Customized solutions
that are easy to use
Background
For more than 40 years, Habitat for Humanity has been extending working families a helping hand up towards home ownership across North America and the world. Since establishing in 2014 through an amalgamation of five separate Habitat affiliate organizations, Habitat for Humanity Ontario Gateway North has partnered with families to help build strength, stability, and self-reliance through affordable home ownership. They also maintain five ReStore locations which sell donated home furnishings, appliances and other renovation materials at a fraction of the original price with proceeds used to support their mission.
Increase
in revenue
growth
The Problem
Habitat for Humanity Ontario Gateway North struggled form inception with an outdated system that was built out of five separate databases combined. And their woes didn't end there:
- Despite paying for donor management software, the system they used was so convoluted and difficult to keep updated that they found it easier to keep a patchwork system of manually updated excel sheets to organize their donor base instead.
- As a result, their database was fractured and incomplete. Duplicate records were common, and the data they had was rarely actionable in a useful manner.
- Fundraising programs were limited and hampered by this inability to get a true view of their donors.
- They needed custom solutions to fit their unique needs.
As a growing chapter servicing multiple communities, they knew it was time to make a change.
The Solution
Driven helped them
take control of their data!
- The import and implementation process collected and consolidated their fractured records into one complete database.
- With this information at their disposal, Habitat for Humanity Ontario Gateway North now has a full 360-view of both their donors and their organization.
- Fully integrated donor email lists, automated messaging, and data-driven donor insights make fundraising efforts not only effective, but fast and easy to put together.
But Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit with unique needs compared to other organizations. While getting control of their data was one piece of the puzzle, they also needed a customized solution to accept, process, and track Gift-in-Kind donations. These gifts could be physical items (a lamp, stove, or skid of roofing shingle) or donations by way of skilled expertise (carpentry work, installing plumbing at a build site, etc.). They needed a way to record these varied donations in a way that accurately reflected the nature of the gift and could provide the donor with a charitable receipt. Driven was again able to help with a customized full Gift-in-Kind donation system that:
- Accepts Gift-in-Kind donations of all types.
- Keeps detailed information including photos, files, or any other relevant documentation for the gift.
- Ensures every Gift-in-Kind donation is accompanied with a description, value appraisal, named appraiser, and is attached and receipted to the profile of the donor who gave it. There is never any confusion over what a Gift-in-Kind donation was, who accepted it, and who gave it.
- Provides granular reporting tools make it easy to isolate and review these gifts whenever needed.
Many of these tools were built specifically for Habitat Gateway North because that's what Donor Engine is about – empowering your organization. It's about finding out what you need to further your cause and getting those tools in your hand. Best of all, any powerful customized functionality we build we make available to all our clients, crowdsourcing the best in functionality for everyone to use.
As Community Fundraising Officer Amy Graham says, "it's not your typical CRM, it's what you need for your organization."
The Result
In addition to streamlining their processes and achieving significant efficiencies, they are now able to provide accurate Gift-In-Kind records, providing better service to their donors and meeting their receipting requirements with ease. With new donation forms, tools and processes, their fundraising also soared to success, with a 72% increase in revenue growth compared to the previous year.
Let us create your
Success story
More Success Stories
