good.

• Frequency. How often does this happen? Daily, weekly, monthly?

• Impact. What is the result? Lost time, lost money, errors made, missed opportunities, staff frustration?

• People Affected. Who experiences this pain?

Common pain points I hear from UK charities:

• Duplicate records leading to confusion and GDPR non-compliance risk

• Inability to segment donors effectively, resulting in irrelevant communications

• Manual Gift Aid claiming processes that are prone to error and time-consuming

• No integration between fundraising database and accounting software, leading to double entry

• No ability to track donor journey across multiple touchpoints

• Volunteer information is kept in a spreadsheet, completely separate from donor records

• No mobile access, making it impossible for field staff to access data or update records when away from the office

• Reporting requires data to be exported from the system, then massaged and manipulated in Excel

• No audit trail for data changes, creating potential compliance issues

Tool Stack Inventory: Make a List of All Your Current Software

In a new spreadsheet, create a complete list of every piece of software you currently use. Include (at minimum):

• Your current CRM/Database. What is it? How long have you been using it? What does it cost per year?

• Accounting System. Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, etc.

• Email Marketing. Mailchimp, Dotdigital, Campaign Monitor, etc.

• Website/Donation Page. WordPress with donation plugins, Enthuse, JustGiving, etc.

• Event Management. Eventbrite, Ticket Tailor, etc.

• Volunteer Management. Do you have a dedicated system for this? Or do you use spreadsheets?

• Survey Tools. SurveyMonkey, Typeform, etc.

• Social Media Management. Hootsuite, Buffer, etc.

• Document Storage. Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, etc.

• Communications Tools. Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.

For each, document the following:

• Annual cost

• Number of users

• Key integrations (or lack thereof)

• Satisfaction level (1-10 scale)

• Contract end date (this is critical, as you may want to time your CRM transition to coincide with another contract ending)

Why create this inventory? It will do two things: first, it will reveal the integration requirements for your new CRM. Second, it will help you identify opportunities for consolidation (many modern CRMs offer functionality that might let you retire other tools, reducing your overall costs).

2.3 Defining Your ‘To-Be’ Vision & Requirements: Articulating What Success Looks Like

It’s finally time to get creative and look to the future. This isn’t the point where you start looking at specific software features; this is a stage for imagining the ideal world. These first two exercises will help you do that.

Strategic Goals: What Do You Want to Achieve?

Put your goals in clear, concrete, and measurable terms that are directly tied to your charity’s mission and strategic plan. For example:

• Increase donor retention from 45% to 60% within 24 months by implementing personalised stewardship journeys and sending timely, relevant communications.

• Reduce administrative time spent on Gift Aid claims by 75% through automation, saving 120 staff hours per year for relationship-building.

• Improve campaign ROI by 30% through better segmentation, A/B testing capabilities, and multi-channel attribution.

• Achieve 100% GDPR compliance with documented consent, automated data retention policies, and full audit trail

• Reduce volunteer coordinator workload by 40% through self-service volunteer portals and automated scheduling.

• Decrease time-to-insight for key metrics from days to minutes, enabling more agile decision-making.

Your goals will form the backbone of your business case and provide clear criteria to evaluate whether a CRM will be useful for you.

Must-Have vs. Nice-to-Have: Categorise Requirements Ruthlessly

This is the most important exercise in the entire preparation process. Every CRM software will have its strengths and weaknesses. If everything is a “must-have”, you will either find no system can meet your needs, or you’ll end up with an overly-expensive, over-engineered solution. Be ruthless. Use a simple categorisation:

• Must-Have (Non-Negotiable)
  The system must have these features to be considered. These are typically core functionality for your primary use case (eg if you are primarily a fundraising organisation, robust donor management is non-negotiable), critical compliance requirements (Gift Aid, GDPR tools) and essential integrations (eg if your entire financial process is built around Xero, seamless Xero integration is non-negotiable)

• Should-Have (Highly Desirable)
  Features that would greatly enhance operations but aren’t absolute deal-breakers. Acceptable if system excels in other areas and you can find a workaround.

• Nice-to-Have (Bonus Features)
  Features that would be nice but aren’t needed for your core operations.

• Not Needed
  Features you definitely don’t need. This is important, too – don’t pay for complexity you won’t use.

