The Challenge
Prior to switching to Virtuous, One for Israel was utilizing Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge to help manage their donor relationships. Initially, the fundraising team at One for Israel was excited about the possibility of using a cloud-based software that enabled them to access mission-critical data while out in the field with supporters.
Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that the platform wasn’t ready for their team to use which resulted in having to use Raiser’s Edge database view. “We started with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge as an organization and our experience with Raiser’s Edge was really not good, on any front. We made it work but there were a lot of negatives there,” said Joshua. Coupled with issues pulling queries and reports, the One for Israel team began looking for other alternatives which lead them to adopting Donor View.
After three years of using Donor View, and growing their donor database, the fundraising team quickly outpaced their usage of Donor View causing them to search for another, more long-term nonprofit CRM solution.
“The vision was to find a system that was a true, one-stop-shop, that was in the cloud. It could do our events, CRM, donor tracking, texting. We had a pretty exhaustive list of requirements and quickly got to a place where we began outgrowing the platform.”
Joshua Massey, Operations Director
Once Joshua began putting together the list of requirements for their next CRM, they began searching for a new platform. One for Israel researched other, more enterprise providers such as Hubspot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics before finding Virtuous.
How We Helped
An Out-of-the-Box Solution
Part of the appeal to pursue Virtuous was its out-of-the-box solution. Rather than spending time, resources, and money customizing a solution with Salesforce, One for Israel was able to access the tools and features they required to connect with their supporters.
“What really made Virtuous stand out to us were statements we heard from others. In different conversations I heard that Virtuous was taking the best of Salesforce but kept nonprofits at the heart of the technology.”
Joshua Massey, Operations Director
Additionally, Virtuous met the requirements that One for Israel had for their next CRM including automation capabilities, donor tracking, and more.
Partnership with AmPhil
To complicate matters, One for Israel had a shortened time period to migrate their data from DonorView and implement Virtuous with their team. The finance department at One for Israel had mandated that they completely switch over to Virtuous before the end of the year.
“To keep in step with our finance team, we have to be migrated by January 1. So we had to launch by the end of the year. But when it came to gifts that lived in DonorView, the official stop date had to be on or before December 31,” says Joshua.
Joshua and his team quickly realized that in order to meet that deadline, they would need additional support to make the migration and implementation possible. After a recommendation to AmPhil from Virtuous, One for Israel was able to work alongside AmPhil to ensure that their data was transferred over correctly to their new Virtuous CRM.
During the transition period, the fundraising team discovered that Donor View’s data was not standardized according to industry practices which caused their data migration additional complexities. However, thanks to AmPhil, these issues were resolved in a timely manner.
With the trusted support from AmPhil, One for Israel not only successfully migrated and implemented Virtuous at their organization, they did so fifteen days before the year-end deadline!
Optimized Online Giving
Since adopting Virtuous at One for Israel, their fundraising and marketing team has already seen an increase in engagement, particularly for their online giving campaigns.
With the help of FundraiseUp, their fundraising team can leverage their variety of payment options to make donating to their mission easy, simple, and cater to each donor’s preferred payment method.
“The engagement of our donors, the ease of use, the way FundraiseUp bakes in the different payment methods, those things have helped us increase our donor’s giving. We’ve seen good growth there,” says Joshua.
“It’s been a pleasure working alongside One for Israel to bring them a modern, digital-first solution for their online and offline donors. Being able to participate in their journey to increase their donor’s generosity is part of our mission here at FundraiseUp. Combining that with the power of Virtuous’ CRM helps create a frictionless giving experience for all donors to One for Israel,” says Chas Offutt, Senior Partnership Manager at FundraiseUp.
Transparency Across Teams
One of the biggest challenges for One for Israel was allowing their teams the ability to have access to mission-critical data and create trust across the board in that data. Now with more transparency and understanding of their donors, One for Israel can forge deeper more lifelong relationships with its donors to help increase their donor retention.
“Our teams have faster access to data which enables us the ability to grow
Joshua Massey, Operations Director
and connect with our donors.”
Additionally, with that access to data, the fundraising and marketing team has been able to dial back other third-party platforms like Constant Contact and begin managing all their email marketing campaigns inside Virtuous.
About AmPhil
As a leading provider of integrated professional services, AmPhil strengthens civil society by helping mission-driven enterprises flourish.
Founded in 2009, AmPhil exists to promote the art of civil association by helping philanthropists, charitable foundations, and nonprofit organizations grow and flourish through practical guidance, strategic analysis, and no-nonsense consultation. Rather than peddling secret methods or promising fast results, AmPhil focuses on what matters—doing the right things, the right way, consistently over time.
