“The purchase of a new database was a significant investment for us and we had to be sure that what we got could not only fulfill our current requirements but was capable of growing with us" said D'Arcy Myers.

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Vision Aid Overseas is a UK charity dedicated to helping people in the developing world whose lives are blighted by poor eye sight, particularly in those cases where spectacles can help. The charity has ambitious plans to expand support in the UK to increase its activity overseas, and is streamlining its processes in order to become more operationally efficient. 

It recently identified a need for a new application to replace their existing systems and methods of storing information, and to support its ambitious growth strategies selected ProgressCRM. VAO knew that by centralising disparate databases, they would not only facilitate better internal communication and sharing of information, but they'd also provide better administrative support to their membership and fundraising operations.

"There were other advantages too", explained Deputy Director Jeremy Jalie, who also heads up fundraising and IT at VAO. "We've improved the reporting facilities, the production of management information and increased our income."

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Like many early social work initiatives in the United Kingdom, Aquila Way was born out of a passion of young Christians to help homeless young people in the Northeast of England. 

Aquila Way's Chief Executive Jo Grant said "As we grow, we recognised the need to manage our increasing number of contacts. We had all those involved with our projects, those people we help, our supporters and donors, volunteers, business partners and more."

The charity selected ProgressCRM not only to organise their contacts, but also to provide the central database for all the fundraising and financial management.

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Gary Hawkes joined Farleigh Hospice as the charity was about to launch the public phase of its major capital appeal for £6m for a new purpose built hospice. "At that time we had an old in-house database that was proving restrictive in terms of some of the fundraising we wanted to undertake.

"We'd been struggling with processes" explained Gary, "We did little direct mail, segmentation was a laborious process using spreadsheets, and it was difficult to allocate campaigns and donations to codes."

This case study looks at how ProgressCRM was able to streamline all the fundraising at the Hospice

Farleigh Hospice decided that a new database solution was needed to accurately cover its Light Up A Life campaign requirements, and trace fundraising trends, along with a more efficient general contact relationship management solution. The implementation of the ProgressCRM project was carried out in two phases, LUAL first and then general fundraising and customer relationship management.

Thrive is a national charity, founded in 1978, that makes use of gardening to change the lives of disabled people. Thrive is an excellent example of how a logical and strategic approach to data capture can result in more effective methods with better quality data and easier reporting.

Martin Rolfe, Database Manager at Thrive, explains the way in which they use Progress. "We started using Progress in 2002 following a review of our Alms database and a change of staff. The information in Alms was beginning to get untidy after the database manager left and I took on the role. Many of the problems were due to the way the system did not have a recognisable Windows interface and a lot of staff, including myself, were concerned that we would lose our data."

The Children's Trust is a national charity working with children who have multiple disabilities and complex health needs. They have around 75,000 records on Progress, 12 licences, and are using Progress to support their fundraising and management of events. 

Linda Trafford, Database Analyst at the charity explains the process they went though selecting a new database and why they chose Progress. "We were using a database that had about 50,000 records on it and wasn't satisfactorily meeting our needs. Only one person really knew how to use it and when you had the system open you couldn't have other programs open too. Also, everyone was operating their own spreadsheets which meant that we had mailing duplicates"

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families' Association (SSAFA) Forces Help is the leading national charity committed to helping and supporting those who serve in our Armed Forces, those who used to serve, and the families of both. Their legacy bespoke ‘Contact Management System' had long since not been able to offer the fundraisers enough functionality and performance, and SSAFA Forces Help chose Progress in 2003.

"Users had been updating records incorrectly, and we had a lot of inconsistencies" explained Database Administrator James Yankah-Ashun, "Our evolving business requirements and processes led to the need for a new database to replace our IBM AS400 bespoke database. "We needed a flexible system, and having looked around, we chose ProgressCRM for that flexibility"

The Soil Association is the UK's leading campaigning and certification organisation for organic food and farming. The membership-based charity is at the heart of the UK organic movement. The Association also pays tribute to the extraordinary generosity of an ever-growing number of individuals who have made donations.

Nicky Trussler is the Association's Database Development Manager. "We had so many different departments using lots of different databases," she explained. "We were using DOS-based Alms but it was no longer being supported. So we needed a new database to manage all our Contact management system; and many other areas like events, finance, and membership."

Sight Savers International is the UK's leading charity working to prevent and cure blindness in developing countries. The charity was ranked 33^rd in the latest CAF Charity Trends report in terms of total voluntary income, which was almost £22 million for the 2004 financial year. Over 80% of this is from Direct Marketing and Legacies. The charity relies heavily on individual donations from the public, from single cash donations to £3 per month regular gifts.

John Lister, Head of Direct Marketing at Sight Savers International says "Since it was installed in January 2001, Progress has been the backbone of our charity's income growth."