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case study

Nonprofit American Heart Association

The American Heart Association has been able to centralize operations and standardize procedures that allow us to better track, maintain and cultivate relationships with our donors, as well as more easily guarantee IRS compliance by using CDS Global’s donations processing and image capture solutions.

The American Heart Association was founded in 1924 as a medical society to share research findings and promote further study on the topic of heart disease. In 1948, the association transformed itself from a scientific society into a voluntary health agency dedicated to providing credible heart disease and stroke information for effective prevention and treatment. The Association’s operations are led by the National Center in Dallas, Texas, with seven affiliate regions throughout the United States.

CHALLENGESThe American Heart Association receives more than 2 million donations within its more than 130 offices annually. Its youth programs alone require reconciliation and deposits from more than 35,000 schools nationwide. In addition, fundraising efforts include hundreds of walk, gala and luncheon events located throughout the U.S., generating a significant amount of correspondence in a variety of formats.

The Association recognized that the lack of procedural consistency between their 130-plus offices resulted in an inefficient and inconsistent donation processing and data capture business process compounded by a shortage of staff and increasing expenses.

The Association was also concerned about consistently meeting IRS receipting guidelines as well as potential revenue loss and other opportunity costs due to uncultivated relationships from contributions that were not accurately captured for acknowledgement in its customer relationship management and accounting systems. The Association estimated only 55 percent of contributions and payments received acknowledgements.

SOLUTIONSThe American Heart Association benchmarked the donation processes of other fundraising nonprofit organizations and found that its corresponding cost per capture was as much as three times greater than other peer organizations with comparable complex donation processes.

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

7272 Greenville Ave.

Dallas, TX 75231

www.heart.org

�� DATA CAPTURE �� DONATIONS PROCESSING FOR YOUTH, NON-YOUTH AND CORPORATE GIVERS

American Heart Association

Chip Sugrue Vice President of Customer Strategies & Affiliate Management ConsultantAmerican Heart Association

�� DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & MAILING SERVICES�� PROCESSING FOR EVENT PRIZE ORDER FORMS

case study

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02Nonprofit American Heart Association

REVISED: 11.06.13

SOLUTIONS CONTINUED

The Association considered internal and external solutions, and potential partnership with another nonprofit. After a rigorous review and selection process based on desired service standards, IRS reporting compliance guidelines, data security and internal privacy requirements, CDS Global was selected to provide donations processing, data capture and acknowledgement services.

RESULTSWith minimal start-up costs, the Association and CDS Global set to work standardizing cash receipts and donor acknowledgement procedures. In anticipation of increased donor data capture, the Association’s donor database was expanded into a 360-degree data warehouse. In its first year using CDS Global solutions, the American Heart Association realized a number of direct cost savings and other benefits including:

• Cash receipt procedures were centralized and standardized.

• Existing caging costs were significantly reduced (previously 21 maintained) or reallocated.

• Depository savings ($26,000 annually) were gained, with 9 deposits made daily by CDS Global versus 300 deposits previously made daily by affiliate offices. Additional savings were gained in reduced copy costs, overnight shipping and staff time.

• State-of-the-art imaging of donor data not previously captured resulted in an 86 percent increase in new individual donor records, and a 54 percent increase in corporate donor records to the Association’s database, yielding increased opportunity to cultivate and re-engage donors.

• Acknowledgement mailing expenses were reduced by using CDS Global’s mailing services and postal discounts.

• Customer service was improved while responding to donor inquiries because of the ability to track the status of acknowledgement.

• Opportunities were generated in other business functions because of staff and resource redeployment.