Editor’s Note: This year’s “Great Give” fundraising campaign through the Valley Community Foundation will take place Tuesday, May 6 and Wednesday, May 7.
Click here for a podcast explaining the event.
In advance of this year’s event, the Valley Indy wanted to illustrate what the campaign means to a local nonprofit, so we asked Shaye Roscoe, the executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, how her organization hopes to use funds raised through this year’s Great Give. Her response is below.
Our goal for the Great Give this year is to raise $6,500 to purchase DonorView, a user-friendly software program designed for Boys & Girls Clubs to allow us to use one integrated platform to track and communicate with all of our donors, events, fundraisers and constituents.
We will gain valuable time and efficiency by replacing four current software programs, numerous spreadsheets and documents all into one piece of software.
DonorView will give us the visibility that we’ve tried to gain for years.
We will finally achieve the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently internally and with our donors.
Issues
- No Centralized Place for Information: The Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley is comprised of 2 main Units and 3 Satellite Units that operate independently of each other. With information in multiple software packages, file cabinets and in peoples’ heads, it is impossible to communicate quickly and efficiently – both internally and with donors.
- Lack of Timely Communication: Communication with donors is vital to any nonprofit, and the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley is no exception. This delay meant that they could not acknowledge the gift in a timely fashion, which often resulted in unhappy donors.
- Difficult Donation Analysis: It is extremely important to BGCLNV, and to any nonprofit, that they know who their larger donors are or the ones that they need to get in touch with. With accounting information, pledge information, online donations and general donations all in different places, it is nearly impossible to determine the total gifts from a donor and, of those gifts, which ones had actually been paid.
- No Social Media Strategy: Given the amount of time spent managing our day-to-day routines in various systems, no one had the time to devise a social media strategy for the 5 groups. Each group pushed various information to their pages, but they had no way to create a buzz or an interactive experience for their audience.
- Outdated Technology: The systems used at BGCLNV are old and outdated, each having limited capabilities. None of them work together. This leads to fragmented data that is hard to access and analyze. It made the Development team’s job especially difficult while they were traveling since it was not possible to access the various systems from their mobile devices.
Solutions
- Access to Information: BGCLNV will have one secure, centralized place for their data that everyone can access from anywhere at any time. When we are meeting with donors, we can quickly use their mobile device to see their donation history, interactions that have taken place and even any documents that are necessary.
- Increased Donor Satisfaction: Gone are the days when BGCLNV waited for the monthly report to let them know who donated to them. Now, as soon as the donation is made, the donor and donation will be created in DonorView and the Accounting and Executive Director will receive an email to let us know. This allows BGCLNV to acknowledge the gift when it’s received, not a month later, which makes for a much happier donor that is more likely to donate again.
- Better Communication: By streamlining the collection of data in one, integrated system, the groups at BGCLNV are now able to share information. This will lead to greater efficiency and less duplication internally. Externally, we would be able to connect with our contacts easily by providing information through newsletters, requesting feedback, announcing events and much more.
- Enhanced and Timely Reporting: The staff at BGCLNV will have the ability to collect, aggregate and analyze data quickly, which allows them to generate reports more efficiently and completely. These reports are powerful tools that allow management to more effectively track progress and measure performance against benchmarks.
- Increased Social Media Presence: Having the right tools will make all the difference when it comes to managing their social media pages. From newsletters and announcements to online donations and volunteer recruitment, BGC-LNV fans will be able to do it all right from their pages.