The project in a nutshell
With a decline in large companies headquartered in St Louis, it was important for the United Way of Greater St. Louis to find new ways maximize opportunities with its donor base to continue its tradition of improving communities and lives.
The Challenge
Better manage top donors’ overall philanthropy efforts, regardless of whether or not the donor is giving to a United Way agency.
The Solution
Turn United Way into a philanthropy arm for high net worth individuals and family offices and operationalize it through an automated platform.
The Outcome
United Way of Greater St Louis increased their top donor contributions by 266%.
What the organization needed
St. Louis consistently ranks in the top three charitable cities in the U.S., according to charity evaluator Charity Navigator. However, with a decrease in corporate headquarters, it was important for the United Way of Greater St. Louis to find new ways maximize opportunities with its donor base to continue its tradition of improving communities and lives.
An idea hit Orvin Kimbrough, President and CEO of United Way of Greater St. Louis – the fifth largest United Way chapter in the world. What if the organization could help manage top donors’ overall philanthropy efforts, creating a simple turnkey approach to giving, regardless of whether or not the donor is giving to a United Way agency? The United Way already vets non-profit agencies and channels money to selected organizations.
We have the operational expertise to act as a clearinghouse.
DAVID POE
Chief Technology Officer
A strategy was born – and built into the organization’s five-year strategic plan. The next step? Finding a partner with both the technical and user interface experience to bring the strategy to life.
Our solution
A major goal of the effort was to automate tasks that were previously done manually. Xceede Solutions leveraged the robust power of Salesforce® as the core platform for the new technology, called the Donor Service System. While the solution tapped into Salesforce capabilities end to end, a core element is Conga Composer, which was implemented for document generation and reporting.
Xceede helped United Way realize the full capabilities of the Salesforce platform, and made recommendations on various ways to tackle the pain points by explaining differences in cost, time, and product flexibility. In short, we operationalized the CEO and CTO's vision.
When we started, we didn’t know exactly how the system would look or function, but we knew what our pain points were. Xceede helped develop process mapping and mockups of the business workflow.
DAVID POE
Chief Technology Officer
Project scope
Departments
- Donor Services
Users
- 5 Donor Management Services
Solutions
Salesforce® solutions
- Sales Cloud
- Communities
- Nonprofit Success Pack
AppExchange apps
- Conga Composer
Data integration
Integration platform
- Guidestar API
Enterprise systems
- Oracle Netsuite
- Sales distributor data
Results
As a direct result of the work we carried out, United Way was able to:
- increase contributions by 266%.
- offered United Way staff and donors substantial time savings and efficiency.
- shifted the donor team's focus from outputs to outcomes.
Since implementing the Donor Service System, contributions from high net worth donors has increased from $7.5 million in 2016 to $20 million in 2017. We’ve shifted from outputs to outcomes. Clerical tasks are now done by clerical staff only, with more time for the fundraising staff to cultivate donor relationships. It is having a major impact for us.
David Poe
Chief Technology Officer, United Way of Greater St Louis
At a glance
United Way of Greater St Louis
The United Way of Greater St. Louis helps one in three people in the St. Louis region annually through its partnership with more than 170 nonprofit agencies. More than one million people are served by United Way each year.