Create a scoring matrix (see sidebar) where you can rate each potential system against your requirements, weighted by importance.

The UK Essentials Checklist: Non-Negotiable Capabilities for UK Charities

Regardless of your context there are some essential capabilities any CRM for a UK charity must have:

Gift Aid Management:

• Capture and store Gift Aid declarations with full audit trail.

• Track eligibility for different donation types (one-off, regular, sponsored events, etc).

• Generate HMRC compliant Gift Aid claims (R68 schedules).

• Handle Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) calculations.

• Alert when declarations are due to be renewed.

• Track Gift Aid claimed vs received.

GDPR & Data Protection

• Granular consent management (individual consents for different communication types).

• Documented lawful basis for processing.

• Data subject access request (DSAR) tools to easily respond to requests within 30 days.

• Right to erasure functionality.

• Data retention policies with automated deletion.

• Audit logs showing who accessed/changed data and when.

• Data breach notification workflows.

UK-Specific Reporting

• Charity Commission annual return data

• Funder-specific reports (Big Lottery, trusts, etc)

• Trustee board reports

• Financial year alignment (many systems default to calendar year)

Integration Capabilities

• UK accounting systems (Xero for charities, Sage, QuickBooks)

• UK fundraising platforms (JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving, Enthuse, Wonderful.org)

• UK payment processors (GoCardless for Direct Debit, Stripe, PayPal)

• Email marketing platforms popular in UK charity sector

• Open API for custom integrations

Data Hosting & Security

• UK or EU data hosting (for GDPR compliance and data sovereignty reasons)

• ISO 27001 certification or equivalent

• Regular security audits and penetration testing

• Encrypted data at rest and in transit

• Regular backups with tested recovery procedures

Support & Training

• UK based support team (time zone and cultural context matter)

• Support hours match your working patterns

• Training resources available in British English

• Familiarity with UK charity sector context

Part 3: Finding the Right Fit for Your Charity: Features & Criteria Demystified

3.1 Vendor Categories: A Framework for Your Search

I’ve said it before: it’s a buyer’s market in the UK charity CRM space, and has been for the last 10 years. You have more choice now than ever, and that choice is a blessing and a curse. It’s better to at least have an idea of the main categories before you start so that you can narrow your search to those that fit your needs.

Large Enterprise Suites

Examples: Blackbaud (Raiser’s Edge NXT, eTapestry), Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
Best For: Large charities (£5m+ income), complex organisations with multiple departments, those requiring significant customisation

Strengths:

• All-encompassing: functionality for nearly every possible use case
• Advanced reporting and analytics
• Large integration ecosystems
• Battle-tested at major institutions
• Can scale to handle very large data volumes

Considerations:

• High investment required (typically £50k-£200k+ for implementation, then ongoing costs)
• Implementation takes time (6-18 months is typical)
• Will likely need a dedicated administrator or external consultants
• Can be overkill for smaller organisations
• Salesforce requires significant configuration, even with NPSP

UK-Focused Mid-Market Platforms

Examples: ThankQ, Donorfy, infoodle, Beacon, Charity Dynamics
Best For: Small to medium charities (£100k-£5m income), those that want functionality tailored to charity needs, but without the bloat of enterprise solutions

Strengths:

• Designed specifically for UK charity sector
• Gift Aid and UK compliance built in
• Pricing more accessible (typically £2k-£20k per year depending on size)
• Quicker implementation (often 2-6 months)
• UK-based support teams with charity sector knowledge
• Balance of functionality and usability

Considerations:

• May struggle to support very complex or large organisations
• Integration ecosystems smaller than enterprise options
• Customisation options more limited
• Varies in maturity and establishment (check vendor stability)

Modern Challengers & Simplified Tools

Examples: Lightful, Bloomerang (US-based but UK presence), Kindful, Little Green Light
Best For: Smaller charities, those prioritising ease of use, organisations with less complex needs

Strengths:

• Modern, user-friendly interfaces
• Quick to implement (can sometimes be weeks)
• Lower cost of entry
• Built-in email marketing functionality
• Mobile-friendly

Considerations:

• Functionality can be too shallow for complex fundraising operations
• US-centric products with UK adaptations (check Gift Aid support)
• Smaller user communities
• May be outgrown as you scale

