Tech Turbulence in the Fundraising Office is Real

Most fundraising offices are not broken because they lack technology. They are broken because they have too much of it, layered on over the years with little discipline, even less governance, and no one brave enough to say “enough.” What fundraisers often describe as chaos is really tech turbulence: systems pulling in different directions, data living in too many places, and staff spending more time reconciling reports than building relationships.

If this feels familiar, you are not alone.

What Tech Turbulence Looks Like in Practice

Tech turbulence usually creeps in quietly. One solution at a time. One “quick fix” here, one pilot there. Fast forward a few years and you are dealing with:

• Multiple CRMs
  One for fundraising. One for marketing. Another legacy system no one wants to turn off because “it still has historical data.” Think Salesforce running alongside Blackbaud or an old home-grown database that only one person understands.
• Multiple payment gateways
  Online donations through Stripe, events through PayPal, direct debit somewhere else, and a separate platform for peer-to-peer. Each with different fees, settlement times, and reporting structures.
• Multiple third-party fundraising tools
  Event platforms, raffle tools, P2P solutions, advocacy apps, SMS tools, bequest platforms, workplace giving portals—often all purchased in isolation, rarely integrated properly.

Individually, each tool may be defensible. Collectively, they create a mess.

The Real Cost Is not IT — It is Fundraising Capacity

The biggest lie charities tell themselves is that this is “just a systems problem.”

It is not.

Tech turbulence directly impacts:

• Donor experience — inconsistent receipts, duplicate communications, mismatched donation histories
• Staff morale — fundraisers drowning in admin instead of meeting donors
• Decision-making — leaders arguing over whose report is “right”
• Risk — privacy breaches, audit issues, and single points of failure

Every extra system adds friction. Every workaround becomes institutionalised. And every year it gets harder to unwind.

How Organisations End Up Here

This did not happen because people were careless. It happened because:

• Decisions were made project by project, not architecturally
• Vendors were selected by department, not by enterprise need
• Short-term wins were prioritised over long-term sustainability
• No one owned the full technology ecosystem end-to-end

In other words, good intentions… poor discipline.

How to Get Your Arms Around the Problem

There is no silver bullet. But there is a proven way forward.

1. Start With a Ruthless Tech Inventory

Before you talk about solutions, document reality:

• Every CRM
• Every payment gateway
• Every third-party fundraising platform
• Who owns it
• What it costs
• What data it holds
• Whether it integrates — properly — with anything else

Most leaders are shocked by what turns up.

2. Decide What the “System of Record” Actually Is

You cannot have three systems of record. Pick one.

Everything else must either:

• Feed it cleanly
• Or be retired

If your CRM is not trusted as the source of truth, no dashboard or BI tool will save you.

3. Rationalise Payment Gateways

Multiple gateways mean:

• Fragmented donor data
• Complex reconciliation
• Inconsistent supporter experiences

Standardise wherever possible. Exceptions should be rare, justified, and documented — not historical accidents.

4. Integrate or Eliminate Third-Party Tools

Every third-party tool should earn its place by answering one question:

Does this measurably increase net fundraising outcomes?

If it does not integrate cleanly, creates manual work, or duplicates functionality already paid for elsewhere, it is a candidate for removal.

5. Put Governance Around Tech Decisions

This is the step most charities skip — and pay for later.

You need:

• Clear decision rights
• Enterprise-level oversight
• Agreed principles for buying, integrating, and retiring systems

Technology decisions are business decisions, not IT side projects.

Calm Beats Clever Every Time

Well-run fundraising offices are not the ones with the fanciest tech stacks. They are the ones with fewer systems, clearer rules, and disciplined execution.

Less turbulence. More control. Better fundraising.

That is not innovation.
That is good management — the kind that is worked for decades and still does.

If your team is exhausted by its tools instead of empowered by them, it is time to stop adding and start fixing.