The Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) South Florida chapter was established in 1982 and has served as a home away-from-home for thousands of families from all over the world, many of whom may stay weeks or even months in the 31-bedroom facility as they seek life-saving treatment for seriously ill or injured children. With only six full-time and five part-time staff, RMHC South Florida relies on over 3,000 volunteers each year to help them achieve their mission.

THE CHALLENGE

RMHC South Florida is one of hundreds of RMHC chapters using Arreva's, ExceedFurther All-in-One, Fundraising and Donor Relationship Management Solution to build awareness, attract, new donors, cultivate and engage existing donors, and to raise funds. For the past 25 years, RMHC South Florida has also relied on our software to ensure that social workers can easily refer families for services, that families experience a smooth check-in/check-out process, that fundraising. in-kind donations, and volunteer efforts are tracked accurately, and that yearly reports meet all requirements. In 2014, RMHC South Florida Chapter upgraded from Exceed Premier desktop donor relationship management software to the cloud-based Exceed Beyond Donor Relationship Management, a more robust software platform with even greater capabilities including multi-view duplication checking and so much more. 

Before upgrading from Exceed Premier to Exceed Beyond. RMHC South Florida staff reports that their processes were less organized and less efficient "Prior to using Arreva, we had Excel spreadsheets everywhere," says Executive Director Soraya Rivera-Moya. And now all the information resides on one database, and everything from reporting to duplicate checking is so much easier now. RMHC South Florida had already improved efficiency and results. But they had a desire to go even further to expand their awareness and leverage best practices in online fundraising and turned to Arreva to help get them there.
 

THE SOLUTION

Today, RHMC South Florida employs ExceedFurther, the All-in-One Solution.  Arreva's software platform includes donor relationship management and online giving (including recurring donations, in honor/memory of, matching gifts), event registration, peer to peer fundraising, membership management, campaign management, grants management, volunteer management, guest management (with online guest stay request/referreD, comprehensive reporting, and website content management Arreva's platform also includes an extensive and growing roster of integrations including QuickBooks, prospect research, mail solutions. and more.

Arreva's Software is helping to organize and simplify daily tasks and processes for RMHC South Florida, while improving the guest experience. allowing the Chapter to function more efficiently. and ensuring that their program is as transparent as possible to the donors and agencies to whom they're accountable. "We needed to get up to date with the technology, says Rivera-Moya. We invested in the proper technology because it is going to make a huge impact in our staffs productivity. I think it's important for the organization to have all its relevant and important information in one place. For us, that is Arreva."

And according to the staff, the upgrade to ExceedFurther has really paid off. For example, House Manager Dawn loves how the Guests Module with the Online Guest Stay Request/Referral webpage makes receiving referrals as easy as checking email and automatically capturing the information in the database. "When social workers refer a family to us, we get an alert that contains all the information we need about the guests. It saves a lot of time."

ExceedFurther's enhanced duplicate-checking feature has also helped RMHC South Florida clean up their guest donor. and volunteer databases. "We're saving so much time." says Development Coordinator. Nicole. "Because if anything is duplicated. we can fix it on the spot and merge records much more easily.' And, she adds, cleaner data means more accurate year-end reports. "Honestly. I was so emotional because instead of five different reports from various sources, everything is in one database."

"Also, we're trying to go paperless as much as possible," Rivera-Moya adds "And that's one thing that really attracted us to Arreva's software." With ExceedFurther, it's much simpler for donors to make pledges and donations. donate in-kind goods and services. All of which are tracked for easy access and reporting, saving RMHC South Florida staff time. And when you rely on the generosity of donors and volunteers as RMHC South Florida does, communicating gratitude for their time and gifts can be one of the most important daily tasks—and one of the most time consuming. But the ExceedFurther Communications Module automatically generates acknowledgements and custom "thank you" letters.

"We need to be able to thank the people that make the Ronald McDonald House Charities possible, whether it's by monetary donations, volunteering time, or providing an in-kind product. Previously, our thank you letters were done manually in Word. This saves us so much time."

When it comes to donations of cash, time, and products to a non-profit organization like RMHC South Florida, transparency is key, so the ability to track individual contributions and generate accurate reports allows RMHC South Florida to meet their responsibilities to constituents and agencies, and they also have the data they need to ensure they're meeting or exceeding the goals they've set each year. Accurate data helps RMHC South Florida show donors that their contributions are making an impact, as well as allowing development staff to accurately plan for fundraising and volunteer needs.

ExceedFuther is also helping staff to engage on a more personal level in their interactions with guests. According to Front Desk Coordinator Ariel. "We've started to include a lot more useful data in the notes section so that it becomes like a family's bio—information about the client that might be useful to know such as particular treatments the patient is having—anything we might need to refer back to later to remind us what the family is dealing with."

Recently. RMHC South Florida has enjoyed success with the Events and Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Modules to greatly expand awareness and open new avenues for fundraising. "We're always learning new ways Arreva can save us time and help us achieve our goals. Since Events and Peer to Peer Fundraising are integrated with the database, everything is streamlined and automatic, which required less individual effort and created better data accuracy."

RMHC South Florida also places great value on Arreva's dedication to client success and their phenomenal tech support "If I have a question and they don't know the answer, I know they're looking into it. They don't leave me wondering—they always get back to me right away."

But the most important asset Arreva provides? According to Soraya Rivera-Moya, the answer is simple: time. Arreva simplifies day to day tasks, saving hours and allowing staff members to get more done in the hours they have. 'Time is money," Rivera-Moya says "It never sleeps."

Bottom line. Arreva is an indispensable part of the success of Ronald McDonald House Charities South Florida.

"It's a one-stop shop," Rivera-Moya says, "and they work with you to maximize the product for your work scope. Vendors approach us offering their software solutions all the time, but they just can't compare."

"Without Arreva, what we do would be impossible."