DIY/Configurable Platforms

Examples: Zoho for Nonprofits, Microsoft Power Platform (Dynamics 365), Airtable + extensions
Best For: Organisations with technical expertise in-house, those with highly customised needs, very small charities with limited budgets

Strengths:

• Highly customisable
• Can be very cost-effective
• Build exactly what you need

Considerations:

• Requires technical expertise
• Ongoing maintenance required
• Must build charity-specific features from scratch
• Potential for technical debt
• May not support charity-specific compliance needs

Specialist/Niche Solutions

Examples: Donorfy (donor-focused), Volunteer Impact (volunteer management), MembershipWorks (membership organisations)
Best For: Organisations where one function dominates (eg. volunteer-led charities, membership organisations)

Strengths:

• Deep functionality in specific niche
• Often very good at that specific use case

Considerations:

• May need to supplement with other systems for different functions
• Integration between systems becomes critical

3.2 Key Evaluation Criteria Decoded: What Actually Matters

Vendor claims and feature lists are fine, but they’re often overcomplicated and opaque. It’s better to understand the essential criteria from someone who’s seen them all. Here’s a distillation of the last 20 years in charity CRM into eight criteria we focus on to decode whether a system actually does what it needs to.

Core Functionality: Donor/Volunteer/Membership Management Depth

Don’t just tick off a feature list; look at its depth and usability.

For donor management:

• Can you track a complex giving history across one-offs, regular donations, pledges, gifts in kind, legacies and more?
• How well does it handle household relationships (couples, families, complex households)?
• Can you track soft credits (eg. one person donates but both partners should be recognised as donors)?
• How advanced is the segmentation? (Dynamic segments based on giving history, engagement, demographics and more)
• Does it track donor journeys across touchpoints?
• Can you manage major donor portfolios and moves management?

For volunteer management:

• Can volunteers self-register and update their information?
• How does it handle skills matching and opportunity management?
• Can you track volunteer hours for impact reporting?
• Does it manage DBS checks, training records, certifications, etc. ?
• Can you communicate with volunteers separately from donors (mailing lists, newsletters)?

For membership management:

• Does it manage tiered memberships with different benefits?
• How does it handle renewals and lapsed member campaigns?
• Can it integrate with membership cards/access systems?
• Does it track member engagement beyond just payment?

Usability & Training: Is It Intuitive? What Support Is Included?

The most powerful system in the world won’t do you any good if your team won’t use it. Here’s how to spot usability issues during demos:

• Cognitive load: How many clicks does it take to complete common tasks? Is navigation intuitive?
• Visual design: Is it cluttered or clean? Can you scan information easily?
• Search functionality: Can you find records in a second?
• Mobile experience: If staff work in the field, is there a functional mobile app or is it responsive?

Ask about training and support:

• What’s included in the implementation package?
• Are there ongoing training resources (videos, documentation, webinars, etc.)?
• Is there a user community or forum?
• What’s the typical time-to-competency for new users?

Integration Ecosystem: Pre-Built Connectors vs Open API

Your CRM won’t exist in a vacuum. Integration capabilities are often the difference between a system that streamlines your processes and one that creates new silos.

Critical integrations for most UK charities:

• Accounting: Seamless, two-way sync with Xero for charities or your accounting platform (donations flowing automatically, no double-entry)
• Email marketing: Whether you use Mailchimp, Dotdigital, Klaviyo or built-in tools, you need to segment in your CRM and be able to run email campaigns without having to export anything manually
• Fundraising platforms: Donations from JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving, Enthuse, etc. should flow automatically into your CRM with full donor details attached
• Payment processing: GoCardless for Direct Debits, Stripe for card payments, etc. These need to integrate seamlessly
• Website: Forms on your website should feed into your CRM. Even if you don’t use them internally, data has to get into the CRM somehow

Ask vendors these questions:

• Which integrations are pre-built and included?
• Which require additional payment?
• Is there an open API for custom integrations?
• How robust is the API? (Is it well-documented? Are there rate limits?)
• Do they have integration partners or consultants?

