Background
In the face of the monumental challenge COVID-19 posed to health providers, three Waterloo Hospital Foundations, St. Mary's General Hospital, Cambridge Memorial Hospital and Grand River Hospital, joined together to form Region Ready. Region Ready is an organization dedicated to meeting the crisis head on by raising funds to purchase the equipment, beds, and supplies each hospital would need.
Raised
$500kIn 8 weeks
The Problem
Time was the most pressing and immediate concern for Region Ready. How would they get a fundraising operation off the ground quick enough to meet the crisis before it was too late? Especially considering:
- The three separate hospital foundations were each working with their own unique database systems.
- They needed to combine these large data silos to use them in a functional and goal directed way.
- There was no site or web presence already existing for Region Ready, everything would need to be made from scratch.
- And any system adopted would have to be easy enough to use to quickly train staff so they could immediately begin collecting donations.
The Solutions
All of these demands would have represented a staggering challenge for any software vendor. Creating a site and donation portal, importing and
Donor Engine was able to launch a full online fundraising campaign for Region Ready in 48 hours. Including:
- A new merchant services account, and a unified database that provided a secure flow of donor info into the various charities.
- A brand-new website and donation portal.
- Full ongoing support for staff. The system is intuitive enough to use with minimal training and staff received ongoing coaching and tutorials as needed.
Region Ready was able to go from idea to fundraising reality practically overnight. But that wasn't all, as the crisis developed, so did Region Ready and Donor Engine's ongoing efforts, including:
- A matching gift campaign that partnered with local tech companies including Google and OpenText.
- A 3rd party peer-to-peer fundraising event in support of Region Ready. Again, created and implemented quickly and efficiently.
Region Ready was able to successfully raise an astounding $500,000 in the first eight weeks after launch. Those funds were essential to the hospitals and directly aided their ability to quickly prepare for and handle the COVID-19 crisis.
From idea to essential funds in the blink of an eye, that's the kind of community support Donor Engine can drive.