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Stephen Johnson is Executive Director of Gallatin Valley (MT) Land Trust whose mission is to conserve southwest Montana's heritage of open landscapes, agricultural land, and wildlife habitat; and to create trails to connect people, communities and the land. After ten years working with a land trust in Massachusetts, he and his family moved to Montana and GVLT three years ago.
"My hope is that, as giving dollars tighten, donors will look to their local nonprofits and maintain their giving to those agencies that directly enrich their lives." At the end of last fiscal year (June), GVLT had already seen the downturn in the local real estate market. "There's no way to tell when the full effects of the current crisis will be seen," says Stephen. "But, to hedge against that threat, we've already started to develop a deeper level of engagement with our constituency." They've gathered focus groups in three donor classes to discuss what actions GVLT can take to withstand these tough times.
"In 2006, with GiftWorks in place (and with broad efforts to professionalize the organization), revenue grew by 50%. In 2007, giving doubled (100%) from the prior year." In the last three years, GVLT has grown significantly. With an enlarged staff and salary and benefits making up 2/3 of the budget, sustaining the growth will be a challenge. Stephen joined GVLT in 2005; in 2006 they acquired GiftWorks and they upgraded to GiftWorks Premium this fall.
Johnson attributes a share of these increases to GiftWorks. For example, GiftWorks has "really good mail-merge. It's easy to develop new/more letters and fine-tune groups for mailing." Going forward, he anticipates doing incrementally more with email, keeping in closer touch with donors.
"In the next three weeks, I'll be getting as much as I can out of GiftWorks. We're adopting a moves management system; we'll ensure 6 to 7 contacts with a donor over the course of a year. Using GiftWorks, we'll be able to track those contacts, hold people accountable for contacts they've made, and assure that we are building closer relationships with donors every month." |
