| February 2010 |
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Featured In This Issue: GiftWorks Case Studies: Meet Organizations Moving To The Next Level Also In This Issue: You're Invited: Webinar on Building A Development Committee Nonprofit of the Month: Health and Education for Haiti Return on Investment: The Center for the Arts in Natick Meet Anthony GiftWorks Helps Cat's Cradle Quadruple its Donor Base
Building A Development Committee
GiftWorks invites you to a Free Webinar for Nonprofit Organizations Presented by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, and CEO of Capital Venture 
Thursday, February 11 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. EST As a follow-up to our December webinar on Creating a Development Plan, Linda Lysakowski returns to offer insights on how to build an effective Development Committee capable of implementing that great plan you've just created. The best plan goes nowhere unless it's implemented by highly motivated board and staff working together and understanding each one's expected role in an exciting and truly successful committee. This committee, when successful, can lead and inspire the Board to raise money they never dreamed possible. So, how do you establish this successful development committee? Who are the right people to recruit? What are the roles, responsibilities and desired outcomes? Our guest expert will cover creating job descriptions for development committee members, developing a list of prospective members, and building strategies for recruiting the right people. Board and staff alike will benefit from this Webinar and all are welcome to attend. Space is limited, though, so please register now here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/494294552 GiftWorks Nonprofit of the Month:Health and Education for Haiti, Based in Derwood MD
In a critical time for its mission, Health and Education for Haiti is thankful for the efficiencies that GiftWorks has brought to their operation. "This month Health and Education for Haiti has three medical teams operating in the Jeremie area of Haiti (approximately 100 miles west of Port-au-Prince)," reports Treasurer Richard P. Gustafson. Each team (consisting of 8-14 health care professionals — doctors, nurses, pharmacists) serves one week — providing basic medical care; in more challenging cases (requiring surgery or ongoing care), they refer patients to other providers in the region--and cover the costs of the patient's care. 
Since their organization relies so heavily on outside help, the Volunteers Add-in is especially valuable. "The ability to track all of our volunteers and their skill sets is critical. Our medical mission coordinator can easily identify which doctors have gone on missions, their specialties, and our experiences with them. It enables us to fill our missions, such as the current crisis, with the right providers at the right time," according to Gustafson.
Health and Education for Haiti was founded in 2008 to provide medical services, education, infrastructure, and basic needs to less privileged Haitian citizens. In many areas of Haiti, the only functioning organizations in the lives of the villagers are their local Catholic parishes; Health and Education for Haiti works with these parishes to provide better lives for Haiti's citizens. 
Beyond the current crisis, Health and Education for Haiti works in four program areas: medical missions, education (sponsoring students and supporting teachers), infrastructure(communications, water, power), and basic needs (developing sustainable food and shelter). They work primarily in the Grande-Anse Department (province) in Haiti, which has historically been underserved by both the Haitian Government and International Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
Donations are received online and elsewhere — and 100% of donated funds goes directly to the services in Haiti. The Board itself underwrites all of their fundraising, general, and administrative expenses.
Health and Education for Haiti has used GiftWorks software for about eight months; "it's really helped us to improve our focus on mission delivery. The software has reduced the administrative tasks around our fundraising. The integration between GiftWorks and QuickBooks has enabled us to enter information once and have it appear everywhere we need it. ("Before using GiftWorks we had to enter our donor information into QuickBooks and Excel [for mail merge], and also enter the donation information into QuickBooks and Word [for receipts and thank you letters].) Now we are able to enter all of this information once into GiftWorks, and it manages all the other activities for us." For more information or to donate to Health and Education for Haiti, visit http://site.hehonline.org.
The Return on a GiftWorks Investment: The Center for Arts in Natick (MA)
David Lavalley, Executive Director of the Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN), wrote us recently telling how GiftWorks has impacted their Massachusetts-based arts organization. Mission Research CEO Mary Pat Donnellon spoke with David and shares more information about how TCAN has fared this year and how their GiftWorks investment has made an important difference. Here's Mary Pat:
Let's start with the numbers. Like many arts (and other organizations), TCAN started 2009 with a decrease in corporate giving commitments. Sound familiar? But wait. TCAN was able to reverse this trend by not only turning around corporate donations, but by focusing very heavily on its individual giving program. In 2009, TCAN raised $74,800 from businesses, a 14.5% increase over 2008 corporate giving. Even more impressively, TCAN raised $196,800 from individuals in 2009, a 24% increase over the 2008's $158,900 in individual gifts! At the start of 2009, David and his colleagues at TCAN made a very conscious decision to "hunker down" and watch expenses. They also decided to focus intensely on their individual giving program. They had invested about $1000 in GiftWorks in 2008 and were up and running with the software. "In a relatively short time using GiftWorks, we are now able to hold more frequent and effective donor cultivation events. In the first six months of 2009 alone, we can attribute at least $40,000 in major gifts to these activities."
