Using RE as an Organizational CRM

Nick DAddezio

When we implemented RE, we did not have a development office or actively fundraise. However, that's starting to change. We originally had pretty wide access to RE since we're using it more as a CRM versus just a development database. I'm getting some pushback from our development team with concerns that too many people have access. While we lock sensitive data down, I'm just wondering if any other organizations have a similar model or if we're really an anomaly.


Thanks,

Nick D'Addezio

Longwood Gardens

Faith Murray

Nick, at our organization, we have been working the opposite direction. RE began as a strictly fundraising tool that only one person used - not even our fundraisers were in it. Since that time, we've worked hard to make sure that the system becomes integrated with other departments on campus, and we share our system with select leaders of other departments. It really helps to provide a holistic knowledge of our donor's interactions - otherwise what you end up with is a donor communicating with one department and then getting a lapsed "we miss you" letter from a development department that doesn't get access to the full relational story.


That being said, data lockdown is key, even at our org. In sharing RE with our recruitment office, some Notes are even locked away from our development team when it contains sensitive information that only our recruitment office needs to know. Gifts are not shared with all departments, as that is considered confidential to Development and our CEO. Some users are restricted to webview only in NXT, rather than having access also to database view. Our DBM holds a trusted responsibility as the only person on campus with access to all the data and ensuring those security parameters are in place.

Shimmy Ohana

We had a very similar situation. Marketing dept. did not have a dedicated CRM and used RE (NXT) as its CRM, while Data/IT Dept. were often concerned with locking down data as too many staff having access to make data changes causing major conflicts. We didn't find the golden path - it was a lot of back and forth. but I could make this recommendation which will help avoid a lot of the pushback you mention.


Most importantly is that everyone works from the same "hymn sheet" - e.g. Constituent Codes, Solicitic Codes, Naming Conventions, Attributes, relationships, gift data entry - etc etc. everything related to any data entry must be defined, pre-agreed and documented and all parties departments should buy-in.


If this is your foundation. and have it in place, there will be little pushback from other organizational departments because everyone has their "own lane" and everyone is sharing the same "rules of the road" traffic can flow.


Regards

Shimmy

Katie Cagney

Hi Nick, really interesting to see this - like Faith, we are implementing RE as a much wider customer database across many departments including marketing and senior leadership- I work for a museums service.

It's working well so far, for the reasons Faith mentions.


However, whilst it's easy to lock down gifts and note types etc, it's harder to manage, in NXT, some of the personal data such as addresses and email addresses, and wonder if this is where some of your push back is coming from? Or is that part of the sensitive data that you've been able to lock down? If so, would love to know more about that.


Thanks,

Katie

Nick DAddezio

Thanks so much Katie. The information we've locked down has been more on the development side like gifts, prospect info, etc. We're not as concerned about address/email type information, and that's one of the areas where we also feel people can benefit from having more people with visibility. I've also heard that individual records can be locked down to certain users through constituent codes, but I haven't gone down that path. I worry a little bit about then having duplicates because people don't see the record, but that might address some of the information you were referring to. I do wish there was field level security though.


Thanks,

Nick

Faith Murray

Nick, I think you are on the right track - we also do not lock down according to constituency, because of the potential for duplicates, and it removes the whole advantage of sharing the CRM. Notes and Gifts are easy to lock down. But you can also lock down the Prospect tab and Solicitor fields for certain Security groups in database view. I have not experimented to see how that translates into webview. I will try that out today and let you know what I find out.