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A United Way agency, The Warren Center for Communication and Learning of Bangor, Maine, provides evaluations, therapies, and technologies in the areas of speech, language development, and hearing to the children and adults in their area. The Center was founded by the Junior League of Bangor in 1961, following a measles epidemic that left many children deaf or with hearing impairments.

Reports Mary Poulin, Administrative Director, “In October of 2005, we realized we were still using a 1995 DOS version of DonorPerfect, last upgraded in 1999, and we could not afford another $3,000 to upgrade. We weren’t even sure we’d have been happy if we had arranged for the DonorPerfect upgrade! That program was just too difficult to figure out.  And we definitely needed some kind of software to make our fundraising easier.”

“Fortunately for us,” Mary continues, “just at that time, TechSoup, a nonprofit technology assistance agency, was offering GiftWorks software to its nonprofit members free, for a small handling fee of $30. This was a result of the donation of the software by Mission Research. It saved our lives!”

Mary states, “With the old system, you had to be a Database 4 expert to get a report out. With GiftWorks, I can pull up a report instantly, by campaign, by year, by donor. I do these reports monthly with no effort at all.”

As do many agencies, the Warren Center runs two systems: the General Ledger and a fundraising system. Under the old system, Mary reports, it was so difficult to reconcile the two accounts that “we were tempted to reconcile not more than quarterly. Now we can do it monthly in less than an hour.  So our financial systems are much more accessible and reliable.”

Mary concludes, “GiftWorks is so easy to use, we haven’t even needed special support!”

www.warrencenter.org