Social services group gains competitive edge
Next Step provides more time for strategy

Now that Tina Burdett, Development Director for the Center for Children & Families, Inc., in Norman, OK, has converted her nonprofit to a Web-based donor management system, she is no longer afraid to use her donor database. Gone are the days when it was a long and complex task to enter even a small amount of data. As a result, she actually uses the system much more.

"I spend less than half the time I used to on mundane tasks," said Burdett. "But, now, there's so much more I can do."

In January 2003, Burdett switched her nonprofit, which specializes in providing support and counseling to children and their families to Next Step, eTapestry's Web-based donor management system designed especially for Benevon.

"I now spend my time on the more strategic analysis elements," Burdett said. "Having a database that allows me to do that is like a treat or a prize. It's more fun and it's much more productive in the long run."

Because Next Step is so easy to use, Burdett can get help from volunteers and other staff members in dealing with basic mailing list information and setup. This gives her an edge that she never had before in forecasting and analyzing historical giving information.

"I like to analyze the rates of retention, the percent of donors who gave, and how many donors have given in three of the last five years," Burdett said. "We couldn't even ask that information before. This new information affects us in how we communicate with and cultivate our donors and who we ask to do what."

Cultivation is of growing importance to the Center for Children & Families, which has recently adopted the Benevon Model in order to build a base of sustainable funding. The Center for Children and Families has taken advantage of Next Step, a customized version of eTapestry based on the Benevon system of cultivating donors over time to build lifelong relationships.

"It's been really useful to manipulate and capture the data the [Benevon] Model requires. It has streamlined our efforts tremendously," Burdett said.

Next Step's ease of use and eTapestry's strong tech support are essential fundraising elements for Burdett's organization of fifty-four employees.

"We have a fairly typical social service agency staff," Burdett said. "Database management is not why we were hired."

Next Step has made it simple to enter the complex and varied data the Benevon Model requires to be tracked. What has surprised her even more is how simple it has become to train anyone in her organization to access the data they need.

Recently, Burdett said, it took less than one minute to train a computer-savvy board member how to enter contacts into Next Step. He came back a week later and wanted to learn more. His next mission: queries.

Burdett said she feels secure that the board member can execute the queries necessary to identify the nonprofit's major donors so he can take them to lunch. Just to be safe, she has set parameters on his use so he can't delete or access the mass update function.

The Center for Children & Families has also found eTapestry's tech support members to be helpful and easy to work with on every occasion they have had a question about any Next Step feature.

"They are friendly and never condescending," Burdett said. "They respond promptly and as many times as it takes for you to understand the answer."

It's support like this that makes eTapestry an essential tool to achieve success in a nonprofit environment that increasingly relies on individual donors for support, Burdett said.

"To have a competitive edge in this environment, you need to take advantage of every tool that is available," Burdette said. "eTapestry is the best data management tool for us."

About the Center for Children & Families, Inc.
The Center for Children & Families, Inc., based in Norman, OK, improves the lives of children through partnerships with families and communities. The organization provides education, support, advocacy, intervention, and prevention programs for area children and families. For more information, go to: www.csbi.org/ccfi/About/History.htm.

About eTapestry
Founded in 1999, Indianapolis-based eTapestry is the first Web-based donor database and communications management system that rents its software to customers who access it over the Internet. Nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes using eTapestry.com do not pay the large upfront purchasing costs or the ongoing maintenance and support contracts typically paid in the purchase of more traditional software. For more information, go to www.eTapestry.com.