CRM implementation
Practical guidance from discovery and data migration through to a confident launch.
Explore CRM implementation Charity technology, made human
The missing piece for your charity.
Expert CRM implementation, migration and training that helps your people spend more time on the work that matters
10+years established
30+years' experience
5.0Beacon rating
Consultancy with purpose
Your CRM should make your mission easier, not get in its way.
We bring charity CRM expertise, sector experience and patient support together to make your database work for your people, processes and purpose. The result is a CRM your team understands, trusts and wants to use.
What we do
Support for every stage of change.
From first questions to long-term support, we meet your team where they are.
Training that sticks
Engaging remote and in-person training shaped around your team and real workflows.
Explore CRM trainingData you can rely on
Reliable database administration, data cleansing, Gift Aid and process improvements that keep your CRM accurate, useful and working well.
Discuss data supportReporting that makes sense
Clear reports and useful dashboards that turn your data into insight and support better decisions.
Read the reporting guideSupport when you need it
Friendly, responsive support from real people over Teams who understand charities and their systems
Discuss technical supportProjects that keep moving
Calm, experienced project management that keeps complex change moving forward.
Explore project consultancyThe MakeITaplan difference
Clear thinking. Careful delivery. No unnecessary complexity.
We translate technical decisions into plain English and build a plan around your people, your goals and your capacity.
- A CRM that fits the way your charity works
- Clean, trustworthy data your team can use
- Confident people, not just new software
In our clients' words
Partnerships people recommend.
We are so grateful to MakeItAPlan for guiding us on our Beacon journey
★★★★★
“MakeItAPlan were absolutely brilliant throughout our Beacon implementation. Sarah quickly became an extension of our team, and nothing was too much trouble or too complex for her to understand. She immediately grasped our Fundraising Team's structure, needs and ambitions, and provided constant support throughout the project. Even though everything was managed remotely, it often felt as though she was right there in the room with us. Many times, team members commented "I don't know how people do this without using consultants'. We are grateful to MakeItAPlan for guiding us on our Beacon journey. We are now reaping the benefits of an efficient, streamlined system that saves times, improves processes, and helps us identify income-generating opportunities that would have been difficult to uncover through the limited capabilities of our previously, sometimes disjointed, spreadsheets.”
Fantastic web app
★★★★★
“We are delighted with the Web App created by Adrian at MakeITaplan - the project was really well executed and right on brief. Adrian was very easy to work with and understood the various ambitions and constraints of the project. The resulting tool will be so helpful to our staff and beneficiaries. Thanks so much!”
MakeITaplan: the antidote to CRM trauma
★★★★★
“Working with Gemma and Noah on our Beacon implementation was a wonderful experience. After a difficult time with our previous CRM, we were nervous, but they guided us thoroughly, led the data migration and built training into it, so we were learning from day one. They were friendly, responsive to our endless questions (sorry!), and considered the needs of our fundraising, finance and programmes teams. Our team now uses Beacon frequently and confidently. I could not recommend them more highly!”
Certified CRM partner
Platform expertise. Independent advice.
We know the tools, but start with your needs. Our certified Beacon partnership means informed guidance and a smoother implementation.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions.
A few useful starting points. Explore the full FAQ for imports, reporting, forms, integrations, data protection and working with us.
Can you migrate our existing CRM or spreadsheets into Beacon?
Yes.
We can help extract, clean, restructure, map and import data from existing systems and spreadsheets, depending on the agreed project scope.
Migration is not simply about putting old columns into new fields. We will also consider relationships, duplicates, data quality and whether the existing structure makes sense in the new CRM.
Can you help if we already use Beacon but it isn’t working as well as it should?
Absolutely.
A large part of our work involves improving Beacon databases that are already in use.
A review can look at fields, relationships, forms, views, terminology, reporting and processes to distinguish quick configuration improvements from areas that need more fundamental redesign.
Starting again is rarely our default recommendation.
What does a Beacon implementation with MakeITaplan include?
We start by understanding your charity, rather than immediately creating fields in Beacon. Our support journey has six stages:
- Understanding your charity - an initial requirements call and agreed discovery discussions to understand your people, processes, data and priorities.
- Designing around the way you work - agree your CRM structure, responsibilities, scope and a realistic delivery plan.
- Building it together - configure the agreed setup, prepare and test data migration, and review progress through regular project meetings. Forms, reporting and automation are included where agreed.
- Training your team - practical, role-based learning for staff and volunteers via Microsoft Teams, at your premises, or a blend of both.
- Launching with confidence - agreed testing, data checks, handover and go-live support.
- Supporting what comes next - further support, improvements, refresher sessions and new-starter training as agreed.
These stages can overlap: learning and review take place throughout implementation, not just at the end. The work is tailored to your charity, Beacon plan and agreed scope, and can be delivered in phases. Follow-on support and training are scoped and quoted separately unless already included in your agreement.
Can Beacon give us the reports and dashboards we need?
They solve slightly different problems.
Dashboards give you an at-a-glance view of useful figures, charts and information.
Filtered views help you find and work with a particular group of records, such as upcoming events, outstanding actions or applications at a particular stage.
Exports take selected information out of Beacon, for example into a PDF or CSV, so that it can be shared, analysed or used elsewhere.
Often the best solution uses more than one of these together.
Do you provide training and ongoing support after implementation?
Yes. Our involvement doesn't have to stop at go-live. Ongoing support and consultancy can be added as needed and quoted separately.
This might include user questions, additional development, reporting, forms, new processes, refresher training or reviewing your database as your organisation's requirements change.
Ready when you are
Let’s make a plan that works.
Tell us what you’re trying to achieve. We’ll help you find the clearest next step.