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An affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, Huntington Area Habitat for Humanity’s mission is to provide safe, decent, affordable housing for qualified low-income families in the Huntington, West Virginia, area with no-profit, no-interest loans.
 When Development and Communications Director Teddy Kluemper came to Habitat in 2003, donor information was kept on notecards and on software designed for sales contact management.. It stored names, addresses, and dollar totals, but didn’t show a donor’s giving over time or produce professional reports suitable for Board use.
As part of the training Habitat provided, Teddy attended the Fund Raising School at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and studied best practices. It became obvious to him that there were severe deficiencies in their current method of maintaining donor data.
“We could not query cumulative totals. We couldn’t find information quickly, nor could we separate and accurately keep track of a donor’s gifts designated to different funds.”
His search for affordable software yielded GiftWorks, and as soon as he installed the software and began working with the reports, SmartLists, and powerful query features, he was convinced.
 “The donation histories, pie charts, and professional-looking reports are great! With seven standing committees of our Board and all kinds of volunteer workers, GiftWorks makes it much easier to operate our development office more effectively and efficiently with the small paid staff of five.”
Using GiftWorks throughout 2006, Habitat’s assets (dollars, properties, and in-kind donations) reached over $1 million for the first time in the affiliate’s 17-year history, an increase of over $250,000 from previous years.
“GiftWorks allows me to do in 15 minutes what used to take hours. Now, I’m able to spend less time in front of my desk and more time out beating the bushes.”
Teddy adds, “Just as we were unable to track donors adequately before GiftWorks, we had difficulty tracking volunteers. When I learned that GiftWorks could handle volunteers as well, we immediately purchased the GiftWorks Volunteers add-on. Now we can do it all on one computer.”
Teddy reports that ground was broken this spring for their 62nd house. “In a nutshell, since we have GiftWorks we have a much better grasp of who are donors and volunteers are and what they give in various ways.”
www.habitatwv.org |
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