Only 26% of charities record whether a contact is on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) in their customer-relationship management (CRM) system, a survey has found.
The results of Fundraising Magazine’s CRM survey, published by Civil Society Media, were revealed in the latest issue of the magazine this week. The survey was completed by 230 fundraising organisations and looks at what CRM system they have, whether they are satisfied with it and how they use it.
The majority of respondents also said they do not record whether a contact has made a suppression request with the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS). Only two in five charities do so.
Finally, 43% said they have not received any suppressions through the FPS, while 38% of respondents said they didn’t know.
Integration with other systems
The survey also found that Blackbaud’s CRM systems are still most popular among larger organisations (income over £10m), while Donorfy is most commonly used by small and medium charities.
Speaking about the findings, Casper Harratt, director of marketing at Blackbaud Europe, said charities look at a range of factors when selecting their CRM system, with automation and efficiency being key.
“Top-class reporting tools and the ability to integrate with other systems to create a single view of their data while reducing manual processes are important to everyone selecting a new CRM system,” he said.
However, Ivan Wainewright, an independent CRM consultant, also warned against focusing exclusively on functionality: “Too many charities still concentrate solely on functionality and not enough on implementation aspects, supplier knowledge and experience, and how they will resource the project in-house.”
Fundraising Magazine subscribers can read the full results and analysis online.
