Granting Capacity, Time, and Impact: Building Your Business Case for a CRM Transformation

Saving Time to Drive Impact: How to Build a Grant Funding Case for CRM Investment

Presentation by Abby Guyer, Executive Director at Xcelerate Women, and Adrienne Chaille, Economic Development Manager for Washington County, Oregon

Abby and Adrienne share the story from both sides of a capacity-building grant: Abby as the nonprofit recipient and Adrienne as the funder. Together, they explain how Xcelerate Women built a case for investing in a CRM, engaged its board and stakeholders, and ultimately secured funding to make the investment possible. They also discuss what funders can do to better understand nonprofit infrastructure needs and how nonprofits can advocate for the kinds of capacity-building support that allow them to deliver their work more effectively.

About Xcelerate Women and Washington County

Xcelerate Women is a Portland-based nonprofit that helps women create economic power by growing and scaling their businesses, with the goal of building generational wealth and thriving communities. The organization serves women throughout Oregon, with approximately 65% of participants in the Portland metro area, 35% statewide, and 11% in fully rural communities. At the time of the presentation, Xcelerate Women was operating with a team of three and a half people.

Adrienne works in economic development for Washington County, which includes 13 jurisdictions and approximately 230,000 people in unincorporated areas. The county's economic development program serves as a convener for local jurisdictions as well as nonprofit business-support and workforce-development organizations, many of which are culturally specific. A major focus has been economic recovery and resilience following the pandemic.

One of the county's key initiatives is the Washington County Small Business Support Network, a collaborative of more than 50 nonprofit organizations, chambers of commerce, economic-development partners, and agencies. Xcelerate Women became involved in that network as it looked to expand its work into Washington County. Adrienne emphasizes the importance of this peer-to-peer environment because the network created opportunities for organizations to share challenges, learn from one another, and identify needs that might otherwise remain invisible to funders.

Pre-CRM Tech Stack and Process

Until the fall before the presentation, Xcelerate Women was managing its operations primarily through what Abby jokingly called its "free" tech stack: Google Sheets, Donorbox, Mailchimp, Asana, and its website. The organization had grown dramatically since its founding in 2017, from serving approximately 70 women to serving 821 women the previous year. That growth brought more programs, funding sources, reporting requirements, and data to track.

One example was the organization's business advising program, which combines one-on-one coaching, legal guidance, and mental wellness support in the context of running a business. Xcelerate Women had multiple funders requiring detailed reimbursement and reporting, including information about hours, geography, demographics, household income, client fees, coaching completion, and invoices. Much of this information was managed manually across spreadsheets. A single component of the program required a 28-column Google Sheet, with multiple people entering and cross-checking information. The more people who touched the same spreadsheet, the greater the opportunity for errors and confusion.

The issue wasn't simply that spreadsheets were inconvenient. The organization's systems were consuming staff capacity that could otherwise be spent on programs and services. Xcelerate Women realized it had outgrown its existing approach and needed a more integrated system to manage its growing organization.

Capacity-Building Grants

Washington County created its capacity-building grant program after hearing repeatedly from organizations in its ecosystem that nonprofits needed opportunities to pause, reflect, analyze their operations, and develop stronger partnerships. The county ultimately awarded grants to 23 organizations, distributing approximately $500,000. Individual grants were relatively small, generally around $25,000 and in some cases up to approximately $38,000, but Adrienne emphasizes that smaller grants can be catalytic when they address a specific organizational need.

For Adrienne, an important part of the program was building transformational relationships with grantees rather than simply issuing a check. Because she had already developed a relationship with Abby through the Small Business Support Network, she was able to connect Xcelerate Women with another grant recipient, Northwest Native Chamber of Commerce, so Abby could learn from an organization that had already gone through the process. That peer connection helped Xcelerate Women think through its project and grant application.

Adrienne encourages nonprofits to look for capacity-building opportunities and to advocate for them with funders. The county funded projects involving program design and development, strengthening referrals across the ecosystem, data analysis, and feasibility studies. These grants recognize that organizations sometimes need to strengthen their own infrastructure before they can increase the effectiveness of their direct services. Adrienne also points out that funders cannot respond to needs they don't know about, so nonprofits need to clearly communicate examples of investments that could be genuinely transformational.