The TCAN team employed two main tactics in growing individual gifts. First, they made a concerted effort to reconnect with past supporters who were not yet major donors, but had the major donor potential. David reported that since their GiftWorks conversion, they had accessible and accurate data, with donor relationships recorded in detail. They were easily able to analyze and identify who might be potential major supporters in a difficult year and to act upon it. David's board was very supportive and very willing to make calls to these prospective major donors, especially with such detailed and thorough information provided to them ahead of time.
Second, TCAN used GiftWorks to group supporters around their artistic genre preference and cultivate them appropriately. Specifically, they used their database to select people who were interested in classical music. They invited these people to a special reception attended by other classical music lovers in the community (all easy with GiftWorks), as well as the classical music lovers on their board. This was done separately for those who love community theatre, and again for those who love folk music. The result was that they were able to thank people for past support in a very meaningful, appropriate way, and then "rekindle the relationships" that are so fundamental to fundraising. These events proved phenomenally successful over the course of 2009. It wasn't GiftWorks that increased TCAN's fundraising 22%. A strong, innovative, and motivated team did this amazing and impressive work. But GiftWorks provided the tools that made it possible. David said that there is no way he would have taken this effort on without the ability to understand and use TCAN'S data as GiftWorks empowered him to do. He also feels strongly that he would not have had such strong board support in his fundraising efforts without the professional, usable, and meaningful data GiftWorks put at their fingertips. David's decision to invest $1000 in GiftWorks in 2008 gave his organization the ability to buck every trend in 2009. He was able to increase giving by $48,000 or 22% in one of the most challenging years in our history. He was able to grow his individual giving program significantly and turn around the potential weakening in his corporate donations. Kudos to David and his colleagues for their unbelievably positive year, and kudos to David for his investment in GiftWorks! TCAN's website: www.natickarts.org
GiftWorks Helps Cat's Cradle Quadruple its Donor Base; Donations Follow
Following the nationwide movement to spay/neuter the exploding population of cats and dogs, Cat's Cradle was founded in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1998, to provide no-kill alternatives for stray cats. Early efforts offered reduced-price sterilizations and vaccines to anyone who found a stray cat and was willing to keep it. Inevitably, Cat's Cradle found itself fostering cats and kittens and finding homes for them.
In 2001 the Board decided to focus on spay/neuter and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). Raising over $30,000 locally and through grants, they soon opened the Shenandoah Valley Spay Neuter Clinic which has the capacity to perform over 10,000 cat and dog surgeries a year. Cat's Cradle volunteers became adept at rescuing neglected and abandoned cats, getting them veterinary care, and finding homes for them. With a slim staff (FT Director Josie Kinkade and 3 PTs) but a cadre of volunteers (who do 80% of the work), Cat's Cradle currently provides about 2,000 sterilizations a year and over 300 high-quality adoptions among their network of foster homes. As Director Josie tells it: "Back in 2005, a time we'll call "B.G." (Before GiftWorks), we considered it a great day when we made $400 at a yard sale or $300 at a chicken barbecue. We would fix a few cats, then stop and raise some money, then fix some more. Information was kept on a spreadsheet - lots of detail, but no way to get at it to use it creatively." "Before GiftWorks, we considered it a great day when we made $400 at a yard sale or $300 at a chicken barbecue."
To tackle this problem, in 2005, Josie researched available donor database software and selected GiftWorks. "It was a robust, easy-to-understand program with lots of features and flexibility, and affordable for our small operation."
With GiftWorks, Cat's Cradle manages direct mail, their eNews, and keeps track of donations and pledges. "Being able to "slice and dice" information in order to communicate effectively with donors and volunteers is the best part." "Being able to "slice and dice" information in order to communicate effectively with donors and volunteers is the best part."
Josie continues, "Since 2005 (after Giftworks), our mailing list has gone from 1,800 to over 6,000. The average donation amount has nearly doubled, as have the number of donations over $1,000 and total donations. Our yard sale in 2009 yielded $8,000.
But that's not the important part. The important part is that, with the help of GiftWorks, Cat's Cradle has spayed and neutered thousands of cats and dogs in our community. And the results are coming in — there's been a 15% drop in intake (and subsequent euthanasia) at local shelters since 2005!" Josie concludes: "Aptly named, GiftWorks has helped us put our generous donors' gifts to work — saving lives." Cat's Cradle's Website: www.catscradleva.org |
