Friends of Cheakamus
As many of you know, the 5th principal of engagement organizing is tracking everything! This is often seen as the most complicated and intensive step towards increasing outreach, but is very valuable.
We recently spoke with Sarah Bainbridge of the Cheakamus Centre in Squamish, BC. A few months ago, they implemented Salesforce, a large database used separately by Nature Canada and many other organizations. During the summer, as part of their 50th Anniversary activities, they implemented the database as a way to streamline processes to enable them to focus more on relationship building and reduce time managing data.
The best news – it worked! They have more volunteers, members, and supporters than ever. They are fortunate enough to have a diverse community of supporters who volunteer time, contribute materials and services, and donate money and Salesforce enables them to track these activities, plan campaigns, and report results. They have learned the value of a database — it is not just a way to store contact information, but a way to improve relationships and support emerging leaders.
The database has been especially helpful in their ‘Friends of Cheakamus’ membership program. By housing and structuring data in a way that is easily accessible to the team, they are now able to consolidate their members’ information and track involvement in volunteering and event activities, which gives a sense of what their members are most interested in and helps to inform program planning and campaign development. Through reporting features it is also easy to see what resonates with their community and monitor and build upon contribution patterns.
For those that would like to implement a database, but are intimidated by the process, Sarah recommends to compile all of your lists, review the accuracy of the data, and ensure it is formatted uniformly before implementing the software.
It is clear that Sarah and Cathy’s hard work at the Cheakamus Centre has paid off. Are you ready to take the next step? Please reach out to us for support!
Photo taken by Sarah Bainbridge.