Board Engagement

For Xcelerate Women, board engagement was critical because it is a very small organization. The nonprofit has an all-volunteer working board, including a data, technology, and automation committee. Rather than asking staff to take on all of the research and platform evaluation themselves, the organization was able to delegate much of the early research and vetting to the committee.

The process began with the team showing the committee the "crazy warren" of Google Sheets they were using so board members could understand the organization's day-to-day operations and the amount of data staff were managing. Staff then created individual wish lists describing what they needed from a CRM. Different roles had different priorities: Abby was particularly interested in prospecting and reporting, while program staff needed tools that supported their day-to-day work and administrative staff had their own requirements. Each team member ranked features as must-haves, nice-to-haves, or "frosting."

The board committee ultimately identified approximately 160 features and benefits and evaluated four different CRM options, taking price into account because the organization did not yet know how much funding it would be able to secure. The process gave Xcelerate Women a structured way to evaluate platforms while ensuring that the eventual technology investment was grounded in the organization's actual needs.

Making the Case for Funding

When Xcelerate Women developed its grant narrative, one of its central arguments was that good data amplifies impact and strengthens good governance. The CRM wasn't presented simply as a tool that would make staff's jobs easier. The organization explained how better data could help it become a more stable, trustworthy, well-governed organization while also improving its programs.

The team also emphasized the difference between anecdotal observations and actionable data. With information centralized in a CRM, Xcelerate Women could identify patterns, refine existing programs, identify gaps, and understand how participants moved through different programs over time. Previously, each program had its own Google Sheet, making it difficult to see whether a business owner was participating in multiple programs or understand their overall relationship with the organization.

Board involvement strengthened the case because the proposal demonstrated that the investment wasn't simply coming from staff who felt overwhelmed. The board had participated in identifying the problem, evaluating solutions, and determining that a CRM was an appropriate investment. Adrienne adds that Washington County was particularly interested in organizations that were thinking beyond their own walls and considering their impact on the larger community and their participation in the broader network.

Quantifying the Value of Staff Time

Xcelerate Women also conducted a simple time study to estimate how much staff time was being consumed by spreadsheet management and grant reporting. The estimate wasn't intended to be highly scientific, but it gave the organization a way to quantify the problem. The team estimated that approximately 100 hours of staff time could be saved through a CRM—roughly 30% of the time currently spent wrangling spreadsheets.

That number helped Xcelerate Women frame the CRM as a capacity investment rather than simply another technology expense. Instead of asking for funding to hire another employee, the organization could show how a system could free its existing team to serve more people without increasing staff size. The board also encouraged the team to include direct quotes from staff describing how the investment would improve their ability to do their jobs.

Adrienne connects this to another goal of the county's grant program: investing in existing staff and addressing the challenges of nonprofit turnover and retention. Rather than assuming that organizational growth always requires additional employees, capacity-building funding can help organizations improve the systems and infrastructure that support the people already doing the work.

Project Design and Expected Outcomes

Xcelerate Women designed the CRM project as a 12-month effort with three phases, covering everything from prospecting and platform demonstrations through implementation. Because Washington County was funding the project, the organization made its anticipated outcomes specific to the county rather than simply describing general organizational benefits.

For example, Xcelerate Women projected that the time saved through the CRM could allow it to increase outreach and impact in Washington County by 25–30% over two years. The organization also identified staff satisfaction, better reporting, and more actionable insights as outcomes. It connected the project to the county's specific focus on supporting historically marginalized and underrepresented entrepreneurs.

Selection and Implementation

Xcelerate Women evaluated four platforms and ultimately selected HubSpot. HubSpot provided a 40% nonprofit discount, and Xcelerate Women secured favorable pricing through a two-year commitment. The organization implemented Marketing Hub Professional, Sales Hub Enterprise, and Operations Hub Starter. It also moved from Donorbox to Fundraise Up and from Google forms and surveys to SurveyMonkey, while retiring Mailchimp and Asana.

Automation was an especially important part of the investment. Previously, Xcelerate Women relied on Zapier and other tools to connect different processes. With HubSpot, the team could create automated triggers across departments. For example, staff can receive an alert when a coach completes an outcome survey, eliminating the need to manually check spreadsheets to determine whether a required step has been completed. These automations have helped create greater clarity and streamline processes across the organization.

