Why We Do What We Do March 28, 2010

Every now and then, out of the blue, you get a reminder of why you do what you do.  Here's one I just received...enjoy!:

We are an NGO located in Cape Town, South Africa with a 72+ history of helping poor children who suffer with chronic medical illnesses. Many of the children we care for come from informal settlements and live in shacks that lack water, and electricity.  Three years ago the Board of Managers realized that St. Joseph's Home was spending down their limited reserve funds, and would go out of business within a few years. Realizing this the board made the decision to hire a fund raiser. The fund raiser who was hired immediately went about creating an organizational structure that would properly track long term supporters and allow for assorted campaigns to grow our donor base.

After ruling out local software products (too expensive), and ruling out creating our own excel spreadsheets (too time consuming), we found an exceptional product in GiftWorks. GiftWorks was easy to use, and provided an intuitive design with exceptional tracking. Gift Works also presented great value for price, and as far as we were concerned was as good as the more expensive products on the Market. The one drawback was the concern that it was not a South Africa product, and we were concerned at how receptive the GiftWorks team would be in lending assistance. Would they be responsive to our needs given that we are literally on the other side of the world?

Fast forward from 3 years ago to today. We have increased our donor giving going from 1 million to 4 million Rands. With each year of data entry into GiftWorks, we have found that the product becomes even more valuable to St. Joseph's Home.  In January of 2010 Gift Works tracking identified over 25 donor tasks that needed to be completed in February. It also identified 16 donors that have lapsed. It would be humanly impossible to have this degree of organization were it not for GiftWorks, and for that we thank the GiftWorks team for a job well done. You have enabled us to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and the children we care for today and will care for in the future will be assured that a bed at St. Joseph's Home will continue to be available. We would recommend this product to any NGO globally that wants to secure a robust top of the line fund raising product at an affordable price to consider GiftWorks.

We invite you to visit our web site to learn more about who we are and what we do (http://www.stjosephshome.org.za/). We invite you to come and visit us whenever you come to South Africa so that you can see first hand the value your product has had for St. Joesph's Home. It is only through a lot of good people, joining hands that we are all able to make the impossible possible.

Thank you and kindest regards,
Luis Medina