Customer Success Representative

Overview

You're the main point of contact for FundMiner customers after they sign a contract. You onboard new accounts (helping them import data and set up their fund tracking), answer questions about how to use the platform, and work to make sure they're getting value so they renew. You're also the voice of the customer internally—reporting bugs, requesting features, and helping product understand what users struggle with.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Seed ($4.35M raised, July 2024 round)

Size: 31 employees (so you're probably 1 of 2-4 CSMs)

Growth: Partnership with Blackbaud (major nonprofit software provider) announced. Likely adding new customers through that channel.

Market Position: Selling into nonprofits, universities, foundations, hospitals—organizations that manage donor-restricted funds. Competing against manual processes (Excel hell) and legacy systems.

GTM Reality

Customer Profile:

• Development directors, grant managers, finance/accounting teams at nonprofits and universities
• Not super technical - many are used to spreadsheets
• Budget-conscious (nonprofit world), so they expect ROI and won't tolerate a clunky product
• Concerned about compliance and audit readiness

How Customers Come In:

• Some via Blackbaud partnership (warm leads already using Blackbaud CRM)
• Some via direct sales (likely founder-led at this stage)
• Referrals from existing customers in the sector

Your Handoff:

• Sales (or founders) close the deal and introduce you
• You take over for onboarding, training, ongoing support
• You'll probably loop in Product for feature requests or Sales for expansion opportunities

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Onboarding Calls (35%) | Support/Questions (30%) | Account Health Monitoring (20%) | Internal Collaboration (15%)

Key Activities

• Onboarding New Customers: Schedule kickoff calls, walk them through data import process (often messy CSV files from their finance system), set up their fund structure, train them on core features. Expect 4-8 weeks per onboarding depending on customer complexity.
• Reactive Support: Answer Slack messages, emails, or support tickets about how to use the product. Questions like: "How do I run a report showing only scholarship funds?" or "Why isn't this transaction showing up?" or "Can I bulk edit these records?"
• Proactive Check-ins: Scheduled calls (monthly or quarterly) with your book of accounts to see how things are going, spot red flags (low login activity, complaints), and encourage them to use underutilized features.
• Internal Advocacy: Log bugs in a tracker, write up feature requests with customer context, join product planning meetings to represent the customer voice. You're the bridge between users and the product team.
• Renewals: Monitor contract dates and work to ensure customers are happy enough to renew. At this stage, you might hand off to a founder or sales rep for the actual renewal conversation, but you're responsible for the health score.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Data Cleanup Is Painful: Most customers are migrating from Excel or outdated systems. Their data is inconsistent (typos, missing fields, duplicates). You spend hours helping them clean it up before they can go live. This is tedious work.
• Non-Technical Users: You're teaching people who may not be comfortable with software. Lots of basic questions. Lots of handholding. Some customers will resist change and complain that "the old way was easier."
• Product Gaps: FundMiner is early-stage. Customers will ask for features that don't exist yet. You have to manage expectations and work around limitations while internally lobbying product to build what's needed.
• Volume: If they're growing (Blackbaud partnership, recent funding), you'll be onboarding multiple customers at once while also supporting existing accounts. You can get stretched thin.
• Unclear Processes: At 31 people, CS processes are probably still being figured out. You might not have a playbook for onboarding or clear escalation paths. You build those as you go.

What Success Looks Like

• Customers go live within target onboarding window (e.g., 6 weeks) and start using the platform regularly
• High CSAT scores on support interactions
• Net retention above 100% (customers renew and ideally expand)
• Low ticket volume per customer (they learn the product and become self-sufficient)
• Product team says your feedback is helpful and leads to meaningful improvements

Who You're Selling To

Primary Users:

• Development Directors / Chief Development Officers (manage fundraising, care about donor relations and reporting)
• Grant Managers (track restricted grants, ensure compliance with donor intent)
• Finance/Accounting Staff (need to reconcile fund balances, prepare audits)

What They Care About:

• Compliance: Making sure restricted funds are used according to donor stipulations (legal requirement)
• Audit Readiness: Being able to quickly produce reports for auditors or boards
• Time Savings: Reducing hours spent manually reconciling spreadsheets
• Transparency: Seeing in one place how much money is in each fund, what's been spent, what's available

Requirements

• 1-2 years in customer success, support, account management, or operations (not expecting senior CSM experience)
• Comfortable on video calls and explaining software to non-technical users
• Patience for repetitive questions and data cleanup work
• Organized enough to manage multiple onboarding projects and support requests at once
• Bonus: experience with nonprofits, education, or financial software
• Bonus: familiarity with fund accounting or restricted fund concepts
• Remote work discipline - you're not in an office with teammates