Security & Compliance: UK Data Hosting, ISO Certifications, Breach Protocols

This should be non-negotiable. Ask:

• Where is data hosted? UK or EU hosting is strongly preferable for GDPR compliance and data sovereignty.
• What security certifications do you hold? Look for ISO 27001 (information security management), Cyber Essentials Plus, SOC 2 etc.
• What’s your data breach protocol? How quickly would you be notified? What support would they provide?
• How often do you conduct security audits? External penetration testing should be frequent
• What’s your backup and disaster recovery process? How long would it take to restore all data? When was it last tested?
• How do you handle GDPR compliance? Do they have a DPA? Are they a data processor or controller? (They should be a processor, with you as controller)
• What happens to data if you cease trading or leave? Can you export everything in usable formats?

Scalability & Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The 3-5 Year View

Charities often look at subscription costs alone. Calculate TCO over 3-5 years:

Subscription Costs

• What’s the annual fee?
• How is pricing structured? (Per user, per contact record, tiered by features, etc.)
• What happens as you scale up? (If you’re at 5,000 contacts now, but you’ll have 15,000 in 3 years, what will that cost?)

Implementation Costs

• What’s included in the base implementation package?
• What’s extra? (Data migration, custom fields, integrations, training beyond basics, etc.)
• Will you need external consultants? (Budget £500-£1,500 per day for UK charity CRM consultants)

Data Migration

• Is this included or extra?
• How complex is your current data? (More complexity = more cost)

Training

• Initial training for core team
• Ongoing training as staff turnover
• Advanced training for power users

Customisation & Configuration

• Will you need custom fields, workflows, reports, etc.?
• Can you do this yourself or will you need vendor support?

Ongoing Support

• What’s included in the subscription?
• What’s extra? (Phone support, dedicated account manager, etc.)

Integration Maintenance

• As other systems update, integrations may need maintenance
• Who will do this? Vendor or your internal team?

Opportunity Costs

• If implementation takes 12 months vs 3 months, what’s the cost of those lost benefits?

Exit Costs

• If you need to leave, what’s involved?

A system with a £5,000 annual subscription but £30,000 implementation cost and ongoing consultant dependency may be more expensive over five years than a £15,000 annual subscription with £5,000 implementation and minimal ongoing costs.

Part 4: The Selection Process: From Longlist to Partner

4.1 Creating Your Shortlist: Matching Vendor Categories to Your Context

Now that you have your requirements and market understanding, it’s time to create a longlist of 6–8 potential vendors, then narrow down to a shortlist of 3–4 for detailed evaluation.

Matching Criteria:

Organisation Size & Complexity

• < £100k income, low complexity needs: Go for modern challengers or simplified tools like [simplified proposition] or infoodle
• £100k–£1m, medium complexity: UK-focused mid-market platforms
• £1m–£5m, increasing complexity: UK-focused mid-market or mid-market considering enterprise
• £5m+, high complexity, multi-department: Enterprise suites or high-end mid-market

Primary Use Case

• Donor-centric fundraising: Donorfy, ThankQ, Raiser’s Edge
• Volunteer-heavy: Systems with strong volunteer modules or specialist volunteer management systems like Volunteer Impact
• Membership organisations: Beacon, MembershipWorks, or a highly configurable platform
• Service delivery focus: Systems with case management capabilities

Technical Capacity

• Limited technical capacity: Weight for ease of use and strong vendor support
• Technical team in-house: You have more flexibility to consider configurable platforms

Budget Reality
Be brutally honest about your budget, including set-up and implementation costs. Don’t put any systems on your shortlist that you know are out of your reach.

Research Sources

• CTT’s resources
• Charity Digital Code of Practice signatory list
• Peer recommendations (find charities similar to you and ask them what they use)
• Online reviews (take them with a pinch of salt – disgruntled customers are far more likely to write reviews)
• Industry events (Fundraising Convention, CharityComms conferences)

4.2 The Art of the Demo: Making Vendors Prove Their Value

Vendor demos are standard brochure-ware. They show you the system’s strengths, gloss over its weaknesses, and leave you suitably impressed but with limited insight into how it actually solves your problems.

Flip the demo process on its head.

Prepare a Scripted Scenario: The Real-World Test

Before any demo, send vendors a detailed scenario of a real-life process from your operations. Make all vendors run through the same scenario, and then compare like for like.

