Seminoles United: How a Consolidated Advancement System

Conversion Project Led to Enhanced Stewardship Efforts and an

Integrated Web Presence

Jeanne M. Pecha, CIO, Florida State University Foundation

Wendy Jaccard, Senior Consultant, Blackbaud, Inc.

How did we corral 4 organizations into

collaborating on a complex conversion project?

� Examine business requirements used to consolidate

information

� Provide an overview of the infrastructure

� Which led to improved online outreach

• Improved web-based reporting

• an integrated online presence

• enhanced stewardship

The Florida State University

� Carnegie Foundation designation as Doctoral/Research

University Extensive

� One of the oldest (1851) one of the largest (40,000

students) of the 11 public, 4-yr higher education

institutions in the State University System of Florida

� Florida State College for Women until 1947

� Direct Support Organizations (DSO) – Seminole

Boosters, Alumni Association, John & Mabel Ringling

Museum (Sarasota, FL), and FSU Foundation

Project Overview

� Brought together four distinct, separate functional units:

• FSU Foundation

• Alumni Association

• Seminole Boosters

• Ringling Museum

� Replaced 3 legacy CRM systems

• Re-implemented Ringling’s Raiser’s Edge system

� Replaced 4 legacy financial/accounting systems

� New implementation of FSU alumni online community

� Replaced and greatly enhanced a data warehouse

� New implementation of web/CRM/financial

system/warehouse integration

Dealing with the Users – Business Requirements� Everyone had a clear picture of end result/goal.

• Desired qualities, functions, attributes (sometimes refined during design)

• Understood the difference between critical items versus “nice-to-haves”

• Everyone knew the go-live date, why, what that meant to the

process.

• Is the goal to have something sooner rather than later, or can you wait until

more functionality is built out?

• Can help in decision-making and prioritizing, relegating items to phase 2 or

later implementation

• Design team members empowered to make decisions, process for

“bumping up” questions and getting answers swift and efficient.

• Process not dragged out by fear of making decisions, having to ask the

opinion of too many people

• Everyone understood the ground rules

• We are doing virtually NO customizing

• We have a deadline and core functionality we are working on

• You will cooperate (vs. “be dysfunctional, it’s okay”)

Examining existing processes with the users

� What are all the pieces, phases, players involved?

WHY?

• The Inescapable - Legal or institutional rules, regulations,

requirements

• The Desirable - Industry standards

• The Changeable - Current or legacy system functionality

• The Delicate - Staff/talent/bias issues

• The Ugly - Entrenched rules or practices

• The Comical/Really Ugly - “We have no idea”

• Hash out what was critical versus what was just “there”.

Discussing desired goal and result

� What /who will be the pieces, parts and players

involved?

• The Goal - End results/goals

• The Good - Information/data that will make the process work

• The Inescapable - Legal and institutional rules/requirements

• The Desirable - Industry standards

• The Delicate - Staff/talent

• The Changed - New system functionality

• The pieces don’t have to all fit the same way they did before for the

end result to be the same (or better).

(Re)building

� Took into account all factors from above.

� Designed to the norm, not the 5% exception (or this

project would never end).

� Coordinated with members of the team who understood

associated business processes and software

functionality (didn’t build in a silo or vacuum).

� Had to be creative (particularly because we had sworn

off customizations)!

Review

� Wrote it out. Showed screenshots. Gave demos.• Sometimes hard for people to visualize that the goal can be met without

going through the exact same set of steps as before.

• Especially if building a brand new process, seeing something describing it or

demonstrating it will help people understand and feel comfortable.

� Solicited feedback and make changes where necessary. • Sometimes we missed something.

• People change their minds (it happens).

• We made it more complicated that it needed to be (that happens, too).

• What looked great on paper doesn’t always flow as well as you thought when

you do it.

• Everybody/somebody/nobody-is-naming-names forgot a crucial element.

Testing (Software version of “measure twice, cut

once”)

� Test, test, test.

• Is the process working as designed? Is it working as required?

(Those are not necessarily the same thing.)

� Made changes as necessary.

� Tested again.

Things to consider

• Plan, plan, plan, but expect that the unexpected will happen. Be willing to

be flexible, make changes as you go along.

• Keep the integrity of what you are trying to accomplish and who you are,

but don’t hold on to useless “baggage”/processes/data. Know the

difference between “unique” and “special”.

• Examine existing business processes. Don’t expect to move existing

processes wholesale into a new environment.

• For the future, reexamine business processes periodically after the

implementation is done to keep outmoded, redundant practices from

creeping in or hanging on.

