July 18, 2003
When Peninsula Players, a professional resident theater company in the North Woods of Wisconsin, decided to refurbish its entire property, it knew it was taking on a big job. The property includes a 69 year old theater as well as housing for the whole company during the summer season.
"We're anticipating entering into a large capital campaign. Before, we were using a database program of our own which kept pretty decent information, but I wanted to have a more sophisticated yet user-friendly donor software program," says Todd Schmidt, Executive Producer of Peninsula Players.
When Schmidt found that FundRaiser software could communicate with his ticket selling program, as well as manage his donor information, he bought it. "The ability for FundRaiser and WinTix to communicate was very appealing," says Schmidt.
"Frankly, I was looking at bigger software packages that were much more expensive. I felt that FundRaiser was user-friendly, affordable, and did everything that I needed it to do.
"FundRaiser gives us a lot more ability - to get husbands' and wives' names in, to be able to add a second address. Because we're in a resort community, a lot of our patrons summer here and winter somewhere else, so that's been great. We have the ability to set up what their formal name will be, and how we want letters to address them. It's just much more specific in utilizing the information in the database.
"We still have two different systems, WinTix for ticketing and FundRaiser for donor management, but because they are integrated, double entry time has been eliminated. I'm no longer concerned about losing donor names, or forgetting to acknowledge a donation.
"One of our missions is to do the best possible work we can and to provide artists with the support they need to do the best possible work."
FundRaiser Software does that, too, providing donor management that is user friendly, affordable, and has all the necessary tools.
return to Performing Arts FundRaiser Users page
Buck Creek Players Community Theatre
August 15, 2003
Scott Robinson of Buck Creek Players Community Theater is the kind of guy who steps up to the line when asked... then learns as he goes along!
"I recently started using FundRaiser Jr. Our past treasurer used to be in charge of that," but with changes in the company, "I took it on. The program is very user friendly for someone like me who has just jumped into this head first.
"When we had the transition between the ex-treasurer and myself, FundRaiser tech support was extremely helpful. I left a message when I knew they were closed and they called me back first thing in the morning. Everyone has made things a snap."
Easy is good. "We're all volunteer. We don't have an office staff," says Robinson. He, like other members of Buck Creek, is juggling many roles.
Along with the regular business of the play season, Buck Creek Players is also running a two year capital campaign to renovate their theater. They're doing well, with $10,000 just a few months into the drive. "We have FundRaiser set up so that thank-you letters are generated any time we receive sponsorships or donations. It's been wonderful.
"We just raised $1,000 doing a rummage sale. Anybody who wanted to put a price on the things they donated, to write off on their taxes, got a letter generated by FundRaiser.
"Buck Creek is a really nice theater. It's got a nice sense of family to it which is why I like doing things there", says Robinson. FundRaiser fits in well. It's user-friendly, and capable without a lot of fuss.
Buck Creek Players is an all volunteer theater group in Indianapolis, Indiana.
return to Performing Arts FundRaiser Users page
Center for Community Arts
September 10, 2003
The Center for Community Arts has big dreams, and they are determined to fulfill them.
Last year, "we got a lease from the City of Cape May on an old segregated school. We got it designated a New Jersey African-American Historic Site, " says Judy Austermiller, the Development Director for the Center.
Then earlier this year, "we finally got a large grant to hire an Executive Director. We're about seven years old, but we were an all-volunteer organization until then."
Now, they are in a $2 million capital campaign to restore the historic school for use as a community cultural center. "It's a big leap for what was a grass roots organization with a $50,000 budget. I knew that we needed to get quite sophisticated about our individual donor database. I wanted to be able to manage it from the get go, and manage it well. That's why we decided at this early stage to do something."
What she did was embark on a thorough review of the donor software options. "First I talked to the Development Director at a large arts organization here in town. She was in the process of making the decision on what new program they would use. She shared all her research with me, including the sample disks that she got. They ended up going with a $10,000 program. The other programs that were more in our price range were hard to play around with. They didn't have that intutive sense to them."
So she looked further. "I used to be on the board of another organization, the Highlander Center. The Development Director there had picked FundRaiser. I talked to her about her use of the program, and to the current person who is managing the database at Highlander. They loved it, and loved the tech support and found it simple to use; simple to tailor to their needs."
Also, Judy talked to Kim Klein from the Grass Roots Fundraising Journal. FundRaiser "was one of the ones that she said worked well for smaller non-profits, grass roots organizations."
She purchased FundRaiser Professional, and started using it at the Center. "I'm not someone who has learned a database program. Still, learning the program, very easy. "
Like many organizations, its office staff do most of the day-to-day work with the program. At the Center, Yvonne, their part-time office manager "really got it up and running even before I learned it," said Judy. "She's just been learning as she's been going. She's found it very easy and likes using the program."
For the most part, "we've really learned it ourselves." But when "we ran into a couple problems, I called and got plenty of help. I can't say enough about the accessibility of the tech person and the software developer."
FundRaiser Software is proud to have been choosen after such a thorough evaluation process. We strive at all times to live up to our promise-- to be an intuitive, powerful, affordable program, with the most responsive and knowledgeable staff around.
Center for Community Arts in Cape May, New Jersey, is a multicultural organization whose mission is to foster tolerance, inclusiveness, and creativity through the arts and humanities.
