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"Sage Fundraising 100 has not only kept up with our growth, it has
also been a mechanism for enhancing our growth. It gives me peace of mind."
Sandy Horodyski
Office Manager
Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada
Brain Tumour Foundation "Imagines a Cure" With Sage Fundraising 100
A great cause and smart management are a winning combination—which helps explain
why the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada database has doubled in size in just
fi ve years. The Foundation is dedicated to reaching each of the 55,000
Canadians affected by a brain tumour. It offers emotional support and comfort,
free resource handbooks, toll-free counseling services, and also funds research
into the causes and treatments of brain tumours.
“We started out using generic spreadsheet and database programs to manage our organization,” says Sandy Horodyski, Offi ce Manager. “Very quickly, we outgrew them. We maxed out the database, to the point where we couldn’t add any more information. The spreadsheets were slow and clumsy. We developed work-around fi xes, but it became clear that we needed a dedicated package to handle our continued growth.”
A Brainy Solution
The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada investigated numerous fundraising packages as well as considered having a custom solution created. “We selected Sage Fundraising 100 primarily because of its report-writing capabilities,” explains Horodyski. “We could see it would take care of our present needs, and also provided for needs we’d discover down the road with further growth.”
The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada now relies on Sage Fundraising 100 to manage all aspects of its operation. The software tracks gifts, national event programs, correspondence, fi nancial reports, and information on donors.
Benefits for BrainStorm
“One of the greatest things about Sage Fundraising 100 is the way it lets us pull fi nancial information and sort it however we like,” says Horodyski. “It has an aspect called ‘attributes’ so we can defi ne various types of data to perform sophisticated sorts. For instance, using attributes we identify which members want to receive our BrainStorm newsletter. Then when it’s time for a mailing, we simply pull out names and addresses, export them to a spreadsheet and deliver the newsletter to our mailing house.”
Other mailings are equally easy to produce. “Sage Fundraising 100 allows us to defi ne donors by group, and send targeted solicitations,” Horodyski notes. “If we receive an honorarium for someone who is ill, has a wedding or birthday, or has recently passed away, we use the software to send out thanks and notifications.”
Endowment Module
The Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada uses the Endowment Management Module of Sage Fundraising 100 to administer its donations, which come from diverse sources. The software offers instant access to endowment details with three types of views: constituent, endowment, and endowment manager. This allows the Foundation to track planned giving and asset pools, as well as demographic data and contact information.
“About half of our contributions come from special events, and the rest from individual donations,” explains Horodyski. “The software has made it much easier to thank donors in a timely manner and keep all of our contact information up-to-date.”
Robust Reports
Breaking out data is important for creating reports, too. “We do both quarterly and annual reports, sorting gifts by category as designated in our general ledger,” Horodyski says. “The software lets us define campaigns and sub appeals, pulling data by criteria. We can determine whether a person attended a golf tournament, or gave a legacy, or was a participant in one of our Spring Sprint runs.”
“One of the greatest things about Sage Fundraising 100 is the ability to develop our own ad hoc reports quickly and easily,” continues Horodyski. “Creating an ad hoc report takes hours instead of weeks. Simple reports can be created in minutes, compared to the days we used to spend pulling material out of files. Many of the complex reports that now take us hours were literally unimaginable before.”
Essential Insights
Strategic thinking has been an important side benefi t of adopting the new software. “Now that we’re automated with Sage Fundraising 100, we are looking at our organization in a totally different way,” explains Horodyski. “We have been able to develop an organizational plan so we grow in predetermined directions that make the most sense. We can react much faster. We know exactly where our money is coming from. If one source is underperforming compared to others, we can ask ourselves why and make changes.”
Horodyski attributes much of the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada’s recent success to having the right software. “Sage Fundraising 100 has not only kept up with our growth, it has also been a mechanism for enhancing our growth,” she says. “It gives me peace of mind, knowing I’ll never be left hanging due to a software problem. Best of all, it allows us to use our resources much more wisely, so every possible penny goes to help find a cure for brain tumours.”
