Located in Bend, Oregon, the High Desert Museum has been connecting visitors to the history, cultures, art, and environment of the High Desert since 1982. With more than 130 acres and 10,000 feet of immersive exhibit space, the Museum is consistently ranked as Tripadvisor’s top attraction in Central Oregon.

But as the Museum’s growth accelerated, its legacy systems became increasingly unable to keep pace.

The Museum operated on Blackbaud’s Altru product, which required extensive manual workarounds and only provided limited visibility across departments. It was nearly impossible to manage constituent, membership, fundraising, and ticketing data within a single platform.

Compounding the issue, the Museum faced a hard deadline: the expiration of its Blackbaud contract and a mandatory two-year contract extension after that deadline. The Museum had only six months to evaluate alternatives, choose a new platform, migrate critical functionality, and train staff before the contract termination date, all without disrupting day-to-day operations.

To meet the Museum’s needs and timeline, we had to quickly answer four critical questions:

1. How can we implement a scalable platform that supports the Museum’s growth and improves the supporter experience, however they engage?
2. How can we migrate to that solution before the Museum’s Blackbaud contract expires without interrupting business continuity?
3. How can we unite ticketing, membership, fundraising, and education program data within a single, user-friendly platform?
4. How can we build marketing automations and reduce manual processes to improve efficiency across departments?