The Challenge Facing Variety?
The team at Variety knew that their current IT system was getting in the way of their mission to improve the lives of disadvantaged children. Staff were spending hours every month reconciling data across multiple systems and dealing with the intricacies of Gift Aid. Inferior technology was also incredibly frustrating for the many volunteers who give their time to Variety.
Variety are committed to demonstrating that all the support they receive helps to improve a young life. Last year Variety provided 61 wheelchairs, 61 sunshine coaches and 126 grants for specialist equipment. As well as Great Days Out for kids, and funding for hospitals, hospices and youth clubs.
Variety receives donations through multiple income streams including events, regular giving, gifts in memoriam, legacies and wills, recycled goods, trusts and foundations and corporate supporters. This generates a lot of complicated data and potentially sensitive information to manage and report on about families, organisations and income.
How Technology Helped…
The focus for Variety was to find an “all-in-one” system that fully integrated their Finance and Fundraising functions. The system needed to be easy to use for staff, volunteers and donors alike. And it needed to deal with the intricacies of their reporting requirements, as well as their extensive programme needs. Just-DONATE was the solution they were looking for.
Just-DONATE is built using Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It’s a tried and tested system, already used by 110,000 companies worldwide, which has been further developed by Creative Computer Solutions with the charity and not-for-profit sector in mind. Just-DONATE allowed Variety to capture all of their data in one place, with simplified operational processes and greater control over their financials.
Just-DONATE provided a solution that allowed for financial accounting, including funds, projects, programme applications and Gift Aid. This was combined with fundraising tools for events, donor management and more. All in a Windows environment that was familiar and easy to use, so all of Variety’s stakeholders get a great experience with every interaction.
Measuring the Impact?
324 hours, or nearly 50 working days, saved every year!
- 20 hours a month saved reconciling data between the finance and the CRM system. That’s 240 hours every year.
- 7 hours a month saved identifying and reporting on Gift Aid donations. That’s 84 hours every year.
- Flexibility to add and cancel individual licenses on a monthly basis as the team size fluctuates.
- Easy to build queries that the whole team can now create for themselves.
- More time spent on the interesting work!
Linda Czuczman, Database Manager, Variety The Children’s Charity: “Working with Just-DONATE has made my job a lot more interesting. Previously, too much time was spent translating and reconciling between different systems. Now I can focus on building new reports and developing new features with Creative.”
At Creative we believe a technology strategy should always be driven by your charity’s mission. The very first question we ask is: What are you trying to achieve? If you would like a no obligation chat to find out more about Just-DONATE and how it could bring clarity to charity, simply call us on 01628 660600. We’d love to answer any questions, so please do get in touch.
