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The Hidden American Software in Your Organization

2026-03-13T13:15:59Z

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

In an earlier article we wrote about why more and more organizations want to bring their data to the Netherlands. Geopolitical relations are shifting, GDPR offers more certainty than American legislation, and your donors and members trust you to handle their information carefully.

But before you can switch, you need to know where you stand. And that's often where things get tricky. Because how much American software do you actually use? The answer is almost always: more than you think.

The Obvious Suspects

Some tools are clearly American. Do you use Mailchimp for your newsletters? Then your mailing list is stored on servers belonging to Intuit, an American company headquartered in California. The same applies to Eventbrite (your event registrations), SurveyMonkey (your survey data), and Zoom (your online meetings).

These tools are popular because they're user-friendly and often free or inexpensive. But 'free' comes at a price: you pay with data, and that data falls under American jurisdiction.

Quick overview — American tools many associations use:

Category	Commonly used American tools
Email marketing	Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor
CRM	Salesforce, HubSpot
Event registration	Eventbrite, Splash
Surveys	SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms
Video calling	Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
File storage	Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive
Collaboration	Slack, Notion
Social media / community	Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Groups, WhatsApp

How Do You Inventory Your Own Situation?

A good inventory doesn't have to be complicated. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Make a list of all software your organization uses

Think broader than just the 'official' tools. Ask colleagues and volunteers which apps they use. Often software creeps in through individual preferences: a board member using Doodle to schedule meetings, a volunteer managing WhatsApp groups, an intern creating Canva designs.

Step 2: Categorize by data sensitivity

Not all data is equally sensitive. Prioritize based on risk:

Priority	Type of data	Examples
High	Personal data of members/donors	CRM, member administration, mailing lists, payment information
Medium	Internal communication and documents	Email, chat, file storage
Low	Public content and planning	Social media, planning tools

Step 3: Research where the data is stored for each tool

This sounds simpler than it is. Often you have to dig deep into the terms and conditions or privacy policy. Ask yourself (or your supplier) these questions:

Waar staan de servers fysiek?
Welke vestigingen, zuster- of moederbedrijven hebben jullie buiten Europa? Hoe werkt data-uitwisseling onderling?
Wat gebeurt er bij een dataverzoek van een buitenlandse overheid?
Wordt data versleuteld opgeslagen?
Kun je kiezen voor uitsluitend Europese dataopslag?

Step 4: Assess the risk for each tool

A simple matrix helps:

	Data staat in Europa	Data stored (partly) in US
Non-sensitive data	✅ Low risk	⚠️ Acceptable risk
Sensitive data	✅ Good	🔴 Action needed

Red Flags in Supplier Responses

Watch for these signals when questioning suppliers:

'We comply with GDPR' — That says nothing about where the data is stored. American companies can be GDPR-compliant AND still fall under American legislation.
'We have a European data center' — Good, but is that an option or the default? And what if the parent company still has to hand over data under the CLOUD Act?
'We use Standard Contractual Clauses' — This is a legal construct to legitimize data transfers to the US. It's better than nothing, but offers no guarantee against American government access.
'That's in our terms and conditions' — Ask for a concrete answer. If a supplier can't clearly explain where your data is stored, that's a red flag.

What Now?

An inventory isn't an end in itself. It's the basis for a conscious choice. Perhaps you'll conclude that the risk is acceptable for your organization. Perhaps you'll decide that your member and donor data really needs to move to a European solution.

Whatever choice you make: you're making it consciously. And that's exactly what your donors and members have the right to expect from you.

Need help with the next step?

Want to know how to migrate your member and donor data to a European environment? Or are you curious how Procurios can help you with an integrated platform that runs entirely on Dutch servers. Contact us for a no-obligation conversation.

Tags: CRM & data

Get Marketing Automation Right: 4 Critical Safeguards

2025-12-16T23:09:42Z

When automation goes wrong

Picture this: Maria donates $50 to your climate campaign through an online payment. The transaction processes instantly, she gets a confirmation email, and she feels great about supporting your mission. But a week later, she gets an automated reminder: "We haven't received your donation yet. Would you still like to contribute?"

