Streamlined technology partnership helps
nonprofit save countless hours.

Founded in 1962, Birmingham Botanical Gardens has been a staple in the
Birmingham, Alabama, community for over 50 years. Since its inception,
the Botanical Gardens has served as a 67.5-acre oasis that provides the
community with events, classes, camps, and educational seminars. The
Gardens is open 365 days a year and is free to the public. Birmingham
Botanical Gardens is the result of a partnership between the City of
Birmingham and the nonprofit Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a
mission-based membership organization focused on protecting, nurturing,
and sharing the wonders of the Gardens.

Management, upkeep, and enhancements would not be possible without
the support of community partners, members, donors, staff, and volunteers.
In order to reach its mission of inspiring a passion for plants, gardens, and
the environment, Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens calls on the
community to serve. Several types of volunteers provide time to Friends of
Birmingham Botanical Gardens including core, special events, and corporate
volunteer groups. On average, the Gardens utilize the support of 1,600 to
1,700 volunteers per year. Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens uses
volunteers to provide support in the gardens and greenhouses, offices and
library, at special events, and within the education sector.

Integration Between Member, Donor, and
Volunteer Data

Prior to investing and implementing VolunteerHub, the staff at Friends
of Birmingham Botanical Gardens used a manual data-entry process to
record and manage volunteer data. Unfortunately, this manual process was
difficult to manage and replicate and did not provide the insights that the
organization needed to connect the dots between members, donors,
and volunteers.

Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens staff quickly realized that they
needed software that would integrate with Blackbaud Altru, Blackbaud’s
comprehensive ticketing, fundraising, and membership management
software that they were already using to capture donor data. Out of all the
solutions that the staff explored, VolunteerHub made the most strategic
sense due to its true integration with Blackbaud solutions, including
Blackbaud Altru.

The integration helps the organization make better decisions, bridge the
gap between members, donors, and volunteers, eliminate manual data entry,
and provides an extra layer that can be used to build relationships. The
integration between VolunteerHub and Blackbaud Altru is also providing
Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens staff with an outlet to analyze data,
understand the motivation of individual supporters, and leverage information
to create more strategic cross-promotion campaigns.

Besides its valuable integration with Blackbaud Altru, VolunteerHub is also
providing Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens with other notable
features including personalized communication, user groups, volunteer
self-registration, reporting, and kiosks. These features provide Friends of
Birmingham Botanical Gardens with a streamlined solution for engaging,
recruiting, and managing volunteers that has helped the organization reach
its goals and execute its mission.