Why it worked

� FSU set very clear goals internally regarding

expectations for the project.

� Collaboration across departments, very little “turf

defending”

� FSU was “all in”. Positive about the experience, no

second-guessing, no negativity. Process of selection

handled well internally.

� FSU saw itself as a partner with Blackbaud. Approached

project with attitude of trust (but verify); they accepted

responsibility, were accountable, were flexible, worked

hard. Expected the same from us as a vendor.

FSU Advancement Systems:

From a Technology Perspective

� Blackbaud applications are light years ahead of

what we had

� All the DSOs were Microsoft-based so it was a

good fit

� Built upon commonly-used technologies

� Finally have the ability to effectively report

� Integrated solution really works for us

� Gave us the platform to build for the future

Overview of the Technical Infrastructure

� Highly integrated with Foundation’s Windows Active

Directory

� Leverage the Campus LDAP and FSU ID management

tools

� Tapped into MS SQL Server Environment

� Fully utilize Blackbaud’s API and programming

environment

� Vastly expanded data warehouse

� Working on CAS authentication for single sign-on from

within Blackboard and all campus apps

MS Reporting Services - Reporting Tool of Choice

for Us

� Included in the MS SQL Server product

• Which saved us $

� Web-based on external site from advancement system

• Which saved us $ on Raiser’s Edge licenses

MS Reporting Services - Reporting Tool of Choice

for Us

� Reporting tool of choice for next generation of

Blackbaud apps

� Utilize ‘magic’ web part

• Report Viewer – render Reporting Services report from within NetCommunity

How We Leveraged the New Technology

� Improved Online Outreach

• Web-based reporting

• Integrated online presence between DSOs

• Enhanced stewardship reports

• Incorporate Web 2.0 where we could

� Target Audiences

• Campus community

• Alumni, donors, and friends

Online Outreach: Campus Community

� What we had…

• Web-based fund reports

• Refreshed monthly

• Limited in the amount of information distributed

• Created and hosted by the University

• So old that no one left at the university who could maintain

• Cost the University money (CPU cycles on the mainframe) so they

were eager to get us off their systems

• Development/Stewardship reports

• Weekly Gifts Report

• Printed out and manually collated

• Distributed via campus mail

• Extremely labor intensive

Online Outreach: Campus Community

� What we needed…• Improvement!!

• Re-develop using modern day technology

• Timely and accurate access information

• Be mindful to the ‘sensitivities’ of the Dean’s and Department Chairs

• Institute a granular level of security

Fund Reports

� Balance Sheet

� Income Statement

� Detailed Spendable Income and Endowed Principal

Transaction Reports

� Fund Profile

� Authorized Funds Listing

� Custom Security – at the fund level. Only authorized

signatures can see their funds

Custom Security Macro

� In FE, link user account to authorized fund(s)

� Could be individual funds, by department, or by college

� Department or College are recorded as fund attributes

� Integrated with Windows Active Directory

Development Reports

� Weekly New Gifts

� Weekly Gift Adjustments

� In Memoriam by College

� Real-time Online Donations

� Endowed Fund Activity

� Alumni Association Memberships

� Alumni Association Appeal Analysis

� E-blast Summary Report

Development Reports cont’d

� Gift Summary and Detail Reports

• By any date slice

• By DSO

• By Unit/College

• By gift type

• By Fund

• Drill down to donor

� Custom Security – at the College level for detailed

information

A Look Ahead… Campaign Reporting

� Drill-thru Campaign Pyramid

� Really tap into business intelligence

� Further develop our warehouse environment

� Data Model to ensure fundraising analytics can be

measured and reported

� Dashboards, Leader boards, KPIs

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Strategic BI:

�Stacked Charts �Balanced Scorecard �Daily Key Performance Indicators(KPIs) Results

�Historical Context �Organizational Performance �Drilldown:Leaderboards and Year of Year Details

Strategic BI – Executive Dashboard

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Tactical BI – Measure Results

Tactical BI:

�For Any Measure �Peer deeper into the daily operations of the organization

�Historical Context �Year over Year Trend Analysis allows for more efficient application of resources

Online Outreach: Alumni, Donors, and Friends

� What we had…

• 3 public websites that all looked completely different

• Alumni Association had an online alumni community

• Harris Connect

• Updates were not getting back to legacy advancement system

• End users didn’t care for the application

• Boosters had a web portal

• Application developed locally

• Mainly used for collecting payments and sending out eblasts

• Foundation did not have an online community

Online Outreach: Alumni, Donor, and Friends

� What we needed…

• They know us as FSU not by the individual organizations so…

• Create an integrated web presence between each DSO

• Streamline our communication efforts

• Make it easy for them!

