Technology & Migration Readiness Assessment (2021), Embedded Strategic Business Analysis Support (2023)
We had the privilege to support Farm Sanctuary along their CRM journey from inception to go-live across two different projects. We first created a plan to guide the organization’s Salesforce implementation, then “rode along” during the migration project to provide expert process and project management acumen.
Farm Sanctuary is an U.S.-based animal protection organization, founded in 1986 to advocate for the rights of farmed animals and promote laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection, and veganism through rescue, education, and advocacy. In 2021, following a failed attempt to migrate to Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), Farm Sanctuary engaged Justin and Simone to validate the selection of Salesforce as a fundraising CRM and reassess the organization’s readiness to undertake this migration.
We interviewed leadership, IT, marketing, and fundraising stakeholders and analyzed of Farm Sanctuary’s goals, budget, staffing and structure, internal skills and capacity to identify and mitigate risks to both the migration project and the long-term “care and feeding” of the CRM. We developed a comprehensive assessment that mapped out a path forward to migrate to Salesforce, inclusive of staffing recommendations, implementation partners to evaluate, and key preparatory steps to ensure a smooth migration.
In early 2023, Farm Sanctuary re-engaged Simone to partner with their implementation firm and serve as project manager and strategic business analyst for their Salesforce migration project. She helped translate and document the organization’s fundraising and financial processes into user stories to ensure the developers designed and implemented a solution that met business needs. She also helped design and customize the training content to ensure those business practices were adapted effectively for their new CRM. After a successful launch in July 2023, Simone pivoted to coaching the Farm Sanctuary staff to learn product management principles, create a Salesforce roadmap, and adopt new ways of working to better support their end-users as they transitioned to post-launch stabilization.
