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Year End Donations Fund Running Water

Case STUDY

CRM Migration

Team PA

Accelerating economic growth through public-private partnership.

The Challenge

United Way of Greater Cincinnati (UWGC) is dedicated to helping families flourish. Guided by community voices and data-driven strategies, UWGC unites diverse stakeholders comprised of individuals and organizations to address issues holistically.

Their approach is multifaceted, encompassing proactive interventions, advocacy, and investment across three key pillars: educational advancement, financial resilience, and housing stability.

For decades, workplace or employee giving brought in more than 90 percent of UWGC’s annual revenue. However, post-Covid years saw a steep decline in funding, exposing a need for diversified revenue streams and greater donation opportunities.

Additionally, UWGC was looking to strengthen its relationship with Workplace Corporate Partners (large business entities whose employees are the workplace donors), but was unsure where to begin.

Their challenges prompted them to connect with CauseMic, seeking answers to questions like:

  • How can we diversify our revenue streams?
  • How do we develop a more unified message that can be leveraged across our fundraising campaigns?
  • How can we inspire and build trust with our existing donor base to increase their investment through annual and monthly giving
  • How can we improve ties with our Workplace Corporate Partners?

Our Solution

To answer UWGC’s questions and address their challenges:

  • We analyzed UWGC’s existing donor base—specifically donation frequency, level of giving, and affiliation parameters—to identify fundraising audiences for annual and monthly giving outside of workplace donors.
  • We conducted interviews with numerous UWGC philanthropic partners to determine opportunity gaps and any friction hindering more fruitful engagement. We found a notable lack of understanding regarding the exact nature of UWGC’s work, highlighting a need to clearly convey their efforts. Information materials were required to effectively communicate UWGC campaigns to employees and others.
  • We worked with UWGC to clearly define their unique value proposition to help clarify and distinguish their work for current and prospective supporters. This centered on their holistic approach toward addressing financial, educational, and housing issues to help families within the Greater Cincinnati area thrive.
  • For a more cohesive donor experience, we developed a comprehensive content planner and strategy calendar across UWGC’s campaigns. Content themes were rooted in UWGC’s newly defined value proposition and addressed their three core pillars.
  • To expand fundraising beyond workplace giving, we determined opportunities for donors to give directly to UWGC by creating easy-to-understand appeals and plain-speak messaging.

The Results

  • United Way of Greater Cincinnati now had a clearly actionable plan to diversify their revenue streams for workplace giving and beyond, including new strategies to build out their annual and monthly giving programs.
  • Along with insights from CauseMic-conducted partner interviews, UWGC utilized our research and analysis to cultivate solid relationships with existing and future Workplace Corporate Partners.

The Challenge

Team Pennsylvania (Team PA) is a statewide organization co-chaired by the Governor and a private sector leader, bringing together strategic investments and cross-sector collaboratives on specific issues to accelerate Pennsylvania’s economy. Together, they are able to strategically address cross-sector issues while creating equity and economic opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.

Team PA has some unique organizational needs that led to, unfortunately, a lot of spreadsheets and time-consuming manual work. Their existing CRM, Raiser’s Edge, just didn’t have the flexibility to handle the custom fields and reporting that they needed, leading to low adoption rates and a miscommunication between teams.

A crowd watches Team PA speakers

The folks at Team PA asked us to help them implement new software that would allow them to:

  1. Track their board nominations, evaluations, and selections. Team PA has 30-40 board members with a public nomination process and specific rules about term limits.
  2. Keep track of multi-year pledge payments. On the donor side, they wanted to track the amount(s) donated to date against the promised total. On the finance side, they wanted to have accurate projections of expected donations in years to come.
  3. Follow their constituents more effectively, keeping records of all their unique engagements with Team PA. 
  4. Organize records for their collaboratives, made up of public and private individuals brought together to address specific economic issues.
  5. Effectively recognize and communicate with major government and corporate donors.

Our Solutions

After meeting with Team PA to understand their organization’s unique workflow, needs, and challenges, we enacted the following solutions:

A new, versatile CRM system

We implemented HubSpot Sales Hub as their new CRM, transforming their Raiser’s Edge exports into HubSpot-useable data.

Modern donation platform

To integrate with HubSpot, we deployed Fundraise Up as their new donation platform.

Custom objects and templates

We built custom objects and provided import templates to facilitate the input of data related to pledge payments, and board and collaborative tracking.

Improved reporting

Our team designed a data model to facilitate financial reporting, including cash projections, pipeline management, and board give/get requirements.

Practical instruction

We provided hands-on training to allow them to leverage the new tools effectively and to increase adoption rates among staff.

Robotics

The Results

Equipped with HubSpot CRM, Team PA now has the ability to track and collaborate on their unique constituent records, easily access reporting, and manage their programs, board members, and pledged revenue. 

Since the implementation, we’ve been gratified to get updates from our contact at Team PA as he continues building out new workflows and processes in HubSpot, helping his team further automate and scale their internal processes. We love to hear it!

DigDeep email designs
DigDeep web designs

“Sometimes you need to know when to utilize outside resources like CauseMic, who are experts in these kinds of website migrations.”

Surfrider Foundation

Ruarri Serpa
Senior Technology Manager

“CauseMic managing timelines and deadlines was everything.”

Gus Gates
West Coast Regional Director

“Project management work from Franny was very helpful to not have to keep track of the entire project and dependencies.”

Ed Mazzarella
Senior Director of Network Strategy

“HubSpot CMS was a good selection to fit our needs.”

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Michelle Kremer
Chief Operating Officer

Testimonial

Over the last several months, our team had the privilege of working closely with CauseMic to design and implement a custom HubSpot platform tailored to our nonprofit’s unique needs.

From our very first conversation, it was clear that CauseMic wasn’t just offering a service—they were offering a partnership. Their team took the time to understand our goals, challenges, and workflows, ensuring that every aspect of the implementation process was thoughtful, strategic, and aligned with our vision.

​We were surprised and thrilled at the project management expertise of the CauseMic team. They guided us through each step of the buildout with clarity and precision, making what could have been a complex and overwhelming process feel seamless. Their ability to translate our needs into a system that not only works but works beautifully has been truly remarkable.

Beyond their technical proficiency, what stood out most was their genuine care for our success. CauseMic was incredibly responsive, proactive in problem-solving, and always willing to go the extra mile to make sure we felt confident and equipped to use HubSpot to its full potential. ​Beyond just setting up a system ​with us​, they empowered us to leverage it in ways that will help us grow, engage more effectively, and streamline our operations for years to come. 

We are so grateful to have had CauseMic as our partner in this process, and we would wholeheartedly recommend them to any nonprofit looking for a team that combines deep expertise with a true commitment to client success. Thank you, CauseMic, for your support, guidance, and dedication—you have made a lasting impact on our organization.”

– Tahirih Alia Zecharya, Vice President, People and Operations, Team Pennsylvania

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