Should I Stay or Should I Go? Determining if Convio s Common Ground is Right for Your Nonprofit Presented by Keith Heller, Principal, Heller Consulting
About Heller Consulting HC Video - Who is HC? Experience 15 Years - 800 Clients 1,700 Projects Places San Francisco, Chicago, New York People 25+ People Smart, Skilled, Committed Focus Serve Solely Nonprofits All Consultants Have Worked in Nonprofits
Heller Consulting Service Areas Select Needs Analysis & Software Evaluation Implement Conversion & Implementation Optimize Cleaner Data, Better Business Practices Grow Extend Your Fundraising Manage Your Mission
Heller Consulting Product Expertise Fundraising Systems Blackbaud Convio Salesforce.com Online Communications Blackbaud Convio Salesforce.com CRM & Program Management Salesforce.com Back Office Best Practices & Efficient Operations TRAINING & EDUCATION
Clients include
Our Agenda What should a donor database do for you? Do you need new software? So what is Common Ground anyways? Who should consider it? Why? Why not? What do I do next?
What should fundraising software do for you? Support implementing and measuring your fundraising strategies Easily segment your prospect pool Facilitate communication and cultivation Record donations and produce acknowledgments. Reporting - so you can measure what s working!
Improving for greater success analysis, learning, re tooling Big Picture: Who will you cultivate? What FR strategies will you use? Tactics: For each strategy: Who will you solicit? What are the tasks? Reporting Info to tell you what worked and what didn't Assess & Align Do your dev ops support your tactics? ID what to improve Recording Results Data entry, acknowledgment, reconciliation Generating Appeals Accurate segmentation based on your tactics
Do you need new donor management software?
DYNNDMS II?
Common Ground A Brief History Convio observing the industry Heller principles, buy vs. build Principles Easier to use but still powerful Help non-profits adopt emerging (but proven!) strategies Online / offline convergence (for constituents, for staff) Open Extend to CRM Salesforce best of both worlds Build on an expanding platform
Common Ground What is it? Fundraising software It s in the Cloud (SaaS) HC Video What is the Cloud (and Why Should I Care)?
You Are already in the Cloud
Common Ground What is it? Part 2 It s built on Salesforce.com Company Product Platform And beyond (extensibility) HC Video What is Salesforce? HC Video How is Salesforce Helping Non Profits?
Traditional Software Salesforce
The OK Slide Ok, so show it to me Ok, I will
Who is Common Ground good for? Common Ground In general for small and medium organizations Luminate CRM In general for larger organizations However it s more about complexity than size
You should consider Common Ground if Your current system truly doesn t /can t serve you Making your current system work is too much effort relative to return Just because something could be improved doesn t mean it should be! You ll outgrow in a couple years anyways Complexity of use though the system could do what you need, you can t maintain the skills on staff to make it work. You need (next slide)
Common Ground Strengths Online fundraising You want it as part of your DB (not an add-on) It is, or will be, a primary avenue of growth You re a follower, not a leader. (However ) Multi-channel Campaign hierarchies are cool Major gifts gone wild Events and volunteer included
Common Ground Strengths II Plays well with others Access-A-Palooza Any browser, mobile devices CRM First Replace spreadsheets, Outlook contacts Then Eliminate rogue DBs (Filemaker, Access) Bigger Replace systems /mission management Wonky (but useful) stuff: Workflow Don t miss a beat (or a step) Validation Keeps your data clean Page Layouts WYWTSTWYWTSI (What You Want To See The Way You Want To See It)
Common Ground May Not Fit If What you have is working Or could be with reasonable effort And for a few years (it s a balancing act) Renewal-intensive membership or alumni primary Very sophisticated direct mail most of your revenue Dozens of mailings to dozens of segments A-Thons /sophisticated online Look at Luminate
Next Steps Read our Idealware Articles: Do You Need New Donor Management Software? Four Principles of Choosing Donor Management Software Implementing Your Donor Management Software Make Lists! What do you wish you could do that you can t? Is it because the software, or you, can t? Ask peers, ask vendor, verify yourself Evaluate your own system (for fundraising) Resource Evaluating Your Database Beyond Fundraising - CRM Resource List and Database Census Worksheet Webinar Sept 15 th Deeper Dive
phone: 510-841-4222 website: www.teamheller.com