Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services
When Regina Sheehan took over the job of Development Director at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCB), she needed to get up to speed fast. With more than 300 staff members, 10 locations and 4,000 clients served annually, development at GCB calls for a high level of professional ability. GCB provides extensive services to adults with severe mental illness in a three state area around Cincinnati. GCB is a FundRaiser Professional user.
Regina jumped right in using FundRaiser. Because campaign management is a big part of her job, one of the first things she did was to get comfortable using the Campaign Management module. Right now, she’s handling three campaigns with its help.
All the facts in one place
One of the most important features of the Campaign Management module is the summary section. It keeps all the facts of a campaign in one place. “It helps me with reporting on the status of our campaigns. It’s a quick place to get the information I need on the amount of money we’ve raised and the number of people that are involved,” says Regina. “It enables me to track all aspects of campaign fundraising from participants, to responses, to sponsorships.”
Help with planning
When a campaign starts, Regina opens up the Campaign Management console and sets it up so that she can easily access the facts she needs.
“We are in the beginning phases of the capital campaign. Today I was using the console to begin identifying prospective new donors.”
She has set up the new capital campaign as an “Event” in the Campaign Management module. Under that event, she sets up “Sub events.” Sub-events are any related event or category, which you want to track separately. For instance, an event as a capital campaign may have sub-events which are physical events, mail campaigns or even other subcategories that you want to track.
Examples of sub events are
- Physical events such as a banquet or golf tournament
- Mail campaigns such as an appeal or newsletter
- Special sub-categories that you want to track such as different types of donors
For instance, for their yearly special fundraising event called Champions of Hope, Regina has set up four sub-events:
- Silent Auction
- Ticket Sales
- Sponsorships
- Other donations
“They are all tracked as part of one Event in the Campaign Management module,” says Regina. That keeps them together so she can get a good overview or drill in for more details.
Easy reporting
Once an event is set up with related sub-events under it, reporting is simplified. “This is where I find the module so useful,” says Regina about the ability to designate sub-events under the main campaign. Sub-events make organizing and accessing key information simple.
For their new capital campaign, Regina has set up four sub-events that help her track giving from different types of donors.
- Board of Directors
- Individuals
- Corporations
- Foundations
“Then I can click on Individuals and see how many are there. I can do a quick report on how Board Members are giving, just by clicking on that sub event,” she says.
“The sub events help me keep tabs on things as the event moves along,” says Regina.
“If you are getting close to a time when the event is happening, you can click on sponsorships, for instance, and easily see how you are doing. Are you running behind? Then you can fix that in time.”
Keeping an eye on multiple campaigns
All in all, Regina tracks three main Events in the Campaign Management module each with their own separate sub events.
- Annual appeal
- Specialty event called Champions of Hope
- New Capital Campaign
Each of those Events has its own sub-events. That is the way that the data is organized for easy organization and reporting.
Getting up to Speed with Training
Regina has found the Campaign Management module quite intuitive. “I certainly want to take advantage of the whole program. This is one of the first things I learned. The training seminars have been very helpful. The trainer is very knowledgeable.
“It enables you to track most anything that you need to track. All aspects of fundraising from participants and responses and sponsorships It is a very valuable tool.”