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The charity, which represents local hospices across the UK and supports the development of hospice and palliative care around the world, needed a bespoke new system to support its growing fundraising activities.

For many years, Help the Hospices worked with a system which was originally implemented to manage corporate communications. Although the system was subsequently configured to manage some fundraising functions, it was never meant to be a bespoke fundraising system and consequently the fundraising team found it extremely difficult to use in the way they needed.

So, in January 2010 the organisation took the decision to implement a complete, fully configured fundraising system to manage all of its fundraising activity, consisting of contact management, fundraising and event management, plus payroll giving management and income data entry.

Help the Hospices also saw the benefit of integrating their website with the new system, providing a seamless user experience for their members, as well as further improving and simplifying the event management process for staff. 

Help the Hospices shortlisted three suppliers who could demonstrate a close fit with their initial requirements and following a robust selection process, thankQ was appointed. thankQ Sales Manager, Graham Hewitt told us, ‘Hospices are facing many challenges at the moment, and we are seeing more and more hospices come to us because they recognise the importance of a fundraising system that not only streamlines business processes, but that allows them to manage the fundraising fundamentals really easily’.

Although most of Help the Hospices’ requirements were already met in standard thankQ modules, some bespoke configuration was included to manage data imports and to enable the web portal and events modules to run alongside Help the Hospices’ existing website.  

Peter Rutland, Head of ICT at Help the Hospices said of the appointment, ‘as the membership organisation for the hospice sector, it is vital that we give our staff the tools they need to best represent and support our 219 member hospices. We look forward to continuing our work with thankQ to streamline our activities through their platform.’   

Established over 80 years ago, CPRE takes an holistic view of the countryside, working to influence how we plan our towns and cities to make them better places to live and work, and to ensure the countryside is protected for all to enjoy, both now and in the future. CPRE has over 200 local groups across the UK, ensuring that it is able to bring its national profile and its local knowledge to bear in its campaigning activities.

CPRE was looking for a CRM solution that would bring together campaigning, communication and fundraising data into one place and facilitate better relationships from this improved view of their stakeholders.

Ease of use was a big consideration for CPRE. They recognised that in order to bring about a cultural change within the organisation, users would need to have confidence in the chosen system. CPRE also wanted a CRM system that would simplify their reporting processes, improve relationship management and member/donor stewardship, whilst also integrating easily with other systems and processes.

CPRE selected thankQ as it fulfilled their technical and operational requirements, delivering both advanced functionality and ease of use. The modular nature of the product and its ability to integrate with most commonly used office systems was also a key factor in the decision making process.

Linda Allen, Director of Fundraising says, ‘Choosing a CRM solution that was easy for our staff to adopt as well as one that met the functional needs of the organisation was important to us. As well as the software providing value for money, the thankQ team also demonstrated a flexible approach to understanding our needs and working with us which made them the right company for us.’

About two thirds of Castel Froma residents have sustained a brain injury following a traumatic accident or as a result of a medical problem.  Others suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or other degenerative neurological conditions. The youngest resident is 22, and the oldest, 91.

 

In addition to 24-hour nursing care, Castel Froma offers physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech and language therapy to help residents to retain their independence for as long as possible.

 

It costs £3.5m every year to provide such quality, long-term care and although Castel Froma receives income from the NHS to cover basic costs, £260,000 is needed each year to provide additional equipment, rehabilitation and therapy support, and social activities for residents.

 

Up until September 2011 the organisation did not actively fundraise, existing almost exclusively on legacy and endowment gifts. But when it became clear that the building was no longer fit for purpose, the organisation decided that a long-term fundraising strategy was imperative. As a result, a Fundraising Director, Susie Murray, was appointed to spearhead the organisation’s fundraising activities.

 

Susie knew that a CRM system was fundamental in creating a high performing fundraising department and so began to search for a provider. As a small charity with no fundraising history, Susie’s main priority was to get a flexible, cost effective solution that could grow with the organisation. Susie explained, ‘I was immediately impressed with how user friendly the software was. thankQ was head and shoulders above the competition in that respect, and that was such an important consideration for us’.