Example Scenario:
Please demonstrate the following workflow in your system:

1. A new supporter, Jane Smith, visits our website and makes a £50 one-off donation to our ‘Spring Fundraiser’ campaign. She’s a UK taxpayer and completes a Gift Aid declaration. Show us how this donation would be recorded, how the Gift Aid declaration would be captured, and how Jane would receive an automated thank-you email.
2. Three weeks later, Jane registers to volunteer at our local animal shelter. Show us how you would record Jane as a volunteer, capture her skills (she’s ticked that she has experience with dogs), and match her to an appropriate volunteer opportunity.
3. Six months later, Jane attends one of our fundraising events. She buys two tickets at £75 each and makes an additional £100 donation at the door. Show us how you would record this in the system, handle the Gift Aid implications (tickets vs. donation), and update Jane’s supporter record.
4. We now want to segment our database to identify supporters like Jane who have donated, volunteered and attended an event in the past six months and send them a special stewardship communication. Show us how you would create this segment and export it for an email campaign.
5. Finally, we’d like to see a report for our trustees showing: total income from the Spring Fundraiser campaign, number of new supporters acquired, Gift Aid claimed and volunteer hours contributed.

This scenario tests:

• Multi-channel donation recording
• Gift Aid handling
• Volunteer management
• Event management
• Relationship tracking across activities
• Segmentation capabilities
• Reporting functionality

Questions to Ask During Demos

On Functionality

• “What happens if…?” (Think of any edge cases in your organisation’s processes and test them)
• “How would we handle [specific situation from your pain point list]?”
• “Can you show us how to [specific task]?” (Don’t just take “Yes, we can do that” for an answer—make them demonstrate it)

On Implementation

• “What does your typical implementation process look like?”
• “What’s the average timeline for an organisation our size?”
• “What’s expected from us during implementation?”
• “What’s included in your implementation package vs. what costs extra?”

On Data Migration

• “How do you handle data migration from [name of your current system]?”
• “What data quality issues do you typically encounter?”
• “How do you handle duplicate records?”
• “Can you migrate our historical data, including donation history and communication logs?”

On Support

• “What support channels do you offer?” (Phone, email, chat, ticketing system, etc.?)
• “What are your support hours?”
• “What’s your average response time?”
• “What’s included in our subscription vs. what costs extra?”
• “Do you have a user community or forum?”

On Roadmap & Vision

• “What major features or improvements are on your roadmap for the next 12–24 months?”
• “How do you gather user feedback and prioritise development?”
• “How often do you release updates?”
• “How do updates work? Are they automatic or do we need to schedule them?”

Ask About Their Roadmap: Assessing Long-Term Viability

You’re not just buying software for today. You’re choosing a partner for years to come. You need assurance that the vendor has a vision and roadmap that will serve you well into the future.

Green Flags

• Regular product updates (quarterly or more frequent)
• Active user community providing feedback
• Clear roadmap addressing your needs (AI-assisted insights, mobile capabilities, etc.)
• Investment in modern technology (cloud-native, API-first, microservices)
• Growing customer base
• Financial stability

Red Flags

• Infrequent updates or stagnant development
• Roadmap focused on features irrelevant to UK charity sector
• Shrinking customer base
• Acquisition by larger company with uncertain integration plans
• Vague or unresponsive answers to questions about the future

4.3 Due Diligence & References: Validating Vendor Claims

Demos are sales presentations. References and due diligence will uncover the truth.

Ask for Charity References: The Peer Perspective

Ask vendors for at least three references from UK charities similar in size and mission to yours. Don’t accept whoever the vendor volunteers—ask for references that match your profile.

Questions for References

On Selection & Implementation

• “Why did you choose this system?”
• “What was the implementation process like? Timeline? Challenges?”
• “What would you do differently if you were implementing again?”
• “How accurate were the vendor’s estimates (cost, timeline, effort required)?”

On Day-to-Day Use

• “How do your team members find it to use? What’s the learning curve?”
• “What do you use it for most? What do you use other tools for?”
• “What are its greatest strengths?”
• “What are its limitations or frustrations?”
• “How often do you encounter bugs or issues?”

On Support & Relationship

• “How responsive is their support team?”
• “Have they helped you solve complex problems?”
• “Do you feel like a valued customer or just a number?”
• “How have they handled any issues or complaints?”

