Sander Joziasse is operations manager at Christ's Hope Netherlands and works with 9 other employees and volunteers. The countries where Christ's Hope provides aid are mainly located south of the Sahara, where the AIDS problem is most severe. Christ's Hope International works in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. The Dutch organization primarily works with Kenya and Tanzania.
At the time, I was under the impression that Procurios only developed websites, but that wasn't true at all. Procurios does much more than just that!
The link to Procurios
Sander: "Around 2013, Procurios helped us create several websites for various projects we were organizing. We are very grateful to them for this. At that time, a volunteer was working for us as a nurse in Kenya, and she knew Jos well." One of these projects revolved around donating food packages to people who are sick and have no income. Through this project's website, donors could 'buy' a food package, the nurse would purchase the products and distribute them.
"And a long time later," says Sander, "I spoke with Jos during the Fundraising Professional Day, and he told me that Procurios had developed a platform specifically for fundraising organizations. At the time, I was under the impression that Procurios only developed websites, but that wasn't true at all. Procurios does much more than just that."
From separate files to an integrated platform from Procurios
"About 1.5 years ago, we decided that things needed to change. At the time, we were still working with Excel files, and it was time to choose something different." They realized they needed to find a better solution for, among other things, their administration, contact with their relations, and gift administration.
During the Fundraising Professional Day, Christ's Hope came into contact with various suppliers on the exhibition floor. Sander: "Often your eye is first drawn to an attractive price. The packages aren't very expensive to purchase, but for the complete product and useful extras, you often end up paying more. In the end, the price in combination with the composition of the package must primarily fit your organization. This was the case with Procurios. After that, we had good conversations with Martijn, Sales Consultant, and based on the previous collaboration with Procurios regarding those projects with food packages and such, we decided to continue working with Procurios."
The switch to Procurios
Christ's Hope uses Procurios. This solution includes products such as CMS (website management), Communities, CRM, Donations, and Mailings. Sander indicates that the organization uses almost all products of the platform. When you start with such a process (the transition from, for example, separate files to an integrated all-in-one platform), it's difficult to get a clear picture of what you really need as an organization. Together with the implementation consultant from team /Fundraising at Procurios, you take inventory and discover what is important, necessary, and useful.
I am very happy with the software because we have started communicating much more in a segmented way to specific groups.
Segmented communications
"We are still learning in the use of the platform, that takes time. But I am very happy with the software," Sander indicates. "Because we have started communicating much more in a segmented way to specific groups. We recently had a cycling event where 16 cyclists rode 150 km in Limburg. They all asked their network to sponsor them. We were able to set this up very well on the backend of the website by creating 16 campaigns (the number of cyclists). This way, we can clearly see on the platform how much money has been raised per campaign.
"But what's also great is that we can easily email the people who have donated to a campaign thanks to the connection between CRM and Donations, with messages like: 'The cycling tour starts tomorrow, thank you for your donation, etc.'. This has really improved our communication significantly."
Previously, Christ's Hope handled this communication from separate files and thus not with connected systems. As a result, they had to manually transfer a lot of data from one system to another. Now that they are using the Procurios CRM, they can also monitor the contact, as they can track the history of contact moments. "People with certain engagement levels connect more quickly and easily after a mailing when they have previously participated in a campaign. We can also see this better with the new platform. As a result, we have much more control over the movements of our contacts."
Working together with Procurios
"I am happy with the collaboration between Procurios and us," says Sander. "You need to get to know each other and find the right way in how Procurios works and how we work ourselves, but that went very well. We first received a test version to practice with. When we didn't understand something well, we were well supported by Procurios' consultants. Sometimes it took some searching, but I could always turn to you."
"You need to have some understanding of the system, and you explained that well to us. And it's becoming clearer and clearer. It's a matter of trying and practicing."
It makes your work easier to manage everything from one platform. Now I think: we should have done this sooner.
Would you recommend Procurios to others?
"Absolutely! I'm thinking of organizations similar to ours. It makes your work easier to manage everything from one platform. Now I think: we should have done this sooner, because it helps us so much in our work."
