Ongoing year on year growth has meant that their existing database had become less well suited to the organisation’s more demanding requirements. So a fresh approach was needed to enable WWT to support a broader range of initiatives and to implement more efficient processes. Following a robust tender process, thankQ CRM software was selected to help WWT achieve its objectives.

In the main, the WWT Supporter Relationship Management system is used for supporter income generation through its management of membership and other committed giving schemes, in addition to fundraising in the form of donations and grants from individuals, trusts and organisations and legacy income. Supporter recruitment is another key objective for the Marketing & Supporter Development Directorate and WWT is using a wide range of marketing channels to achieve this objective.

WWT currently engages with over 15 different supporter groups, including visitors, members, VIPs, corporate patrons, bird adopters, volunteers and grant making bodies and trusts, to name a few. thankQ’s ability to easily manage these diverse relationships and the differing requirements of each, all within a single database, was a key factor in WWT’s decision making processes.

Another attractive feature for WWT was thankQ’s ability to integrate and interface easily with the majority of commonly used systems, and in particular thankQ’s digital integration capability. This will allow WWT to continue to use third party bulk emailing tool, MailChimp, and online donation site JustGiving, with key campaign and donation data from each being automatically pulled back into thankQ.

Similarly, web integration will allow members and supporters a self service experience, whilst at the same time giving WWT a real time view of supporter and member online activity. Linking with WWT’s EPOS system will enable integration of visitor, member and supporter data within thankQ.

WWT was keen to improve visibility of financial data between the finance and fundraising functions and reduce unnecessary re-keying of financial data. To this end, WWT was particularly reassured by thankQ’s robust data validation processes, which allow automatic sharing of relevant financial data between functions, with checks in place to eliminate processing errors.

Ray Clark, WWT Head of Regular Giving, said of the appointment, ‘in implementing thankQ, we will be able to collate a vast amount of data from a really diverse range of channels and sources, to give us a genuine 360^o view of supporter activity. Our intention is to translate this wealth of knowledge into actionable insights to drive an ever better experience for our supporters, members and visitors and an assured future for our wetlands and the wildlife they support’.  

The new look thankQ website incorporates some of the core design elements from Access Group, whilst retaining much of its quirky imagery which has become synonymous with the thankQ brand.

The refreshed website comes in the same year that thankQ celebrates its 21^st birthday, and thankQ Marketing Manager, Samantha Gibson tells us why the new design represents a coming of age for the organisation. Samantha explained, ‘the more restrained elements of the website reflect the maturity of the thankQ product and the increased responsibility that comes with looking after a rapidly growing customer base.  The relationship with Access Group also gives prospects and customers the assurance of a trusted partnership that delivers stability and longevity’.

As the Access Group nfp division matures, thankQ customers will be able to choose from a growing number of specialist not for profit solutions which, it is planned, will deliver end to end functionality across functions and meet the business needs of not for profit organisations of any size or speciality. 

John Bird, Head of thankQ said of the relationship, ‘In essence thankQ hasn’t changed. Our culture and values are the same as they ever were, and that is why we have made sure that the character, content and personality of our website remains unchanged. But there is a new assurance that comes with our relationship with Access Group which we want to convey and want our customers and prospects to feel reassured by’.  

The charity is known as a Centre of Excellence for cutting edge community music, engaging over 1,000 disadvantaged children, young people and vulnerable adults with over 50 weekly activities, delivered by up to 25 music leaders.

PMZ holds nearly 8,000 participant contact records on an Access database, nearly all of whom require restricted access rights around protecting vulnerable people. An Outlook database holds a further 2,000 contacts of partners and stakeholders. There is no supporter and donor database, with gifts being recorded with paper filing and records.

The charity recognised that there would be substantial benefit in bringing these three core areas together into one integrated system, so, when the charity was awarded Arts Council England Catalyst funding, it was decided that part of the funding would be used to create a robust yet flexible CRM system to bring together data on participants, supporters and stakeholders in order to manage relationships effectively and sustainably.

PMZ selected thankQ CRM as it is a modular solution that is flexible and scalable and so can grow along with its charitable activity and fundraising. thankQ functionality will help PMZ develop a number of income generating activities, including individual giving, major donor development, trusts and grants fundraising and legacy management. In addition, thankQ will help PMZ improve its business processes, notably the capacity to quickly and easily pull off KPI reports to enable effective project monitoring and evaluation, in addition to impact measurement.

thankQ’s integration with Twitter and facebook will also give PMZ the ability to develop relationships on platforms that are relevant and accessible to their key audience.