On Value & ROI

• “Has it delivered the value you expected?”
• “What measurable improvements have you seen?” (Efficiency gains, increased retention, etc.)
• “Knowing what you know now, would you choose them again?”

Financial Health of Vendor: Will They Be Around in 5 Years?

This is awkward to investigate but crucial. You need to know a CRM vendor going out of business isn’t an option—you lose support, updates, and maybe access to your data.

Research

• Companies House (UK vendors) for financial filings
• News of funding rounds, acquisitions, or financial distress
• Customer base growth (winning new customers or losing them?)
• Staff turnover (Leadership? Dev team?)

Questions to Ask Vendors

• “How many customers do you have?”
• “What’s your customer retention rate?”
• “Are you profitable or venture-backed?” (Neither is bad, but know their model)
• “What’s your long-term vision for the company?”

For smaller vendors, you could also ask questions about succession planning or what happens to customer data if the company goes bust.

Part 5: The Business Case & Implementation Success

5.1 Building the Unignorable Business Case: Securing Buy-In and Budget

You’ve done the work. You’ve found the right system. Now it’s time to get approval and budget from your trustees, senior leadership or funders.

Frame ROI in Hard and Soft Terms

Hard ROI (Quantifiable Financial Impact):

Gift Aid Recovery:

• Current state: “We currently claim £X in Gift Aid a year. Due to our manual processes, we’re missing 15–20% of eligible donations.”
• Future state: “This automated gift aid software will allow us to capture declarations at the point of donation and flag gifts we’re currently missing. Conservatively, this should allow us to recover an additional £Y each year.”
• ROI: If this system costs £Z a year to license and set up and it recovers an additional £Y, payback period = Z/Y years

Staff Time Savings:

• Current state: “Our team currently spend about X hours a week on [specific tasks: data entry, report generation, Gift Aid claims etc].”
• Future state: “This can be automated/reduced via streamlined workflows, freeing up Z hours per year.”
• ROI: Z hours × average staff hourly cost = £ saved. This is staff time you can redeploy to relationship building or programme delivery

Improved Donor Retention:

• Current state: “Our donor retention rate is X%. Industry benchmark is Y%. Each percentage point of retention represents £Z of retained income.”
• Future state: “Better segmentation/personalised stewardship enabled by the CRM should improve retention by A percentage points over B years, representing £C of additional retained income.”

Reduced Errors and Compliance Risk:

• Current state: “Our manual processes result in errors in Gift Aid claims, GDPR compliance gaps and potential regulatory risk.”
• Future state: “Automated compliance tools reduce risk. Hard to quantify, but even a single GDPR breach could cost us £X in fines, not to mention reputational damage.”

Soft ROI (Strategic and Operational Benefits):

• Better decision-making: Real-time data will enable us to allocate our resources more strategically
• Improved supporter experience: Faster, more relevant communications and better stewardship
• Staff morale: Eliminating the most frustrating and time-consuming manual work will improve job satisfaction and staff retention
• Scalability: We will be able to grow without proportionately increasing our admin burden
• Professionalism: A modern system is simply more credible with major donors and funders

Calculate the Cost of Inaction

Don’t just present the cost of the new system. Present the cost of not changing.

• “If we continue with our current system, we will continue to:
  • Miss an estimated £X in Gift Aid every year
  • Spend Y hours per week on manual, administrative processes
  • Continue to see our donor retention decline, costing us £Z over 3 years
  • Remain at risk of GDPR non-compliance
  • Struggle to scale when we need to grow, and would need to add new admin staff just to keep up”

Present Options, Not Just One Solution

Trustees and leadership like to know you’ve done your homework and considered options. Present 2–3 choices:

Option 1: Do Nothing

• Cost: £0 up front, but ongoing real costs of inefficiency/money left on the table (quantify these)
• Risks: Compliance, scalability, falling behind competitors

Option 2: Minimal Viable Solution

• System: [Lower-cost option]
• Cost: £X over 3 years
• Benefits: Covers core pain points, but fairly basic functionality, limited scalability
• Risks: We may outgrow it quickly, forcing another change in 1–2 years

Option 3: Recommended Solution

• System: [Your preferred choice]
• Cost: £Y over 3 years
• Benefits: Comprehensive solution, fully scalable, good ROI
• Risks: Higher up-front investment

Option 4: Premium Solution (if applicable)

• System: [Enterprise option]
• Cost: £Z over 3 years
• Benefits: Full functionality, maximum scalability
• Assessment: Unlikely to be fully utilised in our current size. Will almost certainly outgrow it, but good choice if we hit that level 3–5 years down the line.

