Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga Saves $1000s with Online Booking and Self-Scheduling

In just the first few months, Habitat for Humanity of Halton-Mississauga, Ontario has saved thousands in costs with online booking and expects to save 10s of thousands more this year.

Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore retail chain is a social enterprise that engages their communities to donate building materials that the stores resell. The funds raised in the stores are used to fund building projects for needy families in the local communities and abroad.

In Halton-Mississauga, the ReStore has been open for 19 years. A wide variety of donors and customers keep the location going strong. “It’s a broad spectrum of newcomers to contractors and everything in between,” says Senior Manager of Logistics Chris Bava. “They benefit from an affordable shopping experience as well serve their community’s need of housing, through a very friendly and easy-to-use process.”

Online Booking and Self-Scheduling Saves Time and Money

