Arts Organization Uses GiftWorks to Increase Productivity June 29, 2009 By Mary Pat Donnellon

The GiftWorks stories are coming fast and furious.  And they keep getting better!  Read on....

"The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN) is a nonprofit arts organization in Natick, Massachusetts, founded in 1997 and relocated to a historic town Firehouse in 2003.  Our mission is simple: TCAN is dedicated to bringing people together, through the arts. We accomplish our mission by presenting music concerts featuring national and local performing artists, community theatre, family events, children’s arts education and dance programs, and monthly visual art exhibits.  

In our short history we have experienced significant change and dramatic growth. As a regional venue, our mailing list of patrons now holds over 20,000 addresses. To cover our operating expenses each year, TCAN fundraises over $250,000 annually through several campaigns including a membership program, business sponsorship, foundation grants, and an annual fund campaign. But with a total staff of less than four full-time equivalent positions and no dedicated development staff, administering these campaigns has been a continuous challenge for us.

Our most difficult fundraising challenge has been sustaining a major gifts campaign. The tasks of researching donors, organizing and hosting a regular schedule of cultivation activities, developing solicitations and providing stewardship and recognition are time-consuming and staff intensive.  We quickly discovered that a donor database was a crucial prerequisite to this work, whether it was maintained by employees or volunteers. While our ticketing system includes some integrated functionality that supports Development activities, they are extremely limited and not designed from a fundraiser’s perspective.  We do not have the financial resources to invest $25,000 or more for a “professional” development application.  These obstacles had slowed our progress in major gifts fundraising.

In the summer of 2008, we renewed our search to identify affordable fundraising software applications that might enable us to make progress on our major gift efforts. Our search led us to GiftWorks, which we found appealing due to its simple user interface, the ability to easily import transactions and donor information from our ticketing system, and its low software license fee.

Shortly after importing our donation history to GiftWorks, our fundraising efforts were immediately more productive – and we learned much more about fundraising in general. Using GiftWorks’ extensive reporting capability and SmartLists, we identified select groups of donors to better target our appeals and cultivation activities. We recorded relationships between donors, as well as other organizations they are associated with, and used this information to redesign our approach to donor cultivation.  These capabilities have helped us gain a deeper understanding of our donors, and have led us to completely reorganize our approach to major gift fundraising. 

In a relatively short time using GiftWorks, we are now able to hold more frequent and effective donor cultivation events.  In the first six months of 2009 alone, we can attribute at least $40,000 in major gifts to these activities.  In addition, we have attracted new Board volunteers to participate in major gift fundraising activities since they feel our approach is much more structured and efficient. GiftWorks has helped renew our confidence that TCAN can continue to grow."

Making the Most of Your Website June 23, 2009 By Mary Pat Donnellon

We love to see when our clients use GiftWorks to its fullest.  I have been sharing some great GiftWorks stories, now I'd like to share some effective donation pages built with GiftWorks Online Donations.  Some of the distinct advantages for nonprofits using GiftWorks Online Donations include:

• Your own merchant account so your donations come directly to your organization's bank account within 24 hours, and so your org's name appears on the donor's credit card statement.

• The ability to create a donation page in minutes that fits right in with the look and feel of your website.

• The ability to accept recurring donations, along with all credit cards and echecks.

• The ability to download online donations directly into GiftWorks with just a few clicks.

Below are some donation pages for your consideration.  Notice how they incorporate the look and feel of their site on the donation page.  Notice the recurring gift options and the ability to direct a gift to a specific purpose.  Get some good ideas, and more importantly, get started making the most of your website! 

Federation of American Scientists

Odyssey Networks

Vietnam Literature Project

Pride Houston

Cair Coalition

 

     

Another GiftWorks Testimonial June 18, 2009 By Mary Pat Donnellon

I hope you're not getting tired of reading GiftWorks testimonials, because we have so many inspirational ones to share!  While we at Mission Research are in the software business, and do it very well, we are also mission-driven.  And I think that's what makes us different.  We are completely motivated by the important and innovative work being done by nonprofits across the globe.  We also are very aware of the change and empowerment great software can bring to these organizations.  We take our responsibility extremely seriously and are always gratified to know when we've done well. 

So, here's a great story from Joy Wallace,  Development Director at the Fransican Spiritual Center in Milwaukie, Oregon.  And unless you tell me to stop, this testimonial won't be the last!

When I came to the Franciscan Spiritual Center as the Development Director three years ago, I asked where the organization’s database was, because I wanted to send out an appeal. I soon found that my colleagues did not know what a “database” was, and found a pile of papers in my mailbox with lists of people’s names and addresses … some were handwritten lists on yellow lined paper! Consequently, one of my first priorities as a new staff member was to find a database program that would work well for us. I asked other staff members how they might use information from a database as a guide for my search.

