“[With Virtuous, we have] the ability to send [donors] what they want and what they’re passionate about, not just a broad ‘here’s everything,’ but let’s focus in on you and what’s important to you.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
Top Challenges Before Virtuous
- Disconnected email and CRM systems made it difficult to segment communications
- Manual spreadsheet uploads and tagging slowed down supporter management
- Broad email messaging made it harder to focus on individual supporter interests
- Limited email automation prevented the team from building a robust welcome series
- Nearly 900,000 records made identifying donor cultivation opportunities overwhelming
What They Accomplished (With Help From Virtuous)
- Increased email open rates from approximately 11% to 16%
- Increased email volume while improving average open rates
- Automated website signup imports, eliminating manual spreadsheet transfers and individual tagging
- Created a robust automated welcome email series
- Narrowed nearly 900,000 records to 39,000 potential donor cultivation prospects using Insights
- Gained easier access to fundraising data and reports for leadership
Virtuous CRM+: Making Every Email More Relevant
For Concerned Women for America, communicating with supporters is a major part of advancing its mission.
But before Virtuous, the organization faced a frustrating challenge: its email service provider wasn’t connected to its CRM.
Every time someone signed up for emails through the CWA website, the process required multiple manual steps:
- Downloading website signup information into an Excel spreadsheet
- Uploading that information into the CRM
- Individually tagging supporters for the appropriate communications
For a team managing a large supporter database and multiple audiences, that added unnecessary work to an already complex communications program.
With Virtuous CRM+, that process looks very different.
Now, a workflow handles the website signup process, and Keri Ann only needs to approve the incoming import.
“Since we have come to Virtuous now, [email sign-up] is done through a workflow, so the only thing I ever have to do is actually approve the import that comes in from the website.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
Emails Built Around What Supporters Care About
The bigger change goes beyond saving time on imports.
With segmentation and email capabilities inside Virtuous, CWA can send communications based on what individual supporters care about rather than relying on broad messages sent to everyone.
For Keri Ann, that has changed how the organization builds relationships with its donors.
That’s what responsive fundraising looks like: listening to the signals each donor gives, then responding with what matters to them.
And the results are showing up in email engagement:
- Previous average open rate: Approximately 11%
- Current average open rate: Approximately 16%
- Email volume: Increased, even as average open rates improved
Enhancing Welcome Series & Reporting
CWA has also introduced a robust email welcome series, something Keri Ann says the team could not have accomplished with its previous CRM.
Instead of relying entirely on manual processes to engage new subscribers, the organization can now deliver a more structured introduction to its communications.
“One thing that has been a huge win for us and something that we could not have done with our prior CRM is that we have a very robust welcome series for our emails … it’s been pretty amazing the response that we have gotten from that.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
The organization is also benefiting from easier access to reporting.
When executives or board members ask how CWA is performing, Keri Ann can find the data she needs without having to piece together information across disconnected systems.
“Pretty much any number that I could ever want to find, I can find in Virtuous.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
See how Virtuous CRM+ helps nonprofits personalize donor communications →
Virtuous Insights: Narrowing 900,000 Records to 39,000 Prospects
Better communications were only part of the opportunity.
With almost 900,000 records in its database, CWA also faced a major donor cultivation challenge: determining where to start.
Manually reviewing that many records to identify supporters worth prioritizing would have been an overwhelming undertaking.
Using Virtuous Insights, the prospect research tool in the Virtuous platform, Keri Ann was able to narrow the organization’s large database into a much more focused group for donor cultivation.
- Starting database: Nearly 900,000 records
- Identified prospect group: 39,000 records
“Virtuous Insights has been a game changer for us. We have almost 900,000 records in our database. All I had to do was push a button, and Insights narrowed it down to 39,000.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
Instead of starting with an enormous list and trying to determine who might be ready for a deeper relationship, the team now has a more manageable starting point.
That gives CWA an opportunity to focus its cultivation efforts on a specific group of supporters rather than approaching the entire database at once.
See how Virtuous Insights helps uncover donor cultivation opportunities →
Less Time Managing Data, More Time Advancing the Mission
For Keri Ann, the most meaningful change is being able to spend less energy managing the processes behind fundraising.
CWA can communicate more personally, identify supporters for cultivation, and get the information its leadership needs without the same level of manual work.
That creates more room to focus on the mission that brought the team together in the first place.
“Virtuous has been really helpful in allowing us to take some of our time and energy off of the process with the data and focusing more on what we are called to do…our mission.”
– Keri Ann Thompson, Data Analyst, Concerned Women for America
Ready to spend less time managing donor data and more time building meaningful supporter relationships?
Get started with a Virtuous demo →
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Concerned Women for America use Virtuous CRM+?
CWA uses Virtuous CRM+ to manage supporter data, automate website signup imports, segment email audiences, run welcome email communications, and access fundraising reports.
How did Virtuous improve CWA’s email open rates?
With more targeted email segmentation, CWA increased its average email open rate from approximately 11% to 16%, even while increasing the number of emails it sends.
How does Concerned Women for America use Virtuous Insights?
CWA uses Virtuous Insights to identify donor cultivation opportunities within its large supporter database. Keri Ann used it to narrow nearly 900,000 records to a group of 39,000 prospects.
What processes did CWA automate with Virtuous?
The organization automated much of its website email signup import process, replacing manual spreadsheet downloads, CRM uploads, and individual tagging with a workflow that Keri Ann approves.
How does Virtuous help CWA focus on its mission?
Virtuous reduces the manual work involved in managing supporter data, preparing communications, and identifying cultivation opportunities, giving the team more time to focus on its advocacy mission.