The entire project had a $25,000 budget. Xcelerate Women chose to allocate the grant primarily to HubSpot and outside consulting support rather than assigning a large portion to staff time or overhead. CauseMic supported the implementation, helping the organization move quickly from platform selection to a fully implemented system.

Outcomes

Xcelerate Women has now sunset its Google Sheets and moved its email marketing into HubSpot. Abby emphasizes that the organization is still early in the process and has only begun to explore the full potential of the platform. The initial focus was on program management, with marketing and fundraising applications becoming the next areas of development.

The organization is also creating internal standard operating procedures and training documentation so that knowledge about the system isn't concentrated in one person. This is particularly important for a small team: if someone is on vacation or leaves the organization, others should still know how to complete essential tasks.

The new dashboards have also made organizational data more accessible. Board members can log in and see current information, while staff can analyze coaching requests by category, monitor coach assignments, and slice participant data by geography and demographics. Annual impact reporting has become significantly easier as well. Abby estimates that the previous process could take three people approximately 40 hours, while the new system allows the organization to pull information by program, geography, and demographic much more seamlessly.

The staff impact is perhaps best captured in the feedback Xcelerate Women received after implementation: "HubSpot has allowed me to work smarter, not harder, giving more time to focus on delivering meaningful impact within our community."

What's Next: Using Better Data to Shape the Organization

The CRM is also beginning to change how Xcelerate Women thinks about its programs and future revenue opportunities. The organization received an additional capacity-building grant for a feasibility study and is examining questions such as whether it is charging enough for fee-for-service programs, whether programs should be packaged differently, and where there are unmet needs.

One example involves businesses that grow beyond a certain size. Abby had observed anecdotally that businesses reaching approximately $1 million in revenue sometimes leave Xcelerate Women and join organizations such as Entrepreneurs' Organization, where membership can cost thousands of dollars. With better longitudinal data, the organization can move beyond anecdotal observations and investigate those patterns systematically. That could inform new programs, new fundraising opportunities, or ways to maintain relationships with businesses even after they move into another stage of growth.

Key Takeaways

• Build relationships with strategic funders. Nonprofits can communicate their infrastructure needs more effectively when they develop relationships with funders before a specific grant opportunity arises.
• Use your peer network. Organizations that have already received funding can provide valuable insight into how to frame a project and navigate the application process.
• Connect technology investments to impact. A CRM is easier to justify when the case demonstrates how better systems will improve programs, governance, staff capacity, reporting, and community outcomes.
• Quantify the cost of the current problem. Even a simple time study can help demonstrate how much staff capacity is being consumed by inefficient processes and what could become possible if that time were freed.

Audience Q&A

How did the team get everyone to adopt the CRM?

Abby admits that she was one of the last people on the team to fully adopt HubSpot and had secretly continued using a spreadsheet because she recognized that important information couldn't live only in her head or notebook. A team member trained her on the system, and once she spent the time to learn the basic workflows, she became much more disciplined about using contacts, connecting Gmail, logging meetings and calls, summarizing interactions, and creating follow-up tasks. For her, the biggest hurdle was carving out the time to learn the system rather than the system itself being difficult to use.

Why invest in technology instead of hiring another staff member?

Abby explains that Xcelerate Women is a very small organization with an annual budget of approximately $450,000. Staff are the organization's largest expense, followed by the coaches who deliver its services, so simply adding another full-time position isn't always realistic. Rather than assuming the answer to every capacity problem is hiring a development director or another fundraiser, the organization wanted to free up its existing team's time and create the capacity to pursue new earned-revenue models and diversify beyond grant and government funding.

Closing

The story of Xcelerate Women's CRM investment demonstrates the value of looking at technology as organizational infrastructure rather than simply another software expense. For nonprofits, making the case requires connecting the investment to concrete problems, staff capacity, program outcomes, governance, and community impact. For funders, it means recognizing that strengthening an organization's internal systems can be an important part of strengthening the work it delivers externally. As both speakers emphasize, strategic relationships, peer learning, and candid conversations about organizational needs can help turn relatively small capacity-building investments into meaningful improvements in how nonprofits operate and serve their communities.

This transcript has been edited using AI for clarity and readability. Filler language, repeated phrases, audience chatter, and transcript artifacts have been removed while preserving the speaker's examples, terminology, and key points.