 

Castel Froma will be using thankQ to handle its fundraising and events activities as part of an ambitious plan to raise £7million for a new building and to provide a long-term future for the organisation and the care of its residents. Susie is confident that thankQ is the right partner for the job, telling us, ‘I would really recommend thankQ. Even though it’s early days for us, I can fast forward three years and see how thankQ will help me to monitor and grow all our traditional fundraising areas and how it will take us from a start-up to a multi-million pound charity’.

 

Castel Froma is actively seeking opportunities to develop new and exciting partnerships. If you would like to get involved, please call Susie Murray on 01926 427 216 or email susie.murray@castelfroma.org.uk.

In addition to a thriving membership, the Iona Community holds regular events and meetings, produces a broad range of resources and runs a retail operation.

The Iona Community began its search for a new CRM solution in April 2011. People engage with the community in a wide range of ways, as Members and Associate Members, as Friends, as Volunteers and through a variety of particular areas of activity, and the team was looking for a system that could handle the complexities of these different levels of engagement easily and efficiently, acknowledging that some people may have multiple memberships and managing segmentation and mailing programmes accordingly.

Another important consideration for the Community was website integration. They wanted to provide a self service facility for their members, giving them the facility to update their details, book and pay for events and manage their membership online. Finally, the Community wanted to their CRM system to be able to manage a full events programme which it runs in the UK and occasionally further afield.

thankQ has considerable experience in providing membership software and over the years has incorporated many features and advanced functionality into its membership and events modules. As such, thankQ was able to give The Iona Community all the functionality they wanted, within its standard product.

Robert Swinfen, Support services Manager at The Iona Community said of the appointment, ‘our membership is diverse and complex and our primary concerns were whether we could get the functionality we needed at a price we could afford. thankQ is based on commonly used office systems, so it looks and feels familiar, but the functionality is seriously impressive. This gave us the reassurance we needed, and at the right price’.     

 

Not content with achieving ‘rugby legend’ status during an illustrious sporting career, in 2009 Lawrence set up The Dallaglio Foundation, whose aim is to identify, support and raise funds for cancer and youth development causes that will change lives through teamwork.

And because Lawrence applies the same dedication to his charity work as he did to his sporting career, the organisation has gone from strength to strength, and last year began the search for a CRM and fundraising system to support its various programmes and operations and to ensure all their supporters had a positive experience with the charity.

Despite its high profile figurehead, The Dallaglio Foundation is run by a small, dedicated team with little network infrastructure. The priority for the team was to find a cost effective, hosted solution which had standard functionality that would suit their needs.

The modular nature of thankQ meant that The Dallaglio Foundation was able to buy the fundraising, CRM, finance and events modules to meet their immediate needs, adding on functionality as the organisation continues to flourish.

CEO, Rachel Roxburgh said of the decision, ‘The Dallaglio Foundation is all about achieving through teamwork. thankQ not only gave us the functionality we were looking for as standard, for the whole team, at an affordable price, but also worked with our IT supplier to agree a suitable hosted solution’.

http://www.dallagliofoundation.com/

The aim of the Catalyst funding is to offer organisations ‘the opportunity to move their fundraising and development expertise on to the next level, whatever their current starting point’.

Unsurprisingly, many culture organisations have recognised that in order to develop their fundraising processes and to create real business efficiencies, they need to invest in fundraising software, and we are delighted that so many culture organisations have shown an interest in thankQ software during their selection process.

thankQ software has been designed solely for the not for profit sector and is perfect for marketing, fundraising and membership. thankQ is ideal for arts and culture organisations from theatre groups to galleries and museums, ballet companies to orchestras.  

The closing date for the £55m worth of Catalyst Endowment funding has now passed and we wish everyone who applied for funding the very best of luck.

However, arts and heritage organisations can still apply for the £30m Catalyst Arts funding Scheme (closing date 31 January 2012) and for  Catalyst Arts and Catalyst Heritage fundraising capacity building grants (applications open: 1 April 2012).

We would be happy to provide information, cost estimates and advice for any arts organisation applying for funding through the Catalyst programme with the specific aim of investing in fundraising software.