“Think outside your database.”
Since founding EverTrue three years ago, we’ve had countless conversations with professionals across the advancement spectrum. We’ve spoken with major gift officers, annual fund directors, prospect researchers and alumni relations leaders. From our earliest conversations with Andy Shaindlin and Christine Tempesta to our ongoing collaboration with Andrew Gossen and Elizabeth Crabtree, we’ve been struck by two recurring themes. Despite the billions of dollars invested in donor database technology, nonprofits struggle to achieve their goals because 1) donor data is extremely out-of-date and 2) donor data is difficult to access.
Without accurate data at your fingertips, nearly every aspect of advancement becomes extremely manual. Maintaining accurate career data? Manual. Pulling a list of internet professionals in New York? Manual. Identifying middle-of-the-pyramid prospects? Manual. The examples are countless. Just ask any advancement services professional how often they are asked to “run queries” for someone in their office.
Social donor management addresses these fundamental challenges. By starting with LinkedIn and Facebook as a foundation, it’s possible to deliver information that is 25x better than the information in legacy donor databases. And by investing in native mobile experiences, it’s possible to deliver this higher quality information through software that is as easy to use as Yelp, Zillow, or any other modern mobile application.
GivingTree. Fundraising Technology for a Social, Mobile Era.
Social donor management is the basis for our newest product, GivingTree. By combining data science with social insights and mobile accessibility, GivingTree was designed to put the FUN back in Fundraising. Our vision is for your team to spend less time on menial tasks and more time building relationships in support of your mission.
GivingTree will help you more efficiently identify new major donor prospects, increase participation rates, and improve stewardship. Advancement professionals at institutions ranging from St. Paul’s School to Brown University are using GivingTree to build stronger relationships with their constituents. The Middlesex School is utilizing GivingTree to more effectively prioritize field fundraising efforts. Work that used to take weeks or months now takes minutes.
At last week’s CASE District 1 conference, Ellie Swain Ballard, Director of Alumni Engagement at Amherst College, left her audience with a key point: “Think outside your database.” Ellie’s right. Advancement professionals have spent the last 30 years trying to capture and analyze the data in donor management systems. We need to spend the next 30 years trying to understand the data that isn’t in those systems and never will be. We’re here to help. We are EverTrue.
Click here to view the full CASE D1 SlideShare we co-presented with Ellie Swain Ballard.
You can also view the GivingTree product page to learn more about how we can help you optimize your social donor management.