For fifteen years, the Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) has been working to bring Arizonans together to build a bright future for the state.
In 2020, CFA was housing their data on Salesforce, but due to recent staff changes the platform wasn’t being used effectively. American Philanthropic partnered with CFA to determine how CFA wanted to use Salesforce going forward and what they needed to get there.
The engagement began with a discovery meeting in which we built on our initial database discussions in order to identify what had and had not worked in CFA’s efforts to manage and organize their data. We also discussed some features that CFA wanted to see in a fully operational database. Following the discovery meeting, we conducted a full audit of CFA’s database. As part of the audit, we looked at every major object of their system, including Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Reports, and Activities, among others. In order to formulate best recommendations, we also reviewed their current data and system usage in light of their expressed wish list.
The entire engagement took less than a month from first discovery meeting to final delivered product. At the end of that time, we provided a 22-page audit with written recommendations and visual examples.
As a result of our work, CFA now has a comprehensive workplan of best practices, recommended improvements, and detailed notes on how best to customize their database for the most effective use in a development department. We even outlined how to build a complete custom object for tracking foundation grants, which is a very important part of their development program and was a specific request during the discovery meeting. The audit was formatted in such a way that they can make the changes themselves, or they can work with American Philanthropic to prioritize and implement them.
American Philanthropic is registered as fundraising counsel or as a fundraising consultancy in all states that require such registration. This means that we are not “fundraisers”: we do not ask people for money on our clients’ behalf, make personal introductions, make phone calls, or otherwise have direct personal contact with your donors or donor prospects. We tee you up to do those things, and to do them more effectively, by advising you, coaching you, and providing the services outlined in this proposal. Our goal is to help you build your development program so that it becomes stronger and more sustainable, and to put you in position to build your own strong, personal relationships with funders.