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KIPP Philadelphia Charter School (KPCS) opened its doors to 90 students in 2003. By 2006, enrollment soared to 295 students. KPCS is part of a network of rigorous public charter schools affiliated with the nonprofit Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP schools promote high levels of achievement and leadership among its educationally underserved middle-school students. With a public charter, KIPP schools have open enrollment, free admission, longer school days, and a focus on student performance.
How do you handle that kind of growth?
 When Sarah Phocas joined KPCS in February 2006 as the Development Associate, she discovered that donor names and mailing lists were kept in a combination of Excel spreadsheets and the Contacts portion of Outlook. As the number of students at KPCS increased, so did the conglomeration of donor data. Sarah and the School Leader felt the need for one unified place where all data would reside, where data handling would be more structured, and where an easy-to-use system was part of the package.
Sarah contacted her development peers on the KIPP network. On the recommendation of Abbey Leachman of KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in Helena, Arkansas, Sarah bought GiftWorks and has been extremely pleased with its performance.
KPCS has 87% of its budget funded through traditional sources, including the School District of Philadelphia, plus additional state and federal programs. The additional 13% is raised by the School. In the current 2006-2007 academic year, Sarah is happy to report that they are fully funded, which means that at least $250,000 has been raised.
 “We are fortunate that we live in a community where many organizations are interested in supporting education,” comments Sarah. “Our database, which includes over 330 organizations and 725 individuals, had been compiled over four years, without much updating. To be able to correct information for a business and have it automatically correct the addresses of every individual who works for that business is a huge bonus.”
Sarah adds, “We send four newsletters a year, a holiday mailing, and solicitations. GiftWorks makes it very easy to create mailing lists and generate labels, something I would otherwise spend hours doing. Because of this program, I am able to spend quality time creating our newsletters and donor cards instead of worrying about how I am going to get the addresses printed!”
Sarah uses the Households feature of GiftWorks to make it easier to differentiate between business contacts, individuals, board members, and event participants to target each mailing to the right audience. “We’ve been able to eliminate duplicates, so we really know where our mailings are going. I'm able to keep notes on each individual to keep track of a contact’s relationship with the school. With GiftWorks, all donor information is easily accessible.”
“With our GiftWorks software, we also purchased the support package, which has been a blessing. When I had trouble downloading information from an Excel spreadsheet, the support team was able to walk me through the process. In addition, I've taken several of the online classes, which have been very helpful in setting up our software and creating SmartLists.”
Sarah concludes, “GiftWorks makes our development effort so much easier.”
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