Habitat for Humanity Success Story

For over 31 years, Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity has worked to provide housing in North Dakota and Minnesota. Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity works in partnership with local families, as well as donating to Habitat for Humanity International to build houses in impoverished nations.

Pete shares how:

• Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity integrated its donor and volunteer data
• They better understood their donor journey and improved donor relationships
• With DonorDock, they turned siloed data into actionable tasks

“When I first came to Habitat for Humanity, we had a really old database system, and it was really outdated. It was hard to navigate between donors and volunteers. So DonorDock helped us solve problems, really making a simple system for us to use.”

Siloed data slowed Habitat for Humanity down

Bogged down by an outdated donor database, Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity made the switch to an easy-to-use donor development tool. They saw big changes in the way they managed their donor data. It was a move that would not only simplify their operations but also change the way they related with their donor data.

With their old system, it was difficult to track if someone was a donor, a volunteer, or both. Because Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity did know how their donors were interacting with their nonprofit, they were unsure of how to interact with their donors.

Simplicity opens the door for better donor relationships

While the previous system had made navigating donor and volunteer data clunky, DonorDock transformed a complex system into an approachable database. Now, understanding who was a donor or a volunteer became easy to do. With knowledge about their constituents, Habitat better understood how people were interacting with their nonprofit. This revolution in simplicity allowed them to map the journeys of donors turned volunteers, and vice versa.

"It's really easy to track our donors, and track when they're volunteers and donors, which is a problem that we had before."

When Habitat understood the journey of their donors, they could better appeal to new donors. As a faith-based organization, connections run deep for Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity. Because, as people, we tend to spend time with others who have similar values to us, it made sense for Habitat to reach out to current donors’ circles. DonorDock provided a much-needed lens into their donors' church and workplace affiliations, showing potential partnerships.

"We're a big faith-based organization, so it's really nice to be able to see what churches they go to if they belong to a church and where they work. We get a lot of corporate volunteers out there too, so those connections are really good for us."

Corporate volunteers added another important piece to their nonprofit puzzle. The ties between donors and the corporate world added to their growth. And DonorDock made it easy to see these connections.

Turning data into donor stories

With volunteers integrated into their donor database, the roughly thousand volunteers a year changed from mere numbers into stories. Habitat for Humanity saw how volunteers went from first-timers to repeat volunteers. And, in some cases, they even became cherished donors!

"We're just starting to implement our volunteers into our donor database. We get about a thousand volunteers every year and it's really nice to see their progress from being a first-time volunteer into multiple volunteer times and then eventually into a donor as well."

Resource constraints no longer a barrier to excellence

Designed with small to medium nonprofits in mind, DonorDock keeps its costs accessible. And, the interface is simple enough that anyone can learn it while also meeting the needs of nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity.

"You know, we're not a huge organization and we only have one resource development person. So it's really affordable. It works really well for what we use it for."

Setup for success

Implementing DonorDock has been an important piece to Lake Agassiz Habitat for Humanity’s success. This success prompted them to become advocates of DonorDock. They found themselves sharing their experiences with other nonprofits and different Habitat for Humanity affiliates.

"I absolutely would recommend DonorDock and have recommended DonorDock to not only organizations within our community, but around the country, different Habitat affiliates. I think it works really well for our organization."

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