For nonprofits, processing individual donor payments can feel like death by a thousand cuts. The time and labour involved limits the ability of a nonprofit to focus on doing good work and making a difference.
In 2016, Christina Herancourt and co-founder CJ Brooks realized this challenge. They saw that there were lots of options for businesses to access software platforms to operate their business efficiently, but noticed a gap in these platforms tailored for nonprofits. They wanted to help nonprofits process payments faster and more effectively using the powerful combination of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Azure.
Based in Toronto, Canada, MISSION CRM launched the first version of their donor management and fundraising system with a small but mighty team of developers in 2018.
Challenge
Nonprofits can’t rely on product sales or services for income like typical businesses. To be successful, they need to develop recurring revenue. Generating recurring revenue helps them keep the lights on and continue with their mission-driven work.
MISSION CRM wanted their nonprofit clients to be able to process recurring transactions without a hitch, in person or virtually, no matter what existing payment platform they used. They just needed to find the right partner. As it happened, it was one of MISSION CRM’s clients, Right To Play, who introduced iATS Payments by Deluxe to them.
Christina couldn’t believe how well iATS understood the needs and challenges of nonprofits. It gave her peace of mind when she saw iATS walk clients through the transition to MISSION CRM’s system. “They gracefully navigated the transition process with a deep appreciation of the importance of doing it on time so that monthly donations for our clients continue dependably,” said Christina Herancourt, President at MISSION CRM.
Solution
Christina believes technology should serve strategy. If the right technology is in place for nonprofits, it can free them to develop their strategy to support their cause. The partnership of MISSION CRM and iATS exemplifies just that.
“The ability to have a ‘set it and forget it’ system for recurring donations is a game changer. Forget about manual entries bogging you down. Our system using iATS Payments creates ease,” said Christina Herancourt, President at MISSION CRM. “And when you have a systemic, repeatable process, you have the time and ability to grow.”
For example, it traditionally would take one full-time employee at Right To Play to manually upload just over 100 payments from individual donors. Working as a client of MISSION CRM, with access to iATS, Right to Play was able to automatically process over 3,000 individual donor payments within their system. This automation freed the employee from manual uploading duties, and allowed them to instead build relationships with individual donors and communicate once the gift has been received.
This automated processing made collecting donations much smoother for Right to Play. When things haven’t gone as smoothly, the team has felt fully supported. “We know if any issues come up we can call iATS and find out what happened right away,” said Nicole Hurst, Right to Play’s Senior Manager, Philanthropy Systems. “After working with iATS for several years, we’ve been talking to the same people who are always so supportive, clear and helpful. They really care and the level of service is unparalleled in the industry,”
Today, Right to Play helps over 2.35 million children across 15 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. They are adamant that they would not have been able to reach this level of success if they were still manually entering those donation payments. iATS, through MISSION CRM, has been instrumental in their ability to grow.
Results
The reliability and service from iATS Payments for MISSION CRM has helped them grow from a small start-up to a team of twenty-one today, with the company launching version three of their system in Spring 2021. This growth has enabled them to help more of their clients.
Supporting MISSION CRM’s clients was even more important once the pandemic hit the world. Many nonprofits relied on in-person events or door-to-door donation collection. That all came abruptly crashing to a halt with the restrictions of the pandemic. Thankfully, for Right To Play, they were set up with MISSION CRM and iATS already integrated so the biggest challenge was figuring out what they could offer to encourage donations.
Right To Play typically held a gala as one of their main donation events. After the pandemic, they got creative and developed an online Quiz Night. The concept was like a pub quiz night with teams competing against each other from the comfort of their homes. It's been a huge success and they wouldn’t have been able to do it if they didn’t have these systems in place. “if we weren’t using iATS this last year during the pandemic, it would not have been a pretty picture,” said Right to Play’s Senior Manager, Philanthropy Systems, Nicole Hurst. In fact, Right To Play saw an increase of 24% in their ability to support children globally.
Christina Herancourt, President at MISSION CRM says “iATS speaks the language of nonprofits and not every payment processor can pick up the phone and understand the unique needs of nonprofits so well. Our partnership with iATS gives me the peace of mind knowing our clients are in good hands.”
Support Center