The Organization

 

Since 1994, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley has been serving the needs of youth ages 6–18, offering after school and summer programming that promotes character development and prevents delinquency. Today, the Clubs serve more than 700 youth per year at four locations in Moline, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa.


Their Clubs are in neighborhoods where kids in need do not have the resources available. They provide youths and teens with a safe place to go with positive adult mentors to guide them so they can reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.

  •  

    Boys and Girls Clubs serve the youth and provide assistance in their communities by:

     

    ▪️ Funds local and overseas partner agencies


    ▪️ Funds gained through donations and events.


    ▪️ Members pay no more than $30 per school year.


    ▪️ No child is turned away due to their inability to pay.

     

  • “Arreva’s intuitive, all-in-one software program has transformed our organization. We have cut down on administrative tasks tremendously and can now further our mission to support the youth in our community, grow our programs, and raise essential funds. Arreva has consistently proved to be our one-stop for online fundraising and donor relationship management software and advice.”

     

    Torri Smith, Executive Director

 

The Challenge

 

Before using ExceedFurther software, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley were struggling to leverage in-house data and work efficiently. They had disparate systems for managing events and communications, and fragmented databases with incomplete and inconsistent data, making it a challenge to report on the data. Rotating volunteers and staff of varying levels of experience with their database program incorrectly entered data or did not enter any data. It was hard to determine if a person who attended an event was the same person who donated. Incomplete data prevented the Clubs from gaining actionable insights on donor profiles needed to develop smart, targeted campaigns.


The Clubs needed a single database that would consolidate their multiple lists into one system and create intelligent profiles of all their constituents. After personally sorting through more than 15,000 contacts in excel spreadsheets to identify duplicates and incomplete records, it was clear that there had to be a better way. They needed an intuitive, online software solution to automate the process and get new staff up-to-speed quickly, freeing them from administrative work so they could focus on donor outreach and raising funds for the organization.

  • The Solution

    After a comprehensive evaluation of various products that could help them consolidate and work more efficiently and effectively, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley selected Arreva’s software. The primary goal was to consolidate and leverage constituents to grow revenue for the Clubs. Purpose-built for nonprofits, Arreva’s one-stop, comprehensive solution made for an obvious choice.

     

    “With one, intuitive solution and a dedicated, exceptional customer success team, onboarding our staff is easy. The team only has to learn one system, and we have real people to support us, if we need it,” explains Torri Smith, Executive Director.

     

    “ExceedFurther is all-in-one. We do not have to use separate programs to manage donations, registrations, communications, and donor relations. It is one place to go for everything we need. That was the key selling point for us.”

 

The Outcome

With ExceedFurther, Arreva’s next evolution in Online Fundraising and Donor Relationship Management now in place, the benefits have been exponential. In 2019 the total funds raised online increased by 54% from the year prior. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, after the first quarter of 2020, the BGCMV team is on pace to have a record year with their online fundraising efforts. By consolidating software programs and disjointed lists and building thorough donor profiles, the Clubs can now effortlessly report on data and segment their donors to create targeted campaigns and personalized communications with their more than 7,400 constituents.

 

Whether it’s the monthly email newsletter, Club announcements, the annual report or event invitations, the Clubs’ communication and fundraising happens with a level of efficiency that didn’t exist before. Instead of taking two or three days to create and send a newsletter, their staff can now send one in less than an hour. ExceedFurther’s seamless online event registration and automated real-time acknowledgments and thank yous create a delightful donor experience. 


“With all our data in one place, and one tool to track and manage online donations, pledges, event registrations and more, data collection is automated,” explains Tori Smith, Executive Director for the Clubs. “Using Arreva’s best-in-class household and organization approach allows us to bring together donor relationships in a unique way, providing us with a 360-degree view of our donors and constituents that didn’t exist before. We can track how they gave, why, what amount, and more. This lets us easily segment our database into smaller, targeted campaigns.”

  • “We went from raising zero dollars (on #GivingTuesday) in 2018 to a 3000% increase in funds raised in 2019. That allows us to serve 2,000 additional meals. Now, that’s the impact that matters to us.”

     

    Liz Zimmerman, Director of Marketing and Impact

 

By having one online fundraising and donor relationship management solution, the Boys & Girls Clubs can help onboard new staff and volunteers in hours, not weeks or months. For Liz Zimmerman, Director of Marketing and Impact at the Boy & Girls Clubs of Mississippi Valley, she found the product training to be helpful, but even more valuable has been the free marketing best practices advice she receives from Arreva. 

 

“I have been impressed by how giving and accessible Arreva’s team has been. Not only for teaching us how to use the software but for providing tips to ensure campaign success so we can surpass our fundraising goals,” explains Liz. “For me, marketing is not my background. So, the advice has been invaluable. In 2019, we were able to expand our marketing efforts. With ExceedFurther’s peer-to-peer fundraising capability, we encouraged donors to participate in #GivingTuesday. We went from raising zero dollars in 2018 to a 3000% increase in funds raised in 2019. That allows us to serve 2,000 additional meals. Now, that’s the impact that matters to us.”

See How ExceedFurther Adds Value to Your Organization!

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