Development operations teams are under constant pressure to perform with limited staff, tight budgets, and growing expectations. When something isn’t working, the instinct is often to look for a new tool. But in many cases, the tool isn’t the problem — and buying one won’t fix what’s actually broken. Here are four common scenarios where that distinction matters.
A listserv posting once asked if there was a use related to her department for a certain vendor tool. This sort of scenario happens to us all of the time: Our leadership visits vendors or are visited and they buy into a tool without asking the staff for opinions. This sort of decision is not great for us vendors, either: Nothing is more like pulling teeth than trying to get an annoyed, passed-over staff member to cooperate during a contract.
To me, the core question to answer before buying a new tool is this: Is it a process problem, a data problem, a handoff problem, or an access problem? If it is any one of those, you do not need a new tool: You need a new process.
In this blog post, I lay out situations that may look like they require a new tool, but maybe they do not. Let’s take a look.
Research requests are done by email.
This situation means that the research team is digging through emails instead of finding wealth and philanthropy data. This situation does call for a tool, but the tool should be inside the CRM. I had a client who had a rating category of “In Research” and it was perfect. When I did research for them, I found those records, did the work, updated the notes, and then updated the rating to the right capacity level. If your database does not seem to accommodate research requests, then let me know in case we can brainstorm with you.
Event attendance isn’t tracked.
This situation is often blamed on the events staff, who are usually busy checking people in, chasing after the caterer, and assuring the nervous boss in the room that, yes, a mop is at the ready should rain fall into the building. There is a tool needed here, but it is handheld devices. For instance, AFP sells me an app that I can use to read attendees’ name tags so neither of us has to dig out a business card or write our data down. Imagine using an app developer (I use Base44) to set up event registration on an events person’s phone. That person can register people and then after the even upload the data into the CRM.
Major Gifts does not have enough prospects.
I hear this complaint from just about every major gifts officer. The issue is NOT getting a new tool, even another screening. The issue is how prospects are assigned and followed up on. Most shops I visit have gift officers with 150 or more prospects. The catch is that they want more, likely for a reason like one of these:
- They don’t have enough prospects assigned in the same city as their key prospect;
- There is a territorial fight/jealousy over some other officer’s portfolio/FOMO;
- They don’t know how to get start with qualification prospects;
Most of the time, my jaded opinion is that gift officers can avoid having to go secure gifts if they can keep pushing back down the assignment chain to the Research and Management teams, but it is so universal that gift officers with bloated portfolios complain of not having enough prospects, that I have to yield to the idea that something structurally is awry. The tool I recommend for this situation is Ruthie Giles’ book: *Prospect Management: The Essential Guide for a High Functioning Nonprofit Prospect Management System.* The Giles Methods outlined in this book will clear up any confusion around territory, timing, and portfolio management.
We suddenly have to raise more money because of grant cuts.
This situation had me chanting, “All of the low-hanging fruit has been eaten.” This situation calls for a revolution in the office, not a tool. A daylong staff retreat redeveloping the whole system – from engagement through grants applications – would help. The worst new tool to add is a CRM conversion, which will lose your staff under this kind of pressure rather than gain gifts.
At Staupell, we use our Fix, Innovate, Teach (FIT) approach to help development operations teams sort exactly these kinds of questions — identifying whether the gap is a process problem, a data problem, a handoff problem, or an access problem before recommending any solution. If you’re navigating one of these situations, we’d be glad to think it through with you. Reach Marianne directly at marianne@staupell.com.