When you have that feeling your systems are holding you back and know you need outside help, it’s tempting to look up some experts and engage them right away? But should you really go and do that?
My answer is pretty much always no. It’s actually time to do some more homework.
Recognition of the problem. Check. Measuring its extent and impact? Keep going…
Now usually what comes to mind when people hear, “doing your homework”, it’s evaluating technology solutions for features and cost. But this is where many skip ahead way too far. Let me tell you why.
If you’re a small to medium sized nonprofit, chances are you don’t have excess budget to bring in experts on every whim. That’s why early stage nonprofits have Executive Directors that get the “wears multiple hats” badge of honor.
Just last week, a small professional association of about 1,500 constituents came to me with a need to better handle their event and certification management for their members. Of which, they have 55+ events each year to run.
Some specific issues are:
- Members can’t access their certificates on their own, which results in delays and time spent administering and not delivering the program,
- The event registration process is difficult and there is manually checking on members v. non-members and a lack of variable pricing,
- Participant’s aren’t automatically updated when joining Zoom events,
- The member directory doesn’t automatically update,
- The website is sufficient, but could use aesthetic and usability improvements.
The argument for CiviCRM was there. They could get out from under the array of technical platforms they use to manage the events and certification process for its members. This resulted in the pain of a more labor intensive process and sometimes error-prone than what would be achieved with a unified CRM system.
What was less typical in this interaction was how well organized their Administrative Director was. I absolutely loved it!
While a normal assessment call might offer up generalities in consolidating data or providing a “better member management” system (whatever that actually means), this had a refreshingly direct and clear “state of what’s not working”.
She readily fired off discrete needs, wants and nice to have broken down into the following areas (I’ve listed a few examples for each). And color coded to boot.
- Evaluations and Certificates
- Send certificates to attendees
- Allow admin to see all certificates
- Download evaluation reports for presenters and board
- Event
- Register for events
- Record attendance and download attendance sheets
- Provide correct pricing based on member type (Active, Student, Non-member)
- Member Account
- Manage password changes
- View all events they’ve registered for
- Download certificates received
- Membership Directory
- When joining, directory is auto-populated
- Can choose which fields to show in directory
- Filter by specialty, populations served, insurance, location, etc.
- Payments
- Integrate with PayPal Business
- Website
- New website if full implementation of CiviCRM
- Show events on website in a calendar form
- Add events easily to the website from a Google calendar
And it’s no wonder she could rattle this off.
For one, she is intimately aware of their process since she constructed the current system which is pretty handy all things considered.
For second, a client knows their organization best, not a consultant.
Here’s the deal:
While a consultant can dig into your business, why not dig in yourself for starters?
Every in-house person and external consultant has this sort of dance and it goes like this:
In-House: You know your processes and goals but not necessarily the solutions that can get you there. Fumbling through tech solutions is onerous and risky.
Consultant: An expert in the technology and possible implementation routes but unclear on where your pain points are, your unique way of working and service delivery to your constituents.
Through effort on both sides, there needs to be a meeting of the minds, to bridge the gap.
That’s why better defining the problem is the answer. Someone will have to do it, and it might as well start with you. Ever heard of the “A problem well-defined is a problem half-solved” adage?
You’ve now made it easy for an outsider to look at the situation and easily offer up a plausible plan you value.