Case Study: 265% Revenue Boost by Implementing Donor Management System: Non-Profit

Author: Michael Scorcia Category: Marketing Case Studies Date: November 16, 2021

OVERVIEW

A nonprofit organization was struggling to expand their development strategy and leverage existing relationships to expand their donor pool. They turned to Paradigm to standardize their workflows in support of their growth goals. 

Challenge: 

The client was struggling to manage multiple processes across the organization, including communications, events, opportunities, referrals, and more. They are funded primarily by sponsors, grants, and individual donors, but had no way of tracking where their revenue was coming from, or which donors were being contacted by whom within the organization and with what message. While they had a CRM system in place—and a monthly subscription fee to go with it—they were never properly trained on the tool, and it was going unused. 

They wanted to double their revenue, but without standardized processes and workflows in place, they were unable to identify cross- and up-sell opportunities within their existing donor base to support this lofty goal.  They needed an easy-to-use donor management system, streamlined workflows, and an insight-based strategic plan that would help them capitalize on their existing donor relationships. They enlisted the workflow strategy experts at Paradigm Marketing and Design to help. 

Taking Action: 

Paradigm began by mapping out their entire workflow to determine a strategy moving forward. Following a needs assessment, the team decided to move the client from their existing fee-based CRM tool to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, a platform designed solely for non-profits, which comes free of charge for up to 10 users. The Paradigm team seamlessly migrated the data in its entirety to Salesforce without disruption, customized the solution according to the updated workflows, and trained staff on how to use it. As the non-profit grew, Paradigm helped the client incorporate new staff and service offerings into their updated workflows and connected additional systems to their Salesforce instance to facilitate more efficient workflows.

Results: 

With standardized workflows in place, the client can now track and manage proposals based on the type of ask, match donations to the gifts given, differentiate monthly donations vs. periodic asks, track communications, organize fundraising activities, and more. Plus, by implementing Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud and training the staff on how to use it, the client saved $1,680 per year and enjoys 100% staff compliance. Notably, the client saw a 265% revenue boost as they were able to plan and execute a more impactful donor outreach strategy.  This allowed them to exceed their initial revenue growth goal by more than 50%.