Shriners Children’s Improves Data Management and Reporting Efficiency with Blackbaud CRM  

Shriners Children’s, a renowned healthcare organization with 19 hospitals across the United States, has always been dedicated to providing exceptional care to children in need, regardless of their families’ ability to pay. However, managing donor interactions and fundraising efforts across such a vast network posed significant challenges. That’s why they chose to adopt Blackbaud CRM, a powerful enterprise-scale fundraising management system. 

“We previously relied on various processes systems that were often clunky and inefficient, which made it challenging to manage donor interactions and track fundraising efforts effectively,” said Beth Inman, senior director, prospect and donor research. “Blackbaud CRM was the right software for us due to its high level of customization and flexibility. It allows us to easily create and manipulate queries, generate detailed reports, and track donor interactions and referrals efficiently. Additionally, the support from Blackbaud and Shriners Children’s staff developers made it easier for us to implement and adapt it to improve our workflow and data management.” 

Enhancing Donor Management

One of the significant projects undertaken by the prospect research & management (PRM) team was to make their donor management more proactive. They started by tracking recent donors, analyzing their giving patterns, and identifying if their gifts were unrestricted or supporting a specific hospital. This level of detail was crucial because each hospital has different focuses, such as burn units or prosthetics and orthotics. 

With the help of Blackbaud developers, Shriners Children’s went from using inconvenient Excel reports to the advanced interaction attributes within Blackbaud CRM. This change improved their ability to assign, track, and report on referrals and other interactions, allowing for consistent and accurate reporting while saving time and reducing errors. “Blackbaud CRM provides fundraisers with easy access to their data, enabling them to focus on their core tasks without getting bogged down by administrative work,” said Inman.  

The team also developed a new way to track referrals, which included creating referral categories and subcategories in the interaction for trip planning, portfolio building, and other key activities. Blackbaud CRM allowed them to generate detailed reports on the types of leads, where they were sent, and how long it took to complete them. The fundraisers now had access to these reports, making it easier for them to manage and follow up on leads. 

“We can now easily generate detailed reports on donor interactions with the improved reporting capabilities of Blackbaud CRM,” said Inman. “These reports provide insights into donor behavior, which are crucial for strategic decision-making and help our team be more proactive.”  

Inman highlighted two of the new reports that were created, one for portfolio reviews and another for plan and opportunity reports, which have saved a significant amount of time for fundraisers. She shared that feedback from fundraisers has been fantastic, and that she received a message from a senior director at one of their hospitals expressing gratitude for “how the PRM team has used Blackbaud CRM to transform the way Shriners Children’s manages data and provides their leadership with valuable insights into their fundraising efforts.” 

Improving Fundraising Outcomes

Since implementing the new processes for assigning referrals generated by the PRM team, Inman partnered with the planned giving team to incorporate their referrals into her team’s process. Combining these two areas’ leads means the fundraisers go to one place in Blackbaud CRM to review and document follow up on their referrals. This saves them time and helps to eliminate the confusion of referrals being assigned in different ways.  

Additionally, from Inman’s perspective, she can pull one report and provide data on both prospect research and planned giving referrals. Having a centralized data set in Blackbaud CRM for fundraisers to access both teams’ leads helps the fundraisers follow up with and engage more donors with the goal of increasing their giving and/or giving via a different vehicle. 

“We plan to continue refining our use of Blackbaud CRM and look forward to even greater efficiencies and improved fundraising outcomes in the future,” said Inman.