• Make it easy for us – integrate with advancement system

Online Outreach: Alumni, Donor, and Friends

� Integrated web presence for all DSOs

� Outcome: oneFSU

Insert oneFSU page

oneFSU – How Did the Concept Come

About?

By Accident

NetCommunity

o Part of the project where we had the least initial

discussions during the discovery phase

o The software, NetCommunity, was sort of ‘throw in’ at

the last minute

o Foundation needed a web portal for its stewardship

efforts

o FSU team didn’t fully understand the software yet

o Kept thinking we would have three different sites – just

on one platform

o Things got interesting once we realized we could have

three public sites but only ONE place to ‘go’ behind the

login

o This forced us to shift our thinking in terms of how are

we going to integrate our unique presences and

processes

Technical Infrastructure Dictated the Initial

Integration Concept

Timing Is Everything

o Focus on the first half of the project was on Raiser’s Edge

and Financial Edge

o First design session for NetCommunity was held XX months

into the project

• An advantage here was that the FSU team had had the

chance to develop into a more collaborative unit

• The ideal of creating ‘one system’ was being realized

Public Websites

� The Foundation, Seminole Boosters, and Alumni

Association redesigned their public websites

� Similar look and feel but had to convey the uniqueness

of each organization

� Consistent Navigation

� Focus on ‘Call to Action’

� One graphic designer worked on design templates

What Happens Once One Logs In?

� oneFSU landing page

� Branding Gateway – cross promote

� Take advantage of targeted content

• Renew versus Join

• Focus Groups

� Make it easy for someone pay, update, or register

Streamline Efforts

� Improved Communication Efforts

• “Organized” E-blast communications

� Strategic marketing efforts• Consolidated End of Year appeals

• Cross promote initiatives

� Coordinated regional events

Endowed Fund Stewardship Reports

� What we had…

• Provided once a year

• By the time the donor received the report the information was 5-6

months old

• Only a portion of our donors received the report

• Tremendous amount of staff-hours spent in creating these reports

Endowed Fund Stewardship Reports

� What we needed…• Timely access to accurate information

• Provide more than just once a year

• A process where development of report could automated

• Staff resources were already constrained

• Include all donors to endowed funds

• Tailor the reports to the requests of the donor

Enhanced Endowed Fund Stewardship Reports

� In addition to the hard copy report that is still sent out

once a year…

� Reports are delivered via oneFSU

� Updated on a quarterly basis timed with our investment

returns

� New report available the day after returns are posted in

FE

� Several types of reports created

Enhanced Endowed Fund Stewardship Reports

� Added Push to Contribute

• Developed custom donation web part used to accepts additional gifts

or make pledge payments towards the Endowed Fund

Web 2.0 and Social Networking

� During the implementation project the concept of social

networking was changing

� By the time we hit go-live most everyone was

somewhere else

� Forced us to look at oneFSU and ask: What do we want

it do? What does it offer? Where did that leave us?

Where do we focus oneFSU?

� Transactional activities

� Targeted Content

� Stewardship reports

� College Build-outs

� Alumni social network

Web 2.0 and Social Networking

� What we had…

• Nothing

� What we needed…

• We didn’t know

• We still aren’t sure

� What we think…

• We will go to them

oneFSU Facebook App

� We knew we didn’t want to compete with Facebook

� We still want alumni/donor data

� Develop a ‘hook’ so that the Colleges could interact with

their donors but we could still have an opportunity to

grab the data

� Let the University, Colleges and DSOs drive the viral

marketing effort

Measures of Success

� Web-based Reporting: Highly visible at the University,

strong support for our efforts

� Integrated Web Presence: Uptick in online donations,

memberships, user registrations

� Enhanced Endowed Fund Stewardship Reports: Positive

feedback from donors, positive ROI, reduced staff hours

to complete

� oneFSU app: Colleges are enthusiastic. A little too

early to tell. We shall see…

Ultimate Guide To Success

� Have a plan but…

� Know that the unexpected may happen and face these

new challenges with:

• Flexibility

• Creativity

• Confidence

� oneFSU came to be because instead of concentrating on

how the software and functionality didn’t meet

expectations and being discouraged, FSU decided to

rethink the whole approach and created business

processes and designs from a new perspective.

� The unexpected result was even better than they could

have originally imagined.