If you've ever sent an appeal to a donor who just signed up to fundraise for you, or found out after the fact that a major prospect had visited your donation page six times last week, you already understand the problem this article is about.
Your supporter data is spread across multiple systems. Your CRM knows about gifts. Your event platform knows about registrations. Your website knows about intent. But none of them talk to each other, which means none of them know the full story.
The result is an incomplete picture of every supporter. And when data is fragmented across systems, most of it never gets used at all. You miss opportunities to connect meaningfully, and your supporters experience inconsistent journeys.
What a unified supporter profile actually looks like
Imagine opening a single record and seeing:
Every donation Sarah has made, including amounts, dates, and campaigns
Her registration for your upcoming walkathon
Three visits to your regular giving page in the past week
Her email engagement history and communication preferences
Her fundraising activity from last year's event
Open opportunities linked to her profile
That is what happens when your data sources connect to a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that brings relationship data and real-time behavioural data together in one place.
Relationship data tells you what someone has done. Behavioural data tells you what they are interested in right now. Together, they tell you who to contact, with what message, and when.
The data sources worth connecting
You do not need to connect everything at once. The goal is to build a complete picture over time, starting with the tools you already use.
Your fundraising platform is the best place to start. Raisely is available to connect right now. Funraisin integration is coming soon. These platforms hold your most valuable supporter actions: donations, campaign sign-ups, peer-to-peer registrations, fundraiser activity. This data flows straight into Ortto without manual exports or spreadsheet uploads.
Your website or campaign site is where intent shows up before action does. Adding Ortto's tracking code captures page visits, form submissions, and clicks, tying them back to individual supporter profiles. If getting the code onto your main website requires IT, your campaign site is a perfectly good starting point.
Your CRM holds the richest relationship data you have. Ortto connects to Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Blackbaud, and HubSpot, bringing in contact records, donation history, account relationships, and custom fields. This typically needs involvement from your IT or data team, but it is worth prioritising once you are ready.
Other sources to layer in over time include Stripe for recurring payment health and failed transaction alerts, event platforms like Humanitix and Eventbrite for participation data, social advertising accounts (Meta, Google, LinkedIn) for campaign attribution, predictive analytics tools like Dataro, and eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
Each source adds a new dimension. The more you bring together, the more clearly you can see each supporter and the more confidently you can act.
Why this matters in practice
Ortto separates two types of data that most platforms treat the same way.
Relationship data is your contact and relationship information. It is relatively stable, lives in your CRM, and tells you who someone is, what they have given, and how long they have been connected to your organisation.
Behavioural data is what someone is doing right now. It changes constantly. It includes website visits, email opens and clicks, form submissions, and campaign interactions. It tells you what someone is interested in today, not what they did six months ago.
Most nonprofit teams have access to relationship data through their CRM and fundraising platforms. Behavioural data is where the gap usually sits. Adding website tracking and connecting your campaign tools fills that gap, and the two data types together create a profile that is genuinely useful for decision-making.
A practical connection order
Here is a sensible sequence that lets you start getting value quickly without needing to involve IT or other teams on day one:
Connect your fundraising platform. You likely have direct access to this, and it delivers immediate value. Once connected, you will immediately see new donors and fundraisers flowing into your CDP.
Add the tracking code to your website or campaign site. This starts capturing behavioural data (page views, session data, form submissions) that you can use later for scoring and targeting.
Upload a CSV file. If you want to explore Ortto with sample data while waiting for a live connection, upload a CSV with test records.
Connect your CRM when your team is ready. Brings in the full relationship picture.
Layer in Stripe, event platforms, and ad accounts as your ecosystem grows.
Connecting any source in Ortto follows the same simple path: Data Sources > Search for your source > Connect. Most native integrations take just a few minutes once you have the right credentials.
What becomes possible once your data is unified
When everything flows into one place, a few things change fundamentally.
You can respond to intent in real time. A supporter who visits your donation page repeatedly is showing interest before they act. With unified data, you can see that signal and respond with a timely, relevant message rather than finding out about it weeks later in a report.
You can stop treating the same person as multiple people. Without a unified profile, your donor, your event attendee, and your email subscriber might all be the same person with no connection between their records. A CDP resolves this, giving you one accurate view.
You can personalise without guessing. Sarah interacted with your social ad, donated to your winter appeal, and visited your regular giving page three times in the last week. Instead of treating these as separate data points across different systems, you have them all in a single place and can respond from that unified profile with a thoughtful message that acknowledges her full journey with your organisation.
Try it in your 14-day trial
If you are exploring Ortto for the first time, the 14-day free trial gives you full access to the CDP from the moment you sign in.
In the 6 Step Guide to Ortto at the end of the playbook, Win 1 walks you through connecting your first data source and adding the tracking code to a campaign page. Within minutes, supporter profiles will begin populating with real donation data and behavioural activity, and you can see exactly what a unified profile looks like in practice.
No data wrangling. No spreadsheet prep. Just real data, in one place, ready to act on.
Next in the series: Win 2: Understand who's ready to give, fundraise, or go deeper. Learn how to build dynamic engagement scores that tell you exactly where each supporter stands, and what to do about it.
