Are You Using Only 30% of Your CRM?
CRMs aren’t cheap. Neither is your team’s time.
When you’re only using a third of what your CRM can do, you’re paying for features you never touch and recreating them manually somewhere else.
In other words: You’re already paying for a better system. You’re just paying for it in labor instead of results.
And the fixes? They’re usually simpler than you’ve been led to believe.
Quick Wins You’re Leaving on the Table
These are the features most nonprofits ignore—either because no one taught them, the setup feels overwhelming, or they assume they need a fancier system.
You don’t.
You just need to turn the lights on in the parts of the CRM you already have.
The nonprofit CRM features most teams miss:
Segmentation & Targeting
Smart segmentation (tags, groups, dynamic lists, moves management)
Custom fields that actually drive action
Household linking (yes, this matters)
Stewardship & Donor Journeys
Automated thank-you workflows
Receipt automation that eliminates 90% of manual acknowledgments
Triggered donor journeys (welcome series, lapsed donor reactivation, renewal reminders)
Reporting & Visibility
Saved reports that update automatically
Pledge and recurring gift tracking
Donor behavior snapshots that run in real time
Productivity & Follow-Up
Task assignments and reminders
Email templates that auto-pull donor details
Built-in follow-up queues you check weekly, not daily
Quick Win #1: Let your CRM segment for you
Most teams still segment manually: exporting lists, cleaning them up in Sheets, and hoping nothing breaks.Your CRM can do this in real time with tags, groups, or smart lists.
Examples:
New donors this year
Donors who gave in Q1 but not Q2
Newsletter subscribers who opened the last three emails
Recurring donors who haven’t increased in 18 months
These are the segments that drive revenue, campaigns, and second gifts. Your CRM can build them automatically.
Quick Win #2: Stop sending every thank-you manually
Your CRM can automate most of your acknowledgments today.
A donor gives → CRM generates the receipt → your automation sends a warm thank-you
Your team gets back hours. Your donors get consistency. And no one has to ask, “Did we thank them yet?”
Quick Win #3: Use custom fields (the right way)
Most CRMs are filled with custom fields no one uses. Or worse: no one trusts.
Start fresh with:
Communication preferences
First gift source
Relationship or household connections
Volunteer or event participation
These fields power your segmentation and your storytelling. When they’re clean, you can tailor messaging with confidence.
Quick Win #4: Saved reports = instant visibility
If you’re rebuilding the same report every month, it’s time to let your CRM do the work for you.
Saved, auto-updating reports give you:
Real-time revenue
Donor retention snapshots
Campaign performance
Recurring gift projections
And they do it without you touching a spreadsheet.
Start making the most of your CRM
If you want a clearer picture of what your CRM can already do—and where the biggest quick wins are hiding—book a demo call with our team.