A $1.5 M/yr Christian non-profit provided education, training and resources to Christians, Churches and Para-Church organizations. They had invested a significant amount time and money to develop a comprehensive system. Over years the organization began to encounter financial challenges and they were forced to cut back from 30 staff to less than 15. As technology changed they were unable to keep up since their IT support was cut and or outsourced. This left them with legacy systems that were under utilized, rigid and difficult to learn while becoming more expensive to keep. I was asked to take a look at the situation and make recommendations. 

The Challenge:

• The first core system included an integrated Customer Relationship Management System, Content Management System (website), Event registration system and Donation Processing. The system was hosted by the vendor.
• The license and service plan cost $28k per year and it was going to increase to $36k per year once the agreement expired in 12 months.
• The website was very difficult to update and use based on 4 year old technology.
• Based on the terms agreed to 4 years earlier, there was no way to get out of the contract till the end of year 5.
• The second core system was a fund accounting software package. It was hosted locally and the version was no longer being supported by the vendor. The auditors had recommended a more simple program such as Quickbooks and a book keeping service had been contracted with but was not being used.
• The third system was order fulfillment. This was a cloud based system and most of the orders were entered on-line directly by the customer. 
• Reporting was difficult and often required contacting outside consultants to obtain the information needed.
• There were no in-house power users or experts on the systems.

The Solution:

• A new website was created using Word Press and various plug ins. The content was migrated from the old system to the new while minimizing the impact to search and customer experience.
• Upon researching multiple platforms and considering the requirements of the organization Sales Force non-profit starter pack (free CRM) was integrated with Pardot and Click & Pledge to provide an integrated core system at half the cost per year.
• The auditors recommendations were implemented and a book keeping service took over the accounting functions using Quickbooks (hosted by the service).
• After evaluating multiple options for fulfillment an agreement was negotiated with a Christian Book Distributor to handle all of the fulfillment. They provided a co-branded e-commerce site and purchased inventory from the non-profit at wholesale rates. This eliminated the need for an additional fulfillment system and greatly expanded the exposure of the resource center.  

The Results:

• Modernized website that was easy to update, change and keep current.
• Integrated system that saved over $10,000 per year and provided state of the art capabilities.
• Simplified accounting and reduced the labor required saving over $50,000 per year.
• Reduced inventory on hand by $75,000 and allowed the organization to move into a smaller office building.