Better technology frees China Outreach Ministries
to focus more on their mission

For over 50 years, China Outreach Ministries has focused on sharing their
faith with the “future leaders of China.” What started out as a radio broadcast
transformed in the 1980s into a mission to reach Chinese students and
scholars in university communities across the United States.

Today, COM is focused on extending “God’s love and truth to visiting
students and scholars at North American universities.” As Director of
Development Kirk Zuercher explained, “We have seen that these Chinese
students have never been exposed to Christianity, so if they can learn about
it while in school, they can help spread the gospel when they return to
China as young professionals.”

COM staff work in a central office in Pennsylvania and on more than 55 university campuses across the United States. As COM’s ministry has grown, so have their needs for managing donations and donor relations. When the
system that they used for over a decade began to show its shortcomings, they recognized that it would ultimately hinder their ministry and not meet their needs.

COM’s previous software required the manual creation of a system for the campus missionaries to see their donors and their donations on a monthly basis. This consumed time and hindered their ability to build meaningful
relationships with their constituents. To focus on their mission, they sought a more advanced solution that would allow them to maintain a pulse on their donor relationships daily.

A Flexible Solution that Builds Relationships

COM needed a software solution to handle accounting functions from
their central office, while still allowing remote campus missionaries to add
notes and actions to build relationships with their donors. As they began
to explore various options, they quickly saw why Blackbaud cloud-based
solutions set the bar and found that Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge NXT, for
fundraising and relationship management, and Blackbaud Financial Edge
NXT, for fund accounting, would allow them to effectively manage donor
relations and all donations.

“As we began looking at different software packages out there, we got to
experience Blackbaud a little bit and knew that it was really leading the
industry, as far as we were concerned, and decided to switch,” Zuercher said.
Blackbaud solutions have been “a huge blessing” for both their campus
missionaries and their central finance team, Zuercher explained, allowing
all donations and accounting functions to be handled centrally in the
administrative office to ensure accuracy and compliance.

As a result, campus missionaries can view every donation and supporter
interaction in a single place. Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT allows them to
add notes for phone calls and personal follow-up actions—so they can
provide a quality and consistent supporter experience—while user-based
security roles prevent unwanted changes to critical donor information.
These personalized dashboards and security parameters were major
pluses that led COM to make the switch to Blackbaud products. They
knew leaving their previous system of 11 years would be a big change,
but it would be well worth it.

“I don’t think anybody would ever say that the (transition to new software)
is ever easy. But I will say that the process and training that Blackbaud had
laid out for us was very good, very thorough,” Zuercher said.
Even with a diverse team in terms of age, location, and technical ability,
the implementation of Blackbaud solutions has helped to rally COM
around their core vision of “Giving Christ to China’s future leaders.”
The staff has all given Zuercher positive feedback on the ease of
reporting and getting the information they need.

However, their mission goes beyond just impacting the Chinese students
at American universities, or even the people that the students will impact
in China. “It is also about how God is at work in the lives of our donors,”
Zuercher explained. “Blackbaud software solutions have enabled COM to
build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with our donors in
ways we never thought possible.”