the challenge
A better CRM to manage supporter relationships
Stuart Mann is part of the supporter relations team and looks after the supporter relations database, which manages all of the data the charity processes, including donations from individuals and other income streams.
Stuart explains that there was a need for a better database to manage all of their supporters which recorded their activity and donations.
"We used our previous CRM to give a proper service to our supporters and keep track of our contact with them. We also used it for fundraising, communications, and running event invitations and registrations. However, we had a server-based CRM, which was quite expensive to buy, maintain and run. It also needed quite a lot of IT resources in the offices, which was a big overhead, so we looked for a cloud-based solution.”
solution
Donorfy was a breath of fresh air and a relief
Stuart explains why they chose Donorfy over other fundraising CRMs and donor management databases:
“The system we had before was Progress CRM, which was written by the same team as Donorfy. So we already knew them. They were trusted people and Donorfy was what we wanted.
Donorfy didn’t have 100 per cent of the features on CARE’s wish list, however what was missing was very small in the overall scheme of things and the benefits the charity got far outweighed that. Not to mention, the Donorfy team is continually rolling out new features that customers are asking for.
Donorfy were very helpful in customising and setting us up.
When we first got started, it was a breath of fresh air. It was like we came out of the 90s and into the 21st century. Traditional CRMs are very complex and the screen is very busy and full, with lots of info you never need or use. The simplification of Donorfy was a relief to everyone.”
Stuart explains that the rest of the CARE team are people who don’t use Donorfy all the time, but due to its simplicity they can easily use Donorfy if they need to access or record data. With its powerful search and simplified view, Donorfy is much easier to understand and work with than CARE’s previous CRM.
impact
Reduced costs and easy GDPR compliance
Because CARE moved their CRM onto the cloud when they chose Donorfy, the rest of the office have now moved onto the cloud for other IT services too. The charity now has all of their IT on the cloud, which means CARE’s old servers are no longer required, leading to a reduction in costs.
“Our IT support for our CRM has now become far less of a burden and is also cheaper. On our old system, we also suffered several virus attacks and ransomware, which we don’t have to worry about anymore now we’re on Donorfy.”
It’s not just cost savings that CARE have benefited from, but by switching to Donorfy it has also aided GDPR compliance.
“The GDPR benefits are simple and the CRM is safe and secure. For example, we recently had an audit. We didn’t have to produce any paperwork for our auditors, as they could get all the information they needed from Donorfy. They were looking for information on a legacy donor from nine months ago, for example, and the data was easily found and readily available in Donorfy when they wanted to see it, which meant the auditor was happy. That’s quite a powerful thing.”
Overall, Stuart says that Donorfy has allowed CARE to concentrate more on its charity obligations and less on its IT burden.
“Donorfy is flexible, adaptable and does all you need, plus it is possible for non-IT specialists to be able to plan and use it effectively.”
