Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago Saves 40 Hours a Week on Gift Processing During Migration to Salesforce

Organization Background

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago (BBBSChi) is one of the most active local agencies of the largest mentoring organization in the United States. Since 1904, Big Brothers Big Sisters has fostered thousands of meaningful one-on-one relationships between youths and adult volunteers. We spoke with Mary Collins, Senior Donor Relations and Database Administrator, to hear about the organization’s use of Omatic Cloud.

Challenge

Like any local agency within a nationwide organization, the team at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago balances their own data practices with system-wide priorities. When leadership announced plans to migrate donor data from Raiser’s Edge 7 into the national organization’s customized Salesforce platform (called MatchForce Fundraising), BBBSChi sought support to carry out this massive data migration without disrupting daily operations. The Chicago team implemented Omatic Cloud to address the following challenges:

• Planned Salesforce Implementation: Migrating all the organization’s historical data from Raiser’s Edge 7 into Salesforce would require careful planning. Throughout the migration, the team would still to continue its regular data collection and maintenance. The Chicago agency needed a tech solution to help manage this complex project.
• Hours of Manual Donation Data Entry: Entering gifts into Raiser’s Edge 7 was a time-consuming process. Every day, Mary Collins, Senior Donor Relations and Database Administrator, generated a spreadsheet from Classy, the agency’s online giving platform, and manually entered all the gift information into the CRM. If the gift came from a new donor, that meant even more time: Mary would have to create a new profile with the donor’s name address, email address, and more into Raiser’s Edge 7. During year end giving surges, Mary would spend all her time—40 hours per week—entering gift data until she was caught up months later.
• Difficulty Tracking Complex Fundraising Campaigns and Identifying Matching Gifts: BBBSChi had trouble managing data for popular fundraising campaigns, including the Chicago Marathon, fundraising events, peer-to-peer campaigns and workplace philanthropy. The team received so many gifts solicited by runners in the Chicago Marathon that they would have to forego entering marathon gifts under $250 into Raiser’s Edge 7. Not only did this lead to gaps in donor giving histories, but it also required staff to manually locate marathon gifts in Classy and apply soft credit for matching funds.
  Additionally, fundraising events with many donors required a similar amount cut off to ease the administrative burden. Workplace philanthropy files—disbursement reports from Benevity on behalf of corporate donors—had to be entered manually each month.

Solution

Based on a recommendation from the BBBS National Office, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago implemented Omatic Cloud to move data across third-party systems and Salesforce.

• Automatic Field Mapping Across Classy, Salesforce, and More: Omatic Cloud’s advanced mapping capabilities made tracking complicated fundraising campaigns, including Chicago Marathon teams and workplace philanthropy participants, easier than ever. Importing rules designed at implementation have the ability to identify matching gifts and apply soft credit to the right person or institution automatically.
• Moving More Data into Salesforce: The $250 dollar giving threshold for popular fundraising campaigns was no longer necessary. Automatic tracking and soft credit applications for matching funds eliminated the manual work required for entering all the relevant data that BBBSChi faced in the past. Now, more data is moving into Salesforce, including gifts at any amount and gifts from new donors.
• Efficient Workplace Philanthropy Data Imports: The monthly disbursement report from Benevity with workplace philanthropy donations is no longer the administrative burden it used to be. Omatic Cloud fills in the gaps for data that Benevity files do not include, like whether the matching gifts are from a marathon team, an event, or a corporate fundraising campaign. Transferring the data into Salesforce is seamless, fast, and error-free.

“Now, I just dump the Benevity file in. As long as the headers are named correctly everything goes in properly.”

Results

After implementing Omatic Cloud, Big Brother Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago had greater visibility into their supporter base leading to:

• Dozens of Hours Saved Each Week: Since implementing Omatic Cloud, the team has reduced its manual workload, saving up to 40 hours each week during end-of-year gift processing. Instead of entering gift and donor data into Salesforce by hand, Mary can spend her time on more complex projects and get ahead of projects she would normally have to wait until the new year to begin.

“This is our first year with Omatic and I’m already seeing the time savings. I think next year will be even better.”

• Quicker Turnaround of Data Projects: One of the most time-consuming projects for the donor relations and data team is the donor honor roll that the chapter includes in its annual report. Each year Mary would have to comb through giving data from Classy, Raiser’s Edge 7, and other sources to compile a list of the year’s donors by giving threshold and double-check its accuracy. Now that all donor data flows into Salesforce automatically, Mary only needs to look in one place for the data she needs, which both saves time and increases accuracy.
• More Opportunities for Personalized Outreach: With more donor information in Salesforce, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago has more opportunities to tailor their outreach to constituents. When donor information was siloed in different third-party systems, the team could not see relevant information about donors including their history with the organization. Now, the team has access to a donor’s history with the organization, including whether they have volunteered as Bigs or Littles with the organization.

  Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago is thrilled with the results they’ve seen with Omatic Cloud to date and is excited to continue building a more connected ecosystem. They’re currently exploring ways to use Omatic Cloud to bring donor data into Mailchimp to improve communications and outreach.