I called the Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS), Portland, Oregon 

organization designed to support non-profits in the area. I asked for help to determine which database would be best for the Franciscan Spiritual Center. I soon met with a TACS consultant, who gave me files of materials about various databases plus a few free sample CDs. I reviewed the print materials, and brought the CDs back to my office.

From the moment I opened up the sample GiftWorks CD, I knew it would be the database for us. I found GiftWorks to be very user friendly and self explanatory. I could also see that we would benefit from many of the features included in GiftWorks. In addition to the GiftWorks program, we purchased GiftWorks Premium Support for the first year. The technical assistance I received via telephone and e-mail the first year was excellent!

The Franciscan Spiritual Center offers a variety of programs and retreats, so we now keep track of the people who participate in each program. This allows us to market new programs by sending out targeted announcements. It allows staff members easy access to participant lists for their personal use and we can track growth and interest in new and familiar programs.

We have a crew of twenty-plus volunteers, who assist us at the Center, and we use GiftWorks to keep track of who volunteers, and make notes about what types of jobs are done for us by specific individuals. Once again, GiftWorks makes it easy to communicate with volunteers and keep current with their participation.

Like other non-profits, donations are a challenge for us. GiftWorks has been invaluable in tracking donations, comparing donations over the three years we have been using it, and helping us to make informed decisions about development strategies. I am able to revise and update the mailing list for each appeal, and easily send an Excel file of the list to our printer who also does our bulk mailing.

We are delighted with GiftWorks as our database. It has been a gift to the Franciscan Spiritual Center, and it is a gift that works well for us.

Peace,

Joy Wallace

Development Director

GiftWorks Helps Nonprofit Weather the Economic Downturn June 11, 2009 By Mary Pat Donnellon

We continue to collect amazing GiftWorks stories from our clients.  Here's a great one from Daniel Watson, CoFounder and Executive Director of the Restoration House of East Tennessee.  His words speak for themselves - enjoy!

"The Restoration House of East Tennessee formed in late 2006, and is a relatively young organization.  When my wife and I set out on this journey of forming The Restoration House to work with low-income single mothers in our community, we were very convinced of two things. Firstly, that our passion must fuel our mission, and secondly that failing to run an excellent “business” could certainly ruin our chances of succeeding in the first. 

 As newcomers to the nonprofit world, we had never given a lot of thought as to how organizations maintain ongoing healthy relationships with their supporters.  After researching and comparing several types of donor management systems, we found GiftWorks 2006 and downloaded a free trial.  Having developed a number of Microsoft Access database applications in the past, I was amazed by GiftWorks ease of use and powerful capability.  The program exceeded our expectations and met our needs, all while on a budget our fledgling organization could afford.  The program seamlessly integrated all the functions we needed and we were convinced it was going to help us move ahead of the curve in our new nonprofit management as we worked to maintain an excellent relationship with all of our donors.

The significant percentage of The Restoration House’s initial funding was received through a grant from a local foundation.  The awarded grant is a three year matching grant that decreases in size each year.  This grant continues to provide for the organization in two ways, with matching dollars to give incentive in attracting new donors, as well as the allowance of a three year span in which to grow our donor base.  Because Gift Works grants us such great capability in of our ability to manage our donor relationships, not only have we been able to match that grant each year in half the time required, we have also been able to grow the percentage of total funds given by individual donors by 20% each year.  As a result, at the end of our second fiscal year, with a budget of only $120,000, we were $55,000 in the black. We are amazed that after only two short years we have been able to grow 6 months of reserve funds leading into 2009.  As a side note, one of our former partnering organizations, serving families only one month longer than us, recently closed its doors due to a lack of reserve during this difficult economic year.  All this left us thankful for our ability to maintain a close relationship with the people whose generous hearts help us to continue to serve our city’s single mother families.

Having used GiftWorks 2006, 2008, Volunteers, Events, and now Online Donations, we cannot imagine operating without it, much of the vitality of our organization depends upon it!  Because we have several licenses, we are able to allow various people to focus on volunteers while others focus on donors, all while forming a seamless collaboration that is housed in the same easy to use, yet powerful system.

 The Restoration House, during a difficult economic year is not only doing well but is amazingly experiencing an increase in giving. We at TRH are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this fantastic growth is due to GiftWorks provision of a strong foundation with which to grow and manage our relationships with not only individual donors and volunteers, but also our partnering businesses, foundations and churches.

 Thank you for being a part of our team, Mission Research.  We look forward to many years together!"

-Daniel Watson, CoFounder and Executive Director, The Restoration House of East Tennessee