# A donor database migration where you are the hero

> A foundation had to decide the future of its donor database, with no digital department and teams that doubted their own data. We wrote a gamebook for it in which it was the hero. Everyone read their own path, then the group faced the cost of doing nothing.

*Real case, anonymised: the company name is invented.*

- Company (invented name) : Fondation Aralia
- Sector : Environmental foundation
- Size : A team of a few dozen people
- Format : One day
- Audience : Fewer than ten people: fundraising, donor data, digital, finance, programmes and the executive director. A data expert from a software company co-facilitated the day.
- URL : https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/cas-clients/migration-crm-livre-jeu

## Context

- The donor management tool is seen as working but limited. The teams do not trust their data.
- Three options are on the table: keep what exists, move to a modern CRM, or aim for a data and AI platform.
- The foundation has no digital department and little in-house capacity.
- Other charities have been through migrations like this until their teams burned out.

## The challenge

Help a small team choose between three technical futures it barely knows, without drowning it in jargon or pushing it towards one answer.

## Design ideas

- **A gamebook written for the occasion** : A story in which the foundation’s own team is the hero, on that very day. About thirty steps and three paths: keep what exists, move to a modern CRM, aim for a data and AI platform. At each step, a choice: which consultant, which tender, which sponsor. Everyone reads alone and traces their path on a map.
- **The decision tree as a poster** : Every path through the gamebook is drawn on a large poster. The group can see where each person went, and why.
- **Obstacles before solutions** : After the expert’s view, a “why not go for it?” session brings out what is holding the foundation back. Obstacles are grouped before anyone sketches a solution.
- **The cost of doing nothing** : Our reversed SWOT: strengths that wear away, weaknesses that grow, missed opportunities and threats, if the foundation changes nothing. Doing nothing becomes an option like the others, with its price.

## Run of show

- 9am · **Round the table** : Six questions: my role, how I use the database, what holds me back, what I expect, how confident I am about the migration.
- **The migration where you are the hero** : Reading the gamebook alone, tracing your path on a map.
- **Crossing paths** : Questions and answers, in front of the decision tree poster.
- Noon · **Lunch and production** : Over lunch, the facilitation team turns the morning into material.
- **The expert’s view** : What comparable organisations do.
- **Why not go for it?** : Obstacles, grouped, then a first sketch of a solution.
- **The cost of doing nothing** : The reversed SWOT, filled in together.
- 4pm · **Alignment** : Obstacles, opportunities and first steps.

## Deliverables

- A full report, with each participant’s own account: their hopes, their stakes, their words.
- The three scenarios compared, with their strengths and limits, and the organisational questions: in-house or outsourced, dependence on suppliers, sizing.
- Seven workstreams, the completed reversed SWOT, and a plan: set a measurable summit, a needs-led tender, a visit to comparable organisations, a phased roll-out, financial and social indicators.

## The role of AI

The gamebook’s decision tree was modelled so it could be printed as a poster. The discussions were recorded to feed the report.

## Key takeaways

- A technical choice becomes accessible once it is told as a story. Everyone lived the three futures before debating them.
- Putting a price on the status quo changes the conversation: doing nothing is no longer the default.

Related expertise : [Collective intelligence](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/intelligence-collective), [Seminar design](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/design-de-seminaire), [Seminar facilitation](https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/facilitation-de-seminaire)

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Source: Flow Design, https://www.getflowdesign.com
Contact: victoire@getflowdesign.com, marie-violaine@getflowdesign.com, +33 6 72 15 94 77. Request a quote: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/nous-contacter. Draft a run of show online: https://www.getflowdesign.com/en/concevoir-mon-seminaire.