Swapping Spreadsheets for CRM Success

CHALLENGE

Spreadsheet Scramble

It’s a tale as old as time - the busy Migration Museum team were primarily using spreadsheets to manage their donor relationships. This posed several well-worn challenges, including the inefficiencies of managing multiple spreadsheets for donor interactions, event attendance and funding applications. Ensuring the whole team was comfortable with a move away from spreadsheets was a consideration, too.

They recognised the need for a more streamlined and integrated approach to manage their growing supporter base, particularly as they began shifting their fundraising focus to support an exciting new project - their new, permanent home in the City of London. When Catherine Humphries, Development Support Manager, joined the team, she was keen to utilise Donorfy to make this happen. Catherine explained:

My role largely involves managing the CRM and, before I joined, there wasn't a dedicated team member for this. Using Donorfy was a big shift for us, but very much needed."

THE SOLUTION

Donorfy Delivers

The team adopted Donorfy as their CRM to centralise and streamline their donor management and fundraising efforts - Donorfy’s Opportunities feature being a pivotal tool.

Trusts and Grants: Managing Major Donors

Opportunities has improved the team’s ability to track grant applications and manage relationships with trusts and foundations. By updating stages, adding reporting dates and tracking funding application statuses, the team can now easily monitor and report on their progress. This streamlined approach has also benefited their finance manager. Catherine highlighted:

Opportunities is really useful for updating any outstanding applications and keeping track of response dates. Our finance manager also finds it helpful for cash flow planning. The trustees find it helpful too. I used another CRM in a previous role, and it didn’t have anything like Opportunities.”

Individual Givers: Engaging the Heart of the Community

While individual giving is still developing, the integration with Eventbrite has started to build a comprehensive picture of individual supporter engagement. By capturing attendee data and consent for future communications, the team can identify potential donors based on their event participation history.

It's about pulling that information and seeing the full picture of our supporters, which helps tailor our engagement strategies. We can now identify people who attend multiple events and might be likely to donate," Catherine noted.

Integrating with Stripe has been helpful too, allowing the team to process online payments and donations though their website with no hassle. Ensuring adaptability and growth over time, Donorfy also integrates with platforms they plan to use in future, such as Gift Aid, to help them tackle any outstanding claims and take away the manual admin burden.

Additionally, the popular "Send to Donorfy" email automation has helped time-strapped team members quickly log, and maintain a comprehensive record of, their communications. By using BCC to copy their email to the Send to Donorfy email address, their email is automatically added as an activity to the constituent’s timeline. Simple, but effective.

The Send to Donorfy feature is very useful, it’s another time saver for us," adds Catherine. 

THE FUTURE

Looking Ahead: Future-Focused Fundraising

As Migration Museum prepares to open their new permanent home in London in 2027, their use of Donorfy will continue to evolve. The MailChimp integration will further enhance their communication strategies, allowing for better tracking of supporter engagement through outreach and appeals. The museum is also looking forward to leveraging Donorfy’s Campaigns feature for their capital campaign, tracking donations towards specific spaces within the new museum.

For example, we can have an education space campaign and show that specific funders have committed specifically to support that. While we’re not quite at that stage yet, that's something I'd really like to do."

With Donorfy as a crucial part of their strategy, Migration Museum is well-equipped to meet their ambitious fundraising goals and continue shining a light on the rich history of migration that shapes the UK. Catherine concluded:

Donorfy has given us a much clearer view of our relationships and how best to manage them. It’s been a huge help in communicating amongst our team and trustees, making our fundraising efforts more efficient and effective."