CDS GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

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case study

Nonprofit The Doe Fund

You can imagine how much time this saved us. Four years ago, we had four people working with Raiser’s Edge, (the popular fundraising software). One person would focus on gift processing, working in batches. But it was too much for one person to manage.

“Ready, Willing & Able.” That’s the core program of The Doe Fund, a New York nonprofit that provides training, work experience and counseling for people who are rebuilding their lives after prison, homelessness or addiction.

The Doe Fund’s programs serve more than 1,000 people daily, including more than 700 in Ready, Willing & Able. About a third of the agency’s funding comes from private donations and a similar amount from contracts with businesses and public entities for services such as cleaning and trash pickup. In fact, Doe Fund crews collected 9,250 tons of trash last year.

CHALLENGESPredictably, December is peak season for charitable giving, and in December 2013, the agency received 5,743 gifts. CDS Global processed 4,198 of those, and The Doe Fund handled the other 1,555 “key accounts” internally on a personal-relationship basis.

They used to do it all in-house – or tried to, says Shannon Catauro, The Doe Fund’s development manager. But with the flood of December donations, she says, “We would still be entering gifts and sending acknowledgement letters in February.”

That kind of delay reduces the efficiency of cash flow and inevitably frustrates donors who are unsure their gift has been received and used. But that’s a common dilemma among nonprofits. In their zeal to restrain costs, charities are often understaffed and overwhelmed.

SOLUTIONSAt The Doe Fund, help arrived through their director of information technology. The IT team had seen a CDS Global webinar and recognized the potential for greater efficiencies within their program.

Preliminary discussions quickly led to collaborative efforts and tentative solutions. “We decided to handle some donor relationships internally,” Catauro says, “but we were quickly able to identify areas where a third party could take over.”

THE DOE FUND

232 East 84th Street

New York, NY 10028 www.doe.org

�� DATA CAPTURE & ADVANCED IMAGING SOLUTIONS�� DONATIONS PROCESSING

The Doe Fund

Shannon CatauroDevelopment Manager The Doe Fund

�� DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & MAILING SERVICES�� ELECTRONIC CHECK PRESENTMENT (ECP)

case study

www.cds-global.com PAGE

02Nonprofit The Doe Fund

The CDS Global professionals spent a lot of time making sure that the solution was tailored specifically to The Doe Fund’s needs. “CDS Global obviously had many experts,” Catauro recalls.

The Doe Fund solution included:

• Data Capture & Advanced Imaging Solutions

• Donations Processing

• Electronic Check Presentment (ECP)

• Donor Acknowledgements & Mailing Services

RESULTSSharing the load has allowed her team to focus on cultivating donor relationships, according to Catauro. “This arrangement has saved us a lot of time,” she says, adding “and our sanity.”

Today, The Doe Fund’s donations, deposits and acknowledgements are handled promptly. And Catauro now has access to an output report that she finds invaluable; it’s tailored to her needs, so she has up-to-date information on current donations and recent trends in various categories of donors.

The Doe Fund continues to benefit in multiple ways:

• They save money by needing less staff time on tasks apart from their primary mission.

• They save more money by using CDS Global’s mailing services and lower postal rates.

• They enjoy a more robust donor list, with the most likely potential donors identified by CDS Global’s Prospect Insights solution.

• Their acknowledgements are sent sooner, keeping donors loyal.

• They escape the burden of “dirty transactions,” those requiring manual processing such as gifts with personal letters attached. CDS Global manages those directly, removing those tasks and headaches.

That’s all great from The Doe Fund’s perspective. “I can’t stress enough how much easier it makes it for us,” says Catauro, “knowing this is being handled so well and so quickly.”

Improving Communities and Lives Gone Wrong

“The men in blue.” That’s how New Yorkers refer to the hard-working teams who wear the signature color of The Doe Fund. On public works projects throughout the city, they’re hard to miss. Also hard to miss is the work they do, within their communities and within themselves.

Participants learn personal and job skills and receive real-world work experience. Last year, more than 400 graduated, emerging from the program with full-time jobs, homes, sobriety and fresh hope for a brighter future.

Batchtrack Report: Information is Power

Every enterprise needs real-time data to understand how their operation is performing. Nonprofits rely on vital, timely information on transactions, deposits (including payment method), and other donor data from CDS Global’s daily Batchtrack Client Deposit Report. The Doe Fund’s Shannon Catauro says she uses this report constantly to stay on top of cash flow trends.

REVISED: 05.30.14

SOLUTIONS CONTINUED