Non-profit serves housing needs by organizing volunteers and material donations.
Skip Brown leads a non-profit organization called Freedom Builders in Traverse City, MI. They’re rebuilding homes from the inside out for people who can’t afford it. As we all know, when there’s a hole in the roof and winter is coming on, you don’t have a lot of time to get it fixed.
This organization uses ACT! to orchestrate volunteer labor. Each person in the database is referenced by the skills they have: from electrical or plumbing down to “can swing a hammer.” They’re also organized by what times they typically are available to help out. It’s fantastic opportunity management.
Freedom Builders also uses ACT! to track donors, send emails out through ACT! E-Marketing, regarding golf outings or other fundraisers and tracks open rates to gauge how well those fundraisers will be attended.
The greatest thing is when someone from the board calls with a project. Somebody needs that hole in the roof fixed, and it looks like rain. Can we get shingles and a crew and have it done by this Saturday? Without ACT, you’d think this sort of request would soon overwhelm him, but within a few seconds, Skip comes back on the phone. “Yes, we can get it done.” And the board member wonders – how did he know so quickly that it was feasible? Remember when he asked the board to approve the purchase of the ACT CRM System!? Well, that’s how. The information is so easy to access that he knows whether he has someone on board to donate shingles or tell him if he can find four roofers to come help on Saturday.
New volunteers coming into the system can be sent a survey to determine what their skills are. Can you install carpet? Can you paint? The survey uploads this information into the system automatically, and the volunteer force grows naturally.
Compelling value: It’s exciting to me to see people getting help this way and to know that someone’s child is warm at night because volunteers can be tapped at a moment’s notice. It helps me sleep at night! What would you like to be able to access at a moment’s notice – something ACT! could do that would help you sleep at night too?
