Akron Art Museum Uses Omatic Cloud to Personalize Visitor Outreach and Increase Supporter Satisfaction

Organization Background

For over 100 years, the Akron Art Museum has helped visitors enrich their lives through modern and contemporary art. Its fundraising, marketing, and events teams work together to bring more people to the museum each year and build support among the Akron community. We spoke with Krista Smith, Development Coordinator, to learn more about the museum’s use of Omatic Cloud.

Challenge

The Akron Art Museum used several platforms to engage with supporters and fundraise. Staff spent hours each week moving information into Raiser’s Edge NXT but could only capture a fraction of the information available. They needed a solution that would address the following concerns:

• Disconnected Systems and Inability to Thank Visitors Promptly: Akron Art Museum had several disparate systems including Mailchimp for marketing communications, GiveSmart for donations, Eventbrite for event ticketing, and TAM for visitor admissions, all of which produced important constituent information that needed to move into Raiser’s Edge NXT for outreach and reporting. The development staff was unable to engage with members after each visit due to the difficulty of moving visiting data into a centralized place.
• Massive Data Entry Backlog During Busy Season: Moving third-party application information into Raiser’s Edge NXT was time-consuming. Staff spent hours each week formatting spreadsheets and uploading data manually. During the busy spring and summer months, large influxes of visitors meant more records needed to be updated, creating a backlog for updates and stale data.
• Incomplete Supporter Records and Poor Reporting: Even during slower seasons, the time-consuming manual imports did not occur frequently, and donor records were not current. Manual data entry led to human error, so staff couldn’t rely on the freshness or accuracy of data in Raiser’s Edge NXT. Reporting on the success of marketing, events, or fundraising campaigns was spotty, and leadership could not get a complete sense of how the organization’s efforts were affecting donor behavior.

“Before Omatic, when leadership wanted to know something about a constituent, they had to look in five different places.” – Krista Smith

Solution

The organization sought a solution that could help them effectively connect all their systems to get a more comprehensive view of their supporters, leading them to adopt Omatic Cloud:

• Seamless Integration Across Mailchimp, GiveSmart, Eventbrite, and Raiser’s Edge NXT: Omatic Cloud’s integration solution brought a welcome improvement to the museum’s database. Data is now consolidated in Raiser’s Edge NXT seamlessly. By integrating these systems, museum leadership can see whether a marketing campaign led to more event ticket sales, or whether a constituent filled out a visit experience survey, without looking in several different systems.
• Automated Uploads and Improved Data Accuracy: The efficient data transfers Omatic supports make Akron Art Musuem’s data fresher than ever. Information travels from Eventbrite, Mailchimp, GiveSmart, and the museum’s front-of-house software in daily batches, saving staff time and preventing human errors from manual entry.

“By the time I was off my call with Omatic, I had a solution for all the platforms we use: Mailchimp, GiveSmart, everything.”

Results

After implementing Omatic Cloud, Akron Art Museum had greater visibility into their supporter base leading to:

• A 360-Degree View of Constituents: By bringing all email marketing, event ticketing, admissions, and fundraising data into Raiser’s Edge NXT efficiently, the museum has a full picture of constituents—including museum visiting history, the communications they receive, and their fundraising records. This enhanced view of supporters has unleashed the creativity of development and marketing staff. Now, the teams are experimenting with sharing discount codes for memberships after visits because they have up-to-date attendance information at their fingertips.
• 5–10 Hours of Staff Time Saved Each Week: Efficient data transfers have been a major time saver. Team members used to spend up to ten hours each week manually moving data between systems. Now, the same importing tasks take seconds. This frees up time for more mission-driven work: launching fundraising campaigns, reporting on results, and tailoring outreach to supporters.
• Timely Event Follow-Up for Increased Member Satisfaction: By having seamless dataflows across Raiser’s Edge NXT, GiveSmart, Eventbrite, and Mailchimp, the museum can customize outreach to donors based on behavior. If a museum member takes a guided tour or if a major gift donor attends a concert at the museum, the development staff can send a timely note to constituents asking about their experience. This tailored approach to communication has been key to maintaining close ties with supporters.