Debbie Geraghty, Development Director for Plymouth Music Zone said of the appointment, ‘For us having a new CRM system is all about further developing and maximising the quality and impact of our work. A vital part of that is enabling our supporters and stakeholders to be more central to helping us reach out and transform people’s lives through music. We were very impressed with the capabilities and functionality of the thankQ system. In particular, the user interface and the potential integration with social media were big factors in our decision since we have such a growing online community’.

To ensure Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) optimises its position within the Russell Group, ambitious investment plans have been put in place to further develop educational, research and estate capabilities, along with the development of a sophisticated alumni and stakeholder network, including comprehensive records and a programme of activities to maintain and nurture contacts, including details of over 120,000 alumni.

QMUL has recently established a Development Directorate which will incorporate Alumni Relations and Fundraising teams. To date there has been no single data-set where donation and supporter information can be accessed and so the university has also selected thankQ CRM and alumni software to bring coherence to its development operations.

thankQ’s ease of use was a major contributing factor to the purchasing decision. In choosing thankQ, QMUL recognised the urgent need to provide the development team with easy access to information required to plan, manage and achieve their strategic objectives, as well as putting a system in place that would keep pace with the ongoing development and increased sophistication of its  fundraising activities.

To this end, Queen Mary took the opportunity to not only purchase a comprehensive thankQ CRM, fundraising and alumni relations system, but also enhanced features and modules that will facilitate and integrate web, telethon, social media, bulk email and mobile campaigns with the thankQ database.

Andy Wood, Director of Development at Queen Mary said of the decision to purchase thankQ, ‘We are looking forward to joining a number of other UK universities as a thankQ client. Their solution, aside from the technical excellence and value of the product, will quickly allow us to better utilise our data in support of our strategic objectives in both fundraising and alumni/stakeholder engagement. I’m pleased to say that the decision to select thankQ was a unanimous one.’

 

 

As a result, charities require ever more sophisticated CRM software solutions which can help them to effectively manage a whole range of volunteer opportunities and relationships and to effectively measure and demonstrate the impact of their volunteer workforce.

thankQ has been working in partnership with the Canal and River Trust to develop a functionally rich volunteer with recruitment module which allows not for profit organisations to easily fulfil any type of opportunity, matching the volunteer roles with the skills, experience and, if applicable, the geographical location, of its volunteer database.

The new module will complement thankQ’s existing volunteer solution, with additional features which will help charities to fulfil more specialised, permanent roles which require a formal application and interview process.

With the thankQ volunteer module, charities will be able to accurately record and measure all volunteer activity which will enable them to demonstrate equivalent value in terms of time and impact.

Ruth Ruderham, Head of Fundraising at The Canal and River Trust said of the initiative ‘we are now able to use the thankQ database to calculate an accurate Lifetime Value for our supporters, taking into consideration all their involvement with us. This will be critical for us as we develop our fundraising strategy further, enabling us to make decisions based on long-term lifetime value not just immediate return on investment’.

In the near future, thankQ will be incorporating the SaaS aCloud functionality recently designed by the Access Group - this will enable volunteers to manage their expenses in real time and on any device.

Samaritans’ central charity provides leadership and central support services to the 201 affiliated branches. The organisation is following an ambitious strategy for growth and development which has already seen income increase by 36 per cent over the last two years following a decision by the charity’s Board of Trustees, to invest in the central charity’s fundraising capacity.

As a result, Samaritans decided it was the right time to invest in a new fundraising and CRM system to support their fundraising strategy. The primary business objectives in selecting a new system were to simplify and streamline its current processes and to better integrate with the existing infrastructure, especially its finance package. In addition, the fundraising team wanted to be able to improve their reporting capability with the ability to easily produce generic, custom and ad-hoc reports. During the selection process, thankQ demonstrated a very close functional fit which would require very little configuration to fulfil the fundraising team’s requirements and bring together its disparate systems into a single integrated view.

The charity also placed a great deal of importance upon choosing a supplier with the right cultural fit. Daniel McAllister, Interim Direct Marketing Manager at Samaritans explained, “previous experience has taught us that the quality and culture of the supplying organisation is as critical to a successful project as the quality of the software product itself. thankQ demonstrated a flexible attitude and a willingness to work collaboratively with us to help clarify our needs, adapt our processes and show us how thankQ can help us achieve our objectives.” 

thankQ will handle all of the central charity’s CRM and fundraising activities, allowing Samaritans to improve its targeting and increase return on investment from its fundraising programme. These improvements will also lead to a deeper understanding of, and closer relationships with, its donors and stakeholders.