Top Challenges Before Virtuous
- Unreliable data and reports that were hard to build
- Dated giving and subscription forms that didn’t always work
- Contacts and donors lost, with no way to track campaign impact
- A full day to pull a single mailing list, plus hours spent de-duplicating
What They Accomplished (With Help From Virtuous)
- Hit 230% of their annual giving goal and 118% of their major giving goal in Year 1
- Reached their annual goal before the year-end campaign even started, a first for the org
- Added 700 new donors halfway through the current year
- Cut mailing list creation from a full day to one click
- Reduced gift entry and acknowledgment time by 75%, with no more duplicate records
- Gained real-time visibility into campaign, segment, and gift trends they never had before
The Challenge
Prickly Pear Land Trust connects land and people across central Montana, building trails, protecting open space, and running outdoor education. Demand for that work kept growing, but held back by their previous donor database, they found private giving staying flat for years.
Not only that, but on their previous CRM, the data wasn’t reliable, and reports were hard to build. Subscriber and donation forms were dated and didn’t always work. Contacts and donors slipped through the cracks, with no way to track a campaign’s impact. Pulling a single mailing list ate up a full day, plus hours cleaning and de-duplicating a list that started at 2,500 households.
For Becca Dudek, their Associate Development Director, the routine work of the old system had a way of taking over.
“It sounds really simple, but in our old CRM system, it was basically the bane of my existence.”
– Becca Dudek, Associate Development Director
Working from the First Month
They decided it was time to make a change, so they adopted:
- Virtuous CRM+ as their new CRM
- And Virtuous Raise as their new online giving tool
Within the first month of going live with Virtuous, the giving and subscription forms were more effective, and the team could see and track their impact in real time.
Sarah Ryan, their Communications and Development Manager, could now build development reports for the board in more detail than she ever had. Then came the moment that told her the decision had paid off:
“We met our annual giving goal before our end-of-year campaign even started, which was a first.”
– Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
For Becca, the shift showed up in the work that used to cost her a full day. Pulling the first mailing list in Virtuous was the first time she got genuinely excited. The report took a fraction of the time it once had, and the ongoing version of that task collapsed into a single step.
“Now [in Virtuous CRM+] it’s just one simple click whenever we want to generate that mailing list.”
– Becca Dudek, Associate Development Director
Quick Results That Kept Building
A record-setting first year. The team migrated in February. By November, when the year-end campaign would normally just be starting, the annual goal was already met. They closed the year well beyond it.
- 230% of the annual giving goal
- 118% of the major giving goal
Growth they can finally see and steer. Sitting at the intersection of development and communications, Sarah relies on the campaign and segment performance report to watch every campaign, segment, and gift trend in one place. For the first time, she can see where the program is winning and where there’s room to grow.
- 700 new donors halfway through the current year
- Gift count already at 83% of the prior full year
- Average gift size nearly twice the nonprofit benchmark
“I could never have told you that information before [without Virtuous]. It just wasn’t available.”
– Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
Cleaner data underneath all of it. The team member who imports gifts and sends acknowledgments now spends about 75% less time on the task and no longer creates duplicate records along the way. That reliability is what makes the reporting above worth trusting.
Getting Back to the Mission
When the CRM produces numbers you can trust, the hours once spent double-checking data go back to the work that actually moves the mission (even when your development team is small).
For Becca, that means getting out from behind the desk. Prickly Pear is community-minded and community-facing, and the time the team reclaims is time spent in front of the people who make the work possible.
“[Virtuous] allows us to focus on tasks like meeting with donors, working on fundraisers, and having the face-to-face time with our partners that we didn’t get as much of before.”
– Becca Dudek, Communications and Development Manager
The trust runs deep enough that the team no longer feels the need to check the system’s work.
“It’s nice knowing we don’t have to be here double-checking everything that Virtuous is producing. Because it’s already right.”
– Becca Dudek, Associate Development Director
The Versatility of Virtuous Raise
The product Sarah reaches for most is Virtuous Raise.
It is where she builds the donation, lead, and pop-up forms that power the team’s giving and sign-ups, and every one of them feeds straight into the CRM. When a supporter fills out a form, the data lands on their contact record and populates custom fields automatically, giving the team a clearer picture of who is signing up and who is giving than they have ever had. That detail is what now shapes their communications and development planning.
“The user experience [of Virtuous Raise] is excellent. It integrates seamlessly with Virtuous.”
– Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
The Verdict
When Sarah and Becca talk to other organizations weighing the same decision, the advice is direct. Staying put has a cost, and it compounds.
“Every day you stick with an old CRM that doesn’t work for you is a day lost.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
For a team their size, the return was not abstract. Virtuous did the work of people they did not have.
“[Virtuous is] really for us as valuable as one or two additional team members.”
– Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a migration to Virtuous actually take?
“Once the decision was made, the contract was signed, the whole process took just over three months, which in the world of nonprofits is very, very fast.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
You evaluated other systems. Why Virtuous?
“I looked closely at five CRMs. They were knowledgeable about our organization. They understood our strengths and challenges.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
What is support like in Virtuous once you’re live?
“Whenever we had problems, I could reach out to customer support and get an answer within hours, if not minutes.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
What kind of reporting can you get out of Virtuous CRM+?
“On one report, I can view how all of our campaigns are doing, how our communication segments are performing.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
Can the whole team work in Virtuous, or just the fundraisers?
“We’re all in the same tool, we speak the same language, we can hand off tasks seamlessly.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
Was Virtuous worth the investment?
“It has more than paid for itself. I mean, there’s no doubt that it was a worthwhile investment.”
— Sarah Ryan, Communications and Development Manager