Maria's confused. She already paid—didn't she? She double-checks her bank statement, and sure enough, the $50 was withdrawn. Her trust in your organization just took a hit. Instead of a loyal donor who feels valued, you've got someone questioning whether you have your act together.

Or consider Tom, who recently canceled his membership. Yet for weeks afterward, he keeps getting member emails about upcoming events and dues payments. Every message feels like proof that your organization doesn't really see him as an individual.

Four things to watch out for with marketing automation

1. Data integration: get all your systems talking

What went wrong with Maria? Simple: her donation lived in the accounting software, but that 'paid' status never made it over to the CRM system that sends automated emails. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

How to avoid this:

Make sure your systems sync in real-time, or better yet, use an integrated platform where everything lives in one place
Before you flip the switch on any automation, walk through it yourself as if you were a donor—test the entire flow
Check regularly that your data matches across systems. Make it part of your routine
Automate payment processing wherever you can. Systems that pull in bank transactions automatically and match them to donors eliminate manual handoffs where things can get delayed

2. Team awareness: tiny changes can trigger big problems

Here's the thing about marketing automation—it's always listening. Someone fills out a form, clicks a link, gets tagged with a new status in your CRM, and boom: an automated email fires off. The problem? Your teammate might adjust something "real quick" without realizing they just triggered a whole chain of emails.

Here's what this looks like in practice: Your colleague notices that Peter works at ABC, one of your member organizations, but his personal profile isn't linked to the company yet. She fixes it—connects Peter as a "project manager" at ABC—and the start date defaults to today.

What she doesn't know: that action just kicked off an automated onboarding sequence. Peter gets an enthusiastic welcome email: "So glad you're working at ABC! Did you know you get free access to our knowledge base?"

Peter's scratching his head. He's been at ABC for five years. He already knew about the knowledge base. Instead of feeling like you get him, he's wondering if you know him at all.

How to avoid this:

Set clear rules about who can edit what in your system
Use permission levels so not everyone has their hands on everything
Add warning labels to fields: "Heads up—changing this start date will trigger a welcome email"
Build in safeguards: only trigger journeys when start dates are today or later, never for backdated entries
Talk regularly as a team about which automations are running

3. Sync with your finance team: timing matters more than you think

Even if your systems are perfectly integrated, timing can still trip you up. Lots of organizations process donations in batches—maybe once a week, maybe once a month. If your automation doesn't know that, you'll send "where's your donation?" reminders while payments are sitting in the queue waiting to be processed.

Here's another scenario: someone donates Friday night, but your finance person doesn't work weekends. Monday morning rolls around, and the donor gets a reminder because the system ran its check on Saturday.

How to avoid this:

Talk to your finance team. How fast do they actually process donations?
Build in a cushion. Don't send reminders after three days—wait two weeks
Automate payment matching where you can. Systems that automatically pull in transactions and link them to donor records cut out the delays
For online payments (credit cards, ACH transfers), set things up so they process and match instantly
For sensitive stuff—like anything about money—consider having a human review it before it goes out

4. Duplicate records: when the same person shows up twice

This might be the most awkward scenario of all: Someone's been a member for ten years, but they sign up again through a new campaign. If you're not careful, they'll get a welcome email treating them like a brand-new member. Talk about impersonal.

Or flip it around: A longtime donor makes a one-time campaign gift, and suddenly they're getting emails inviting them to become a monthly donor. They're thinking, "Wait, do you even know who I am?"

Why does this happen? People change email addresses, move to new cities, spell their names differently on forms. Your system doesn't realize it's the same person. Or when you import data or someone fills out a form, not all the fields needed to catch duplicates make it through.

How to avoid this:

Set up deduplication rules: Configure your system to spot duplicates by matching combinations—email + name, or zip code + birth date. Keep the same person from ending up in your database twice
Add a waiting period: When someone new signs up, don't immediately throw them into every automation. Give them a few days in a holding pattern so your team can manually check if they're already in the system
Check before you recruit: Build logic into your campaigns that asks, "Is this person already a member or donor?" Only send recruitment pitches to people who don't have an active relationship with you yet
Track only truly new people: When you're measuring campaign success, look specifically at people who joined after the campaign launched—not people who were already members. Otherwise your numbers will be inflated by folks you already had

Start small and build from there

Don't let these cautionary tales scare you off. Marketing automation can be incredibly powerful—when it's set up right. The key is to start simple. Pick one basic automation—maybe a welcome email when someone subscribes to your newsletter. Test it thoroughly. Get your team on board. Then expand gradually.