Make a clear recommendation with rationale.

Address Objections Proactively

Trustees and leadership will have objections. Address these in your business case.

• “We can’t afford it” Show them you can’t afford not to invest. Frame this not as cost, but as revenue-generating.
• “We’re too busy to implement right now” Acknowledge, but also point out that this means we’ll remain trapped in inefficiency. Propose a phased implementation that minimises disruption.
• “Our current system works fine” Point them to your pain point catalogue and the ongoing cost of inefficiency. “Works” and “works well” are two different things.
• “What if we choose wrong?” You’ve been thorough. Refer them to your reference checks, demos and pilot/trial options.

5.2 The Implementation Blueprint: Turning Decision into Reality

Selecting a CRM is the easy part. Successful implementation is where many projects fail. Here’s how to do it right.

Phased Approach: Don’t Try to Do Everything at Once

Trying to implement all modules, migrate all historical data and train all staff at once will be chaos. Instead, roll it out in phases:

Phase 1: Core Foundation (Months 1–3)

• Set up core donor/contact management
• Migrate essential current data (active donors, recent transactions etc)
• Implement critical integrations (accounting, primary donation channels etc)
• Train core team on basic functionality
• Go live with basic operations

Phase 2: Enhanced Functionality (Months 4–6)

• Add on additional modules (volunteer management, membership)
• Implement email marketing integration
• Migrate additional historical data
• Train wider team
• Refine workflows based on experience

Phase 3: Optimisation (Months 7–12)

• Implement advanced features (complex reporting, automation workflows)
• Integrate remaining systems
• Train power users on advanced functionality
• Optimise based on usage patterns

This means delivering value quickly (people are using the system within months not a year) and also learning and adjusting as you go.

Data Migration: The Single Most Critical Technical Task

Data migration is where most implementations fail. Your new system is only as good as the data in it. Here’s how to approach it.

Clean Data First:
Before you migrate a thing, clean your existing data. This is hard work but essential. Budget a lot of time for this – it’s often longer than the technical migration process.

• Deduplicate: Identify and merge duplicates
• Standardise: Addresses, phone numbers, names etc in consistent format
• Validate: Check for obvious errors (invalid emails, impossible dates)
• Enrich: Fill in gaps where possible (missing postcodes, contact details)
• Archive: Identify data that shouldn’t be migrated (ancient, inactive records)

Migration Strategy:

• Pilot migration: Migrate a small subset of records first (e.g. 100), test thoroughly, find issues
• Iterative: Fix, migrate more, test again, repeat until confident
• Parallel running: Maintain both old and new systems in parallel for a time. Enter new data into both. Safety net.
• Validation: Full migration done, run reports, compare old/new. Check totals, spot-check records.
• Cutover plan: Decide a cut-over date to fully switch to the new system. Communicate this clearly to staff.

Change Management: This Is a People Project

The tech side is easy. The people side is the challenge. A CRM changes how everyone works every day. Without active change management, you’ll get push-back, low adoption and project failure.

Communicate Relentlessly:
From day 1:

• Why we’re doing this: Connect to our mission and strategic goals. Not just “we need new software”
• What’s in it for them: How will this make their jobs easier? Which of their daily frustrations will this solve?
• What to expect: Timelines, what will change, what support is available
• How they can contribute: Opportunities for feedback, to shape the solution etc

Use multiple channels: team meetings, email updates, intranet, one to ones.

Involve Users Early:

• User representatives: Front-line staff on the project team
• Pilot users: Identify enthusiastic early adopters who will test and give feedback
• Feedback loops: Create a process to report issues, improvements

Train Effectively:

• Role-based: Training for fundraisers is different than training for finance staff
• Hands on practice, not just watching demos. Let them use the system with real data
• Job aids: Quick ref guides, cheat sheets, video tutorials
• Ongoing support: Don’t stop at go-live. Offer refreshers, advanced training, drop-in clinics
• Super users: Train power users who can support their peers

Celebrate Wins:
Don’t wait for big milestones. Every time you hit a win, celebrate it.

