Top Challenges North Central University Needed to Address:

• Reduce the manual workload of database management
• Free up staff time to spend on building relationships with major donors
• Increase the ability to personalize marketing across channels

Significant Resources Allocated to Admin Tasks

North Central University (NCU) manages a diverse donor base, from students and their families to faculty and alumni. The team prioritized issuing receipts and personal acknowledgments for each donation, a task made arduous by the outdated, manual processes of their previous database. It took up so much time that little room was left for strategic engagement and relationship nurturing.

There was so much potential to grow and deepen connections with donors, but the NCU team was trapped in a continuous administrative loop that included manual data entry and individually writing acknowledgment letters. It took up so much time that little was left to think more strategically about nurturing relationships.

NCU knew that it needed a new donor management platform that could help them automate tasks with better personalization and segmentation capabilities. That way, the team could be more efficient in their day-to-day operations and focus on building more meaningful relationships with their most loyal supporters.

How We Helped

A Nonprofit CRM Built for Fundraising and Growth

Now, with Virtuous’ help, the NCU team can still give donors the acknowledgment they deserve but in less time using marketing automation. But just because the process is now automated doesn’t mean the personal touch has been removed.

Using features like merge tags, the team can insert personalized details such as the donor’s name, address, past donation amounts, past donation dates, and other specific interests into each message. This has freed up time—260 hours a year—for staff to spend on one-on-one conversations with high-value donors.

Marketing automation has also enabled the team to create personalized donor journeys to convert event attendees into repeat supporters.

While NCU primarily needed a tool to streamline administrative tasks, what they ultimately got with Virtuous was a fundraising partner who helped them increase revenue across the board: total revenue, recurring giving revenue, and gala revenue. All while reducing the staff hours spent on mundane administrative tasks.

Virtuous really cares about the success and longevity of its nonprofit partners, and it doesn’t require you to be an IT expert. Through Virtuous Academy, organizations have the educational content to improve their product knowledge and expand their skills, ensuring that they continue to get the most value out  of the platform and its features.

Deeper Supporter Relationships

Prior to switching to Virtuous, many of North Central University’s emails were impersonal and unsegmented. Now, NCU supporters now receive a more personalized and curated experience. When they receive an email from the Advancement team, it’s written specifically to the receiver and not to a mass audience. Their efforts are having a direct impact on their year-over-year giving – giving is up 12.1% this year! 

Data Insights Empower NCU to Connect More Deeply With Supporters 

For a large university like NCU, where the donor file is accessed by several departments, centralizing this data is essential. With seamless integration capabilities from Virtuous, NCU can keep all of their donor data in a single CRM. Now, the team can find everything they need to know about a donor in their contact record. This has eliminated the need to track communications across multiple platforms or individual staff inboxes.

With a complete picture of each donor’s history and interests, the team feels confident in cultivating deeper, more meaningful relationships.