As 2024 winds down, nonprofits are busy with two main activities: executing their end-of-year giving campaigns and planning for the new year.
A thoughtful annual planning process is a major step toward achieving your organization’s objectives, particularly when it includes goal-setting, budgeting, and technology evaluation.
Nonprofits who want to thrive in 2025 need systems that align with their strategic goals. Whether it’s managing donors, volunteers, or program impact, evaluating your tech stack as part of your annual planning can position your organization for a year of growth and success.
Here are five questions you can ask as you plan for 2025 to align your goals, objectives, and tech stack.
1. Does Our Current Technology Support Our Fundraising Goals?
One of the first steps in annual planning is defining clear fundraising goals. Beyond setting target amounts, this involves identifying the types of campaigns and initiatives you’ll run and understanding the resources required to execute them.
Here’s where asking the hard questions about your current technology plays a role in supporting your goals:
- Are We Implementing Donor-Centric Strategies? Your donors today expect a high degree of personalization and transparency. Donor data and real-time feedback are invaluable for organizations adopting responsive fundraising principles. Your CRM and donor management systems need to help you gather insights, understand donor behaviors and preferences, and connect donors with their impact.
- Can We Support Multi-Channel Campaigns? Fundraising today happens across many platforms, from social media and email to peer-to-peer channels. Your technology should be able to help you manage and track these initiatives to provide a holistic view of your donors’ journey. Annual planning is the ideal time to evaluate whether your systems provide the support your campaigns will need in 2025.
By aligning your tech capabilities with your fundraising vision during annual planning, you can ensure that your systems will help meet next year’s goals and give you the flexibility to adjust and respond to changing donor needs.
2. Do Our Technology Needs Align With Our Budgeting Process?
Budgeting is another core part of annual planning, and technology needs to be a priority. Nonprofit teams often juggle multiple functions, from donor management to volunteer coordination and data tracking.
Allocating resources for the right tech tools can help improve efficiency and reduce long-term costs. But if you don’t have that conversation now, you may find yourself with a need you can’t meet come 2025.
- Prioritizing Investments: By understanding which tech upgrades are necessary to support your goals, you can allocate resources where they’ll have the highest impact. If you plan to increase donor engagement, investing in a modern CRM that offers in-depth donor insights, innovating automation, and segmentation tools can support that objective.
- Planning for Implementation: Budgeting in advance allows nonprofits to plan for the integration and training costs associated with new systems. When implementation is built into the annual budget, it creates a smooth transition and allows your team to see the impact of the technology faster.
Incorporating tech needs into your budgeting during annual planning paves the way for the following year so that you’ll have the resources to implement your plans.
3. Can Our Technology Ecosystem Support Strategic Engagement?
While annual planning is the time to set goals and forecast fundraising numbers, it’s also a chance to evaluate how well your tech stack supports your donor engagement strategy.
From CRMs to online giving to volunteer management, the tools you choose should help your team work together efficiently and connect authentically with donors and volunteers alike.
- Building a Seamless Donor Experience: A responsive CRM is a non-negotiable for nonprofits focused on personalized engagement. This includes gathering donor signals, such as engagement preferences or past interactions, that help understand how each supporter wants to be reached and what inspires them to give.
- Optimizing Volunteer Management: Volunteers play a crucial role, and a management platform that facilitates communication, scheduling, and impact tracking allows your volunteers to remain engaged and feel valued. As you consider your goals for volunteer outreach in 2025, consider whether your current system supports these priorities.
Assessing your technology during annual planning can identify areas where your systems might create friction or limit engagement. Investing in responsive, integrated tools as part of your strategic plan will set you up to better connect with your people in 2025.
4. Can Our Tech Support Cross-Functional Team Collaboration?
Annual planning is also a time to focus on team efficiency. From fundraising and communications to program management, departments have to work together to achieve organizational goals.
Many nonprofits find that technology can play a pivotal role in breaking down organizational silos and creating consistency in communication.
- Fostering Responsive Communication: Cross-functional teams benefit from systems that allow for shared visibility into donor information, campaign progress, and volunteer contributions. Systems with integrated communication features or access to real-time data make it easier for teams to collaborate and align on goals.
- Providing Easy Access to Data and Insights: When everyone has access to the same donor insights, reports, and progress tracking, team members can better support each other’s efforts. Centralized technology not only saves time but also allows alignment in messaging and strategy, which grows engagement with donors and volunteers.
Exploring how your systems help foster collaboration will ultimately help scale impact across teams in 2025. Investing in tools that foster transparency and tear down silos allows for a unified, responsive approach to achieving annual goals.
5. Are We Positioned to Drive 2025 Fundraising Success With Our Current Tech?
Ultimately, your technology should act as an enabler that helps you achieve your fundraising goals. As part of annual planning, it’s vital to honestly ask if your current systems can support your 2025 fundraising strategy and, if not, identify where improvements could help.
- Are You Responsive and Scalable? Nonprofits grow and change, and your technology should adapt accordingly. Responsive systems allow for data-driven adjustments in real-time, which is a must for engaging donors based on their preferences and behaviors. Systems with built-in scalability let your organization expand its reach without sacrificing the quality of engagement.
- Can You Integrate With Best In Class Tools?: When using multiple platforms—CRM, volunteer management, giving platforms—they should all work together seamlessly. Annual planning is the time to evaluate whether your systems integrate effectively or if gaps exist that create inefficiencies. When systems work together, they streamline workflows and improve data accuracy, contributing to better-informed, consistent engagement.
As you work through the annual planning process, ask yourself if your current tech stack will drive fundraising success in 2025. Knowing your tools are ready to support a year of responsive fundraising and mission-driven growth will give you the confidence to start 2025 strong.
Plan Now for 2025 Success
Integrating tech evaluation into your annual planning process prepares your organization for a year of intentional, impactful engagement.
Your technology should empower every aspect of your nonprofit’s strategy—from fundraising and volunteer management to team collaboration and donor connection. With the right systems and tools in place, your team can prioritize what matters most: creating lasting impact and growing generosity in 2025 and beyond.
For nonprofits, planning thoughtfully now will help create the path for a successful, sustainable year ahead. Technology is an investment in your organization’s mission, and aligning it with your strategic plan ensures your tools, team, and supporters are ready to make 2025 a remarkable year.
