By Anne Paschkopić There comes a time in any nonprofit’s lifespan where it may be necessary to migrate your program to a new solution — a brand new CRM, or even a suite of connected tools like a CRM, email provider, and donation page builder.
You may need to migrate because you’ve outgrown your old system, because a new tool has come out that better meets your needs, or just because you have to (RIP to GetActive, Kintera, Blackbaud NetCommunity, and all the other CRMs that have gone gently into that good night).
No matter why you’ve decided to transition, you know this technology shift will allow your organization to grow and change with the times.
But if this is your first migration (or if it’s been a minute and your memories of your last migration have gone the way of GetActive), you might be anxiously asking yourself — where do I start? What’s important? Am I worrying too much? Am I not worrying enough?
I know the feeling— I’ve been there! But at this point, I’ve been through at least a dozen CRM migrations, and I’ve learned a few things (sometimes the hard way 😬). Here’s the top five things I wish I’d known all along to make a migration go smoothly:
1. Take Your Time
Make sure you dedicate enough time and budget to set yourself up for success in your new system.
You probably already know that CRM migrations take a lot of time and resources to be done right. As a baseline, there’s the work to actually build out everything you need in the new system (page templates and email automations and report structures, oh my!), whether you’re doing it in-house or relying on a migration partner to do the heavy lifting.
On top of that, you’ll need to do a lot of thinking and decision-making: how do we structure our data? Where do we imitate what we did in our old system, and when can we take advantage of the new tool to do something better?
As you move through your process, you’ll discover that every decision turns up a few more questions, each of which will take more time, thinking, and research to resolve. It’s not unusual for a transition to exceed its original timeline if that timeline is too optimistic — so make sure you give yourself a lot of wiggle room to tackle the unexpected!
2. Refresh and Rethink
A migration is a great opportunity to update and refresh your approach.
First, you can take advantage of the benefits of a new system — don’t fall into the trap of trying to do everything exactly how you did it in the system you are leaving behind! Instead, take the time to think about your goals and whether your new tools’ functionality can help you meet them more directly or effectively than ever before.
Second, you’ll need to rebuild things like email templates and donation page layouts that are moving from the old system to the new. If you’re already rebuilding, why not refresh as well? Update design elements that feel stale or outdated; make sure you’re incorporating the most up-to-date functionality; and, of course, check that all your code is accessible, mobile-optimized, and looks terrific in dark mode.
Finally, think about all the information and data stored in your old system. Divide it into three categories: what you’re migrating into the new system, what you want to back up in some way, and what you’re OK losing. I’m not just talking constituent records (though those should be first on your list!) — make sure you also think about interaction history, code banks, image files, and even whether you want a library of screenshots of old emails or donation pages.
3. Write Everything Down
You know all that decision-making and research you’re going to be doing? Document it!
You may think you’ll remember all the choices you’re making during the migration, but in a year, it’ll all be a blur. Down the line, you’ll be grateful to have a record of not just which decisions you made, but why. It’ll save you having to re-tread the same ground (“why aren’t we using Cool Function A? Oh right, because it doesn’t work with Page Layout B”), and help you avoid the stagnation trap of But We’ve Always Done it That Way (“this year our CRM updated Cool Function A in a way that fixes the issues with Page Layout B — let’s test to see if we should roll it out!”).
In addition to a list of everything you did, make a list of everything you didn’t do. Inevitably, you’ll come across low-priority questions you don’t have time to answer, interesting opportunities you don’t have time to research, or even bugs that aren’t critical to fix before your go-live date in the new system. Make sure those are on a list, and that you keep working through that list until you’ve crossed off every item.
4. Get Educated
Make sure everyone learns how to use your new system — sooner rather than later.
Identify who on staff does regular work in your CRM — whether that’s building new emails or landing pages, pulling lists of people to target with ads, managing constituent data, or running reports — and get them all trained up on the new CRM as soon as possible.
It can be tempting to leave this step towards the end of the process (you want me to keep working in our old CRM AND learn the new one at the same time??), but knowledge is power. Getting up to speed with how the new system works means you can make better decisions. You’ll be more likely to transform your program to leverage the best features of a tool if you understand those features. Otherwise, it’s tempting just to transfer everything exactly the way it was before.
As a bonus, if everyone on staff is knowledgeable about the new tool and contributed to deciding how it’s been set up, they’ll be more likely to be excited instead of apprehensive about the change.
5. Take a Deep Breath
CRM migrations can be stressful. You’re keeping your program running in the old system while building out a new one. You’re making decisions that’ll affect your work for months and years to come. You’re under pressure to ensure this big investment of resources pays off by making everyone’s lives easier (eventually) and your program run more smoothly and effectively (ASAP). You’ve got an opportunity, and you don’t want to waste it.
But you’re going to do great. You’ve prepared (by reading this blog post, for one!), worked together with your colleagues to make good decisions, and thought hard about what your organization needs.
You’ve got this!