Overview

Miracle Hill Ministries streamlines operations, reduces manual data entry, ensures accurate reporting with Blackbaud software.

Miracle Hill Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that has served the upstate of South Carolina for over 80 years, has become the largest provider of homeless services in the state. However, as its donor base expanded, it faced significant hurdles, such as inefficiencies in database cleanliness, tracking donor interactions, and generating accurate reports, with its previous outdated donor management systems.

Recognizing the need for modernization, Miracle Hill turned to Blackbaud for comprehensive software for fundraising and relationship management and fund accounting. The organization adopted Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT and Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT to overhaul its donor management and financial operations. This strategic move streamlined their processes and provided valuable insights to enhance their fundraising efforts.

Streamlining Operations and Enhancing Efficiency

The integration of Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT significantly transformed Miracle Hill’s operations, streamlining processes and enhancing overall efficiency. The centralized work center became a comprehensive information hub for fundraisers, consolidating critical donor data and offering daily snapshots of key fundraising metrics such as the number of donors, gifts, and the total dollars raised.

“We started out with basic gift entry and receipt management in an outdated database view and as our donor base expanded, it became clear that our systems couldn’t keep up, leading to excessive manual data entry and cumbersome report generation. Blackbaud’s software changed all that,” said Means.

By reducing the gift entry staff from two to one, Miracle Hill achieved significant cost savings. “The seamless integration of Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT lets us generate reports and access donor information quickly, turning hours of work into minutes,” Means added. “We reduced administrative burdens and ensured data accuracy, allowing us to focus on our mission more.”

Additionally, Miracle Hill has been able to create a strong connection between fundraising and finance by leveraging the integration power of Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT. The teams have been able to get everyone on the same page, sharing the right data and providing better visibility from funding to disbursement. For the first time, the staff has a comprehensive suite of tools that allows the foundation to perform their jobs more easily and strategically.

Leveraging Built-in Predictive Analytics for Fundraising

One of the standout features of Raiser’s Edge NXT was Prospect Insights, an artificial intelligence tool that provides modeled predictions of their constituents’ capacity and likelihood to give. “Prospect Insights provides an incredible amount of information,” said Means. “It helps us identify major donors and track their interactions, which is crucial for our fundraising efforts.”

Generating predictions based on past giving and comprehensive third-party constituent data, Prospect Insights helped Miracle Hill identify and prioritize their best prospects for major giving. The tool automatically organizes noteworthy constituents into prioritized lists with recommendations to either assign them to a major gift portfolio, unassign them, or evaluate their current giving level for upgrade potential. This holistic view of donor capacity and affinity has allowed Miracle Hill to optimize its fundraising strategies effectively.

Looking Toward the Future with JustGiving

Looking ahead, Miracle Hill is expanding its use of Blackbaud solutions by implementing JustGiving for peer-to-peer fundraising. This addition will address two key areas, memorial gifts and its annual Kids Ninja Challenge event. The integration of JustGiving with Raiser’s Edge NXT will provide seamless data flow, enhancing Miracle Hill’s ability to manage these specialized fundraising efforts efficiently.

Miracle Hill plans to create dedicated JustGiving pages for memorial gifts for each memorial. This will streamline the organization and acknowledgment of these gifts, significantly reducing the administrative workload. Donors can easily contribute by providing a specific page for each memorial, and Miracle Hill can efficiently track and manage these donations.

For the annual Kids’ Ninja event, a significant fundraiser, Miracle Hill will use JustGiving to allow participants to create individual fundraising pages. This approach will empower young fundraisers and simplify the tracking and managing of event-related donations. Participants can personalize their pages, encouraging more engagement and support from their networks fostering a sense of inclusivity and engagement among the audience.

By leveraging integrated Blackbaud software, Miracle Hill has transformed its fundraising and financial operations. The organization has significantly improved efficiency, donor management, and strategic fundraising, allowing them to focus more resources on their core mission of serving the community in upstate South Carolina.