Case study: Fundraising Institute Salesforce - Membership & events

The Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) had been struggling with out-dated systems that were unable to manage a complex and varied membership structure. In addition there were regular issues with members booking onto events, something that is a core part of the organisation’s mission and had become a major and very visible problem.

Between May and July 2011, appiChar Australia started the upgrade process of the FIA’s backend management systems from iMIS to Salesforce.com to manage their membership of Australian fundraisers. At the same time the FIA had a new website developed by not-for-profit web specialists, Fat Beehive so a close partnership was essential during the development.
The key requirements were that the system:

• Was easily capable of managing a complex membership structure including renewals
• Could be fully integrated into the FIA website
• Would manage event and conference including logistics
• Was able to allow members to book events and access the correct pricing based on the type of membership
• Would process payments, send out receipts and integrate with financial systems
• Enabled email marketing to members and partners
• Was easy to use, scalable, flexible and accessible over the internet

About the FIA

The FIA exists to make the world a better place by advancing professional fundraising through:

• advocacy of standards
• professional development pathways
• measurable credentials.

FIA’s primary purpose is to ensure its members can achieve best practice, and to reassure the community of the integrity of the sector.

FIA has taken a lead role in developing non-statutory regulation of fundraising in Australia to support the rights of donors who make gifts, to establish a code of conduct for fundraisers and to guide fundraisers in ethical and professional practice.

Since its establishment in 1972 (originally under the banner of ‘The Australasian Institute of Fundraising’), the FIA has had a profound impact on effecting increasing professionalism in fundraising.

Now, more than any time in its history, the Institute is taking a lead role in the future direction of the Third Sector. Never before has there been greater emphasis on the need for professional development in fundraising, and advocacy on behalf of the fundraisers and organisations represented by the FIA.

More information can be found on www.fia.org.au

Implementation Overview

appiChar started working closely with the FIA in early 2011 to scope out the requirements for the new system so that a design document could be produced agreed by all key stakeholders.

Not-for-profit web development specialists, Fat Beehive, were selected to work with appiChar and the FIA to create a new website with the required integrations into Salesforce.

The project was to be completed in stages looking at the most crucial areas first, most importantly the membership renewals. Once that aspect was complete and live, the next stage would be to allow events to be booked online and completely managed internally through Salesforce. Solution Overview FIA are now starting to benefit from the amazing Salesforce platform. Members are able to renew and manage memberships online and events are now available to be booked and managed through Salesforce.
Some of the keys areas now in place include:

• Salesforce.com has been configured to handle FIA’s complex membership processes including allowing for the three different membership types:
  
  • Organisational – this is where the organisation is a member and an individual is allocated a membership as a result;
  • Individual – this is where an individual is a member;
  • Multiple – occurs when more than one person from the same organisation are members.
• Members are now able to update some of their details through the FIA website including the ability for Organisational members to alter identified linked members as employees change - Dashboards to monitor all membership and other activities at a glance
• FIA staff can now easily set up event details (date, venue, times, pricing, CPD Points, RSVP) and session information (speaker bio, session brief). Approval process can also now be put in place before events are opened for registration
• Salesforce.com can now help promote events by enabling FIA staff to track the various promotional methods such as email marketing
• Payments are now processed either via the website for online bookings, or through a credit card processing module in Salesforce.com for offline bookings
• Automatic email notifications are now sent to all event attendees prior to the event. This notification can contain whatever elements from the event record and the contact record that is required, including a Google maps link to the venue address.
• The system produces control reports on a daily basis for all activities with tasks created to alert staff to issues such as failed credit card payments

The system is still in its early days but is just at the start of a journey that over the coming years will completely change how the FIA operates and communicates with its members.

FIA Operations Manager Judy Powell says “The impact was immediate with a dramatic reduction in back office transaction processing by staff freeing them to perform analytic review of the process and provide value add services to members.”

FIA CEO Chris McMillan says “This is an exciting phase of growth for FIA. The functionality will provide for a future platform to develop online professional development products which will serve our members well.”

For more information about appiChar Australia visit www.appichar.com, follow us at http://twitter.com/appicharaus

For more information on Fat Beehive visit http://www.fatbeehive.com.au

For more information about the FIA visit http://www.fia.org.au