This is one of our core beliefs at Procurios: get a little better every day. You don't need everything perfect from day one. Start somewhere, learn as you go, and keep improving. That's how you build automation that doesn't just save time—it actually strengthens your relationship with supporters.

Be thoughtfully strategic about your approach. Ask yourself: what am I really trying to accomplish here? What problem does this solve? What could go wrong? When you dig into those questions—the questions behind the questions—you'll build automation that actually works for your organization and your people.

Tags: Marketing communications, Engagement, CRM & data, Marketing Automation

Why you should bring your donor and member data to Europe

2026-03-13T13:15:59Z

America is no longer the obvious ally

The relationships between countries are shifting dramatically. Where America always seemed like a natural partner for Europe, we increasingly see American interests taking priority – sometimes at the expense of European organizations and citizens. This changing attitude also affects the digital world in concrete ways.

American tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon dominate the cloud market. American players like Salesforce and HubSpot also dominate the CRM market. Although both companies now offer European data centers, many organizations remain dependent on complex legal frameworks such as Standard Contractual Clauses to justify data transfers to the US. This dependence on American parent companies means that your data is ultimately still subject to American legislation. But what happens when the American government forces these companies to share European data? Or when trade tensions lead to sudden service exclusions? The Dutch Court of Audit warned in the report "The State in the Cloud" that the Netherlands has become extremely dependent on American cloud infrastructure. At the same time, Belgian government organizations are also increasingly concerned about this dependency, with Belgium being particularly vulnerable to geopolitical pressure as a strategic European hub.

The reality is that American legislation can force companies to transfer data to authorities, even when that data is stored in Europe. For your organization, this means an uncomfortable reality: you don't have complete control over your donors' and members' data.

Dutch and Belgian privacy protection offers more certainty

Both the Netherlands and Belgium follow the European privacy standard (GDPR). This legislation gives your donors and members strong rights and provides your organization with clear rules. No conflicting American legislation, no unclear jurisdictions.

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Data Protection Authority oversees compliance, while Belgium has the Data Protection Authority. Both countries take a pragmatic approach that helps organizations comply without bureaucratic hassle.

The most important difference from American data storage? Transparency. Your donors or members know exactly what happens to their data and who can access it. No hidden access by foreign intelligence services.

Data sovereignty is becoming increasingly important

More and more organizations realize that where you store your data is a strategic choice. Cloud solutions from the Benelux offer not only legal clarity but also operational advantages. No sudden changes in terms due to American legislation, no risk of exclusion during trade tensions.

Dutch cloud providers like True (where Procurios' servers are housed) have developed strongly in recent years. They offer comparable functionality to the American giants, but with Dutch jurisdiction and support in your own language. For organizations that depend on donor and member trust, this is an important advantage.

The practical picture

How big is the risk of American data storage really? Recent research shows that American authorities rarely request European data. Yet it's not just about current practice. It's about control, predictability, and trust.

When your supporters back you or use your services, they trust that you handle their data carefully. By choosing Dutch data storage, you show that their privacy is a priority. You prevent possible risks and maintain complete control over your own data.

Making the switch

A migration to European cloud solutions requires planning but doesn't have to be complex. Start by inventorying your current situation and classify which data is most critical. Dutch cloud providers can help you make a smooth transition without downtime.

Many organizations choose a hybrid approach: critical donor and member data goes to Dutch solutions, while less sensitive data can possibly remain elsewhere. This phased approach makes the transition manageable and affordable.

An investment in trust

Moving your data to local solutions is more than a technical change – it's an investment in the trust of your donors and members. You show that their privacy is a priority and that you don't want to be dependent on foreign power interests.

In a world where relationships between countries are shifting and digital independence is becoming more important, control over your own data is a strategic advantage. Dutch cloud solutions offer that control, combined with the functionality and reliability you need.

For organizations that live on trust, this is not just a technical choice – it's an investment in your mission and your future.

Tags: CRM & data, Digital association