How to Find the Best Political CRM

A CRM is a big investment for your campaign or organization. With so many options on the market at every price point, the decision can be overwhelming.

Download Five Steps to Finding the Best CRM to help guide your research and decision-making.

What is a CRM?

CRM, which stands for a customer relationship management or constituent relationship management, is a technology that manages all campaign or organizations relationships, interactions and data associated with key stakeholders. A CRM provides a clear, 360-degree view of everyone you are trying to reach, such as donors, volunteers, and voters.

Why Don't Spreadsheets Work?

Spreadsheets silo data.

While a spreadsheet can store and sort data, it is stored on one computer and has limited analytical ability. A cloud-based CRM ensures that everyone on your team has access to real-time data that is always backed up on a secure server.

Spreadsheets are for data, not people.

While spreadsheets can help you manage some data associated with a political campaign, a CRM is designed around the relationship you have with stakeholders.

Spreadsheets have limited lifespans.

Data stored in spreadsheets is usually kept on one computer by one individual. If that person leaves, or something happens to the file or computer, the data is often gone.

Spreadsheet dashboards and tools are hard to use.

A good CRM will have easy-to-understand dashboards that automatically capture the most important data points you need to know. While programs like Excel have the ability to create reports, they are difficult to learn and confusing. With a CRM, you can log in and view the top data points you need to see every day. The right CRM will also have built-in reports that you can quickly run or the ability to build a custom report using data saved in the system.