July Nonprofit of the Month: St. Joseph's Home in Cape Town, South Africa July 5, 2010

Each month, our intern Anthony highlights one of our GiftWorks clients as Nonprofit of the Month.  If your organization would like to be considered for a feature in an upcoming month, please email us at giftworks@missionresearch.com.  Here's Anthony's feature on the St. Joseph's Home for Children in South Africa:

Meet St. Joseph's Home for Children in South Africa by Anthony Fucito

As the world turns its eyes to South Africa for the international excitement of the World Cup, we here at GiftWorks are looking deeper, to Saint Joseph’s Home for Children in Cape Town.

Saint Joseph’s Home for Children is a medical facility in South Africa offering convalescent care to poor children who suffer from chronic medical conditions like cancer, HIV/Aids, congenital abnormalities and other life threatening conditions.

This year marks the Home’s 75th year of uninterrupted service to those most in need, having been managed by the Pallottine Missionary Sisters since 1935. Through the sisters' continuous dedication to provide service at no cost to families, they have made sure that the Home addressed all the needs of the child, such as having a school on the grounds, a preschool program, and a physio and occupational therapist.

Since they provide their services at no cost to families, fundraising is a huge priority. Their campaign to raise the funds is called “Mind the Gap”, in which they seek to close their 35% budget deficit.

This is not an easy task to accomplish. They made the decision to hire a full time fundraiser, as their cash reserves would only support St. Joseph’s for a limited time. One of the first tasks of the fundraiser was to organize existing donors, and that led them to GiftWorks. At a fraction of the cost of other similar products on the market, they found GiftWorks to be the best fundraising software to meet their needs.

“Over the three years we have been using GiftWorks, we have been able to organize our long-term donors, and effectively manage assorted campaigns and our volunteers," said Luis Medina, the Resource Development Director for St. Joseph’s Home. "Our donors and the money we have raised has increased each year, and the value of GiftWorks in tracking tasks and in report writing have allowed us to stay better connected to our donors who come from all over the world.”

The only concern was location. The GiftWorks Team was located half way round the world.
Luis added: “Would they be able to support our needs in Africa? The answer to that question was quickly realized once we started using the product. The GiftWorks team is exceptionally talented and really know their product. In spite of the distance and the time change, their service feels like they are just down the block.”

South Africa certainly feels like it’s right up the block to us here too, since every time we turn on the television or log onto Yahoo, there is a news post about the excitement of the World Cup. With all of this hype and action, we figured that there had to be some interesting stories.

“Several of our children just came back from a soccer game. They got to sit in box seats donated by a major company. The kids had the time of their life. They watched Cameroon lose to Holland 1 to 2.”

Amongst the excitement, there is always more work to be done. St. Joseph’s Home is hosting their 75th Anniversary Gala Event on September 9, 2010. They are also always looking for support from the global community—to donate to St. Joseph’s Home, please visit their website at http://www.stjosephshome.org.za/.