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St. Ignatius Nursing Home in Philadelphia is run by the Felician Sisters, whose mission is to care for the very poor and infirm elderly. Over 90% of their residents are Medicaid recipients.
 Less than a year ago, Development Director Karin Purcell was maintaining the donor information of St. Ignatius on an Access database created by their consultant Susan Doersch. The two decided that they simply needed more features and functionality. Their search turned up eTapestry, Ebase, and GiftWorks on Tech Soup. Elsewhere they found Groundspring/Metafile.
Following a structured review process, they created their own criteria and priorities for the software they would purchase. They downloaded trials for two of the software packages and separately evaluated the features on each. Cost played a big role in the decision, as well as ease of use and reporting capabilities.
“GiftWorks simply ranked the highest,” Karin reports. “Our favorite features are its user-friendliness, how easy it is to learn, and oh-so-easy reports. We meet with the Development Committee and the Board four times a year, and it's a godsend to be able to produce the reports these groups request at the drop of a hat. We show trending, Board participation in giving, and activity of major donors. Another request was to chart the dollars received over the course of a year, so that we could direct planning efforts to even out that flow.”
 Says Karin, "Having all the information for mailing located in one place is a great advantage, saving not just time, but also stress!" They have just done thank you letters over the last month and were able to accomplish it in just one mailing, rather than by exporting each group separately as before.
Since their activities include a golf outing and a gala, Karin and Susan are anxious for the introduction of the special events capabilities for GiftWorks.
Consultant Susan says, “Several of my other nonprofit clients have used RaisersEdge, but are put off by the cost to renew support for the year. Others use DonorPerfect, also more expensive than GiftWorks. Both of these packages seem to gather and manipulate more data than the small nonprofit needs.” She says she will surely recommend GiftWorks when any of them is ready to look for new donor software.
www.stignatiusnursinghome.org |
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