The story:
For over 35 years, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver has brought people together to build homes, community and hope. They are part of an international non-profit organization that builds and sells homes to hardworking people. This important work revitalizes entire neighborhoods and communities, but it requires substantial support: this year, Habitat aims to raise $30 million over the next year to help build or rehabilitate 200 new homes, preserve homeownership for 100 more families and serve 200 additional families around the world.
In addition to financial donations, the organization relies on donations of appliances and furniture to help make newly-built houses into functional homes. As Habitat for Humanity became a famous organization nationwide, some local organizations became ‘victims of their own success’. Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver’s paper-based filing system that they had used for 10 years for scheduling donation pickups simply couldn’t keep up. “The number of phone calls just exceeded the capability of the system to respond effectively,” says Chief Retail Officer Ryan Smith. “Generous locals wanted to donate but we weren’t making it easy for them.”
As a non-profit organization, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver didn’t have the option of investing heavily in new staff and infrastructure to scale up their old system. Instead, they would have to become more efficient using a technology solution.
Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver began looking at scheduling and call center systems to help solve their problem. They were intent on finding a cost-effective, cloud-based, easy-to-use system. “Vonigo met all of our requirements,” Smith says.
They implemented Vonigo heading into a big season for donations and ever since, they've been pleased with the results.
The benefits:
Improved sales and donations without needing to add additional staff to their call center.
“Since we started using Vonigo, our donations have gone up 25 percent, our sales 35%, and earnings 40%.”
More efficient donation scheduling.
“Since we implemented online donation scheduling, we’ve seen that over 50 percent of all donation pickups are now scheduled online. That’s a better use of time than having to schedule over the phone with a member of our Call Center staff.”
More efficient allocation of human resources to focus on organizational priorities.
“Our Call Center staff can more effectively and efficiently manage our donations, trucks and schedule. They can do all that without needing to hire additional staff to manage the increase in donations.”