Oklahoma City Community College Success Story
Oklahoma City Community College Funds for the Future with Sage Fundraising 50
Nonprofit Fundraising Software Success Story - Community College, Education Fund Raising
"I can’t imagine doing my job without Sage Fundraising 50. It’s definitely the best software I’ve seen for managing donor records and other fundraising tasks."
Martha Stone
Director of Development
City Community College Foundation
As the sixth fastest-growing community college in the nation, Oklahoma City
Community College (OCCC) faced an enviable dilemma. It wanted to build a new
library, and had benefactors ready to donate. But it had no 501(c)3 entity with
nonprofit status to serve as a building fund, and thus donations would not be
tax-deductible.
The college formed the Oklahoma City Community College Foundation in 1998 to meet this need, and searched for fundraising software that would let it track donations and produce appropriate receipts. "We did a thorough search of software packages on the market," explains Martha Stone, director of development. "We selected Sage Fundraising 50 because it offered all the features we required for 501(c)3 status, and at the same time fit within our budget."
Sage Fundraising 50 automates all aspects of fundraising operations for nonprofit groups like the Foundation, and integrates volunteer, membership, special events and proposal tracking capabilities. It lets organizations manage gifts and pledges for multiple campaigns, provide reports for all facets of development, consolidate and centralize mailing lists, and create detailed reports on diverse facets of the development process.
Sage Fundraising 50 is A-OK
The library was successfully constructed, and the Foundation is now using Sage Fundraising 50 to manage ongoing operations as well as new campaigns. This includes tracking and storing data on all donations, direct mail programs, proposals, donor records, gift amounts, addresses, emails and information on trustees.
"We use Sage Fundraising 50 for practically everything except government grants, which go directly to the school itself," says Stone. "We send appreciation letters with it, and maintain an extensive database. In the future, we plan to use it even more extensively, including prospecting for more major donors, and organizing a planned giving program."
Self-Contained Software
What does Stone like best about Sage Fundraising 50? "One of the greatest things is that it comes with everything you need built right into the software," she says.
"In most of the other packages, you have to purchase separate modules for specific tasks. But with Sage Fundraising 50, when we need to manage an event, for instance, we already have the tools within the software. Or if we wanted to track volunteers at some future date, we could do that as well, without having to add on to what we have."
Managing Direct Mail
Sage Fundraising 50 is used to run various direct mail campaigns at the Foundation. "We have a faculty and staff group that raises money for numerous Memorial Scholarships. We also have many other drives, such as the Lloyd and Marge Bartlett Memorial Endowment Scholarship and Business Lectureship Fund for business students. Sage Fundraising 50 helps us identify people who donated during the past year, and send renewal solicitations to them," says Stone.
Easy to Use
She also appreciates how quickly she learned the software, in part because of the intuitive interface that makes any piece of information just a mouse click away. "Sage Fundraising 50 is really user-friendly," Stone says. "I was able to figure out how to do most tasks without any training or prior knowledge of the system. And when I did actually go for training, it turned out I’d already taught myself almost everything in the first course."
Creating reports was simple, too. "When I came on board a year ago, the Foundation wasn’t using Sage Fundraising 50 much for reports," says Stone. "I learned how to produce very useful analyses with the software, reporting things like the history of corporate givers and detailing annual giving. Our trustees were very pleased."
Fund for the Future
The Foundation is working hard to live up to its motto, to be a "fund for the future." This includes collecting for general scholarships and a new performing arts center. With 22,000 students currently enrolled at OCCC and continued growth on the horizon, the Foundation is glad to be prepared with Sage Fundraising 50.
"I can’t imagine doing my job without Sage Fundraising 50," says Stone. "When you’re familiar with other software packages, you realize how much you get for your money with Sage Fundraising 50. It’s definitely the best software I’ve seen for managing donor records and other fundraising tasks."
For more information about Oklahoma City Community College, visit their web site: www.okccc.edu.
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