Aiuto Bambini Betlemme chose CiviCRM for better communication with their donors across Italy
Since 2005, Aiuto Bambini Betlemme has been working in Italy to help Palestinian children. This cause is one of the most supported activities throughout the country, and in order to manage it smoothly, the organisation has already been using CiviCRM for some years.
Located in Verona, the organisation has supporters and activities all across Italy. Aiuto Bambini Betlemme was established to sustain and promote the work of the Caritas Baby Hospital of Bethlehem, the only specialised paediatric hospital in Palestine where mothers can receive training in childcare.
Additionally, the organisation creates and implements projects to support ill and socially disadvantaged children, mothers and their families in the Holy Land. The main goal is to build bridges of solidarity and mutual understanding between Palestinians and Israelis.
Challenge
The organisation needed a unique tool that would help them better track their donations and communicate better with their supporters: receipts, thank-you letters, personalised emails, newsletter options and physical mailing.
Interview
We asked the team a few questions to understand their approach to using the open-source software as well as the benefits and difficulties they encountered afterward.
D – What were the specific needs of Aiuto Bambini Betlemme that made you consider CiviCRM?
R – We already had a management system, but we also needed to keep track of donations, send thank-you letters, mailings and newsletter options; in short, we needed software that was better suited for the Third Sector (non-profit organisations).
D – What were the differences to the previous tool and what are the current advantages?
R – The previous software was very technical and less intuitive. With CiviCRM we manage to do the same things in fewer steps – for example, using filters for finding donations or relationships between the contacts, which is definitely very useful. Of course, the more complete and up-to-date the database is, the easier it is to use CiviCRM.
D – How do you send out thank-you letters and what are the advantages of using CiviCRM?
R – The main strength is simplicity, once you understand how to work with the system…
D – Aiuto Bambini Betlemme also uses CiviCRM for newsletters and mailing. I would like you to explain further how you use these features and ways you have adopted them for your needs.
R – Sending out newsletters is simple and intuitive; once you have created groups, it is also easy to decide who to send them to or exclude. You can check open rates to monitor progress of each mailing and use the insights to guide future communications. As for postal mailing, the only function we use is data extraction to pass the contacts on to the supplier.
D – Since you started using CiviCRM, are there any modules you feel the need to explore further?
R – Yes, definitely how to extract data to do analysis of KPIs.
Solution
The organisation has now been using CiviCRM for some years and points out that the software contributed to an improvement of workflows. Communication with their supporters is definitely easier and more efficient.
