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Two drummers saw the need for teaching at-risk kids life skills, and figured that sharing their interest in drumming might be a good way to attract kids to the program. Keeping their paying jobs, Mike Valler, a manager with Cape Air, and co-founder Marc Pires, a job specialist for the state of Massachusetts, founded Urban Fusion in New Bedford, MA, in 2003.
 Urban Fusion is an all-volunteer organization, enriching the lives of young people and instilling confidence and life skills through a professionally sponsored music program, focused highly on percussion. The program serves well over 50 youth and recently collaborated with the Boys & Girls Club of New Bedford, with whom they share space. The success of Urban Fusion has led to requests for Mike and Marc to replicate it in other communities.
“Looking for the right donor software for our new organization, I’d checked them all out, but kept coming back to GiftWorks—mainly because of its usability. We are staffed by volunteers, so we need an easy learning curve, but we didn’t want to compromise on features we needed. Before GiftWorks, we were using index cards and freeware—but that required customizing all the time. Very high maintenance. As I researched, I was amazed at how well Giftworks compared with other programs for a fraction of the cost,” Mike reports.
 Mike continues, “Everything in GiftWorks is created with the ‘person’ in mind. For example, the sample letters: sounds like a very trivial thing but it proved to be a very important look into what Giftworks holds as priority… the person. The letters are not the typical boilerplate business letter. They sound like they were written by real people. They’re personal, focused on the donor. You guys at Mission Research have put a lot of thought into this. The company has a sincere personality, and I like it.
“At first, we were using only the basics in GiftWorks. When we began to see all the information we had, we expanded our use, and are starting a campaign! GiftWorks is good for us as a small organization now, and I have no doubt it will continue to grow as we do,” comments Mike.
Mike recently recommended GiftWorks to the local Boys and Girls Club, who was using a “custom” system. “I told her GiftWorks can do everything her organization needs.”
Concludes Mike, “I feel like Mission Research has the same spark that we work from. We care about people and we are all giving back. I challenge anyone to use this product and not be completely happy with it… I’ve done the homework and GiftWorks is the answer!”
www.urbanfusiononline.org |
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