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 You know it’s a small theatre operation when the founder is still in every show. Still, Contra Costa Civic Theatre (CCCT) is about 50 years old. Proud to be independent and self-sufficient, the Theatre augments its ticket sales and tuitions largely with community volunteers and individual donations. CCCT runs a five-show season of plays and musicals and is a leader in on-stage training for youths and adults, offering drama and musical classes, vocal training, drama camp, and an afterschool program.
David Bogdonoff, Board President, has been at Contra Costa for about five years. His past experience includes implementing ticketing and development applications at the Kennedy Center, Center Theatre Group, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. So he’s used complicated fundraising software. But the theatre was saddled with a donor database application that had been built for a dentist’s office (FoxPro, on a Mac running OS8). That software provided patrons’ names and addresses and basic flags, but didn’t track transactions or donation history, and the financials weren’t reliable. In the search for new software, just thinking about how to get their data out of the old system was daunting.
David and his co-volunteers listed the goals for new donor software:
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Take advantage of modern technology
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Allow them to mine their donor data over time
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Provide better reporting with complex criteria and dependable financials
 One non-negotiable requirement was that it must be simple enough that everyone on staff could use it. And Contra Costa wanted to host their data at “home,” not on the Web.
In a fairly wide search of possible donor database software, many programs were quickly eliminated as too complicated, too expensive, or with too much infrastructure. “With GiftWorks, the price was right, the functionality was there. I downloaded the trial. You made it easy for me to figure it out,” David says.
“We use GiftWorks for all our volunteer management, all our tuition income, subscription ticket sales, and donor lists. We use the automatic emails to set up volunteer work parties to build our sets or to let our inner circle know what's happening at the Theatre.
“The usability of GiftWorks is its greatest selling point,” comments David. “It truly is software anyone can use and everyone can afford!”
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