• First donation processed in the new system
• First successful Gift Aid claim
• First report that used to take hours to produce that now takes minutes

Reinforces this is all positive change.

Expect and Plan for Resistance
Some people will resist. Normal. Here’s how to handle it:

• Listen to concerns: Oftentimes, resistance is just masking genuine worries. Hear them out, and address.
• Extra support: Some people need more hand-holding than others. That’s ok.
• Leadership backing: Senior leaders need to visibly support the change and hold people accountable for adoption
• Make it non-optional: At some point, the old system will be gone. Be clear on this.

Part 6: Conclusion & Call to Action

Summary: This Is a Strategic Project That Defines Operational Effectiveness

Congratulations. If you’re reading this far down the guide, you know that selecting a charity CRM is not a straightforward, off-the-shelf procurement process.

This is a strategic project that will define your operational effectiveness, your supporter relationship-building ability, and your ability to deliver on your mission for years to come.

The right CRM is transformative: it turns data into insight, inefficiency into productivity, and transactions into relationships. It allows a small team to work with the effectiveness of a much larger one. It future-proofs your compliance, mitigates risk, and gives you the foundation to scale sustainably.

The wrong CRM—or worse, staying with legacy systems that struggle to meet your needs—is an anchor. It makes your staff frustrated, your supporters disengaged, and your resources stretched thin.

It limits your impact.

Final Advice: Look for a Partner, Not Just a Vendor

Throughout this guide, I’ve tried to focus on practical, useful advice: process, criteria, frameworks for decision-making.

But before I sign off, I want to offer a piece of final advice: look for a partner, not just a vendor.

The best CRM relationships are partnerships. When you sign that contract, you’re not just buying software, you’re entering into a multi-year relationship with a company that will become a part of your mission. Seek out vendors who:

• Understand the UK charity sector – they get your challenges, constraints, and context
• Listen more than they talk – they ask questions about your needs, then tailor their pitch around them, rather than regurgitating features
• Are honest about limitations – no system is perfect. Trust vendors who are upfront about limitations and can explain the workarounds
• Invest in the relationship – they provide support, training, and development over the lifetime of the system
• Share your values – this may sound soft, but it’s important. Do they demonstrate a commitment to the social sector?

Choose a system that bends to your needs, not one that breaks you when you try to make it fit. Of course, you will need to adapt some processes – any new system requires change – but the core workflows should feel natural, not contorted.

Forward-Looking Statement: Building Agility for 2026 and Beyond

The charity sector is changing fast. Donor expectations are rising. Digital channels are proliferating. Regulatory requirements are tightening. Competition for attention and resources is intensifying.

The CRM you choose today needs to serve you not just now, but through these changes. As well as looking for solutions that fit your needs today, I’d recommend looking for systems that:

• Embrace modern technology: cloud-native, mobile-first, API-enabled
• Invest in innovation: AI-assisted insights, predictive analytics, automation, and more
• Support multi-channel engagement: today’s donors engage with charities across web, email, social media, events, and face-to-face. Your CRM must track all of it
• Enable agility: you need to adapt to new opportunities and challenges quickly. Your CRM should enable, not hinder, that agility.

Your Next Steps

Depending on where you are in the process, you now have a few different next steps:

1. If you’re at the start of the process:
   1. Assemble your project team (Section 2.1)
   2. Do your internal discovery (Section 2.2-2.3)—this is the single most important thing
   3. Create your shortlist based on your specific context (Section 4.1)
   4. Run structured demos using your real-world scenarios (Section 4.2)
   5. Check references thoroughly (Section 4.3)
   6. Build your business case (Section 5.1)
   7. Plan your implementation with change management at the centre (Section 5.2)
2. If you’re partway through the process and feeling overwhelmed, go back to basics: What problems are you trying to solve? What does success look like? Let those answers be your north star.
3. If you’ve already chosen a system and are implementing, relentlessly focus on change management and data quality. Technology is the easy part; people and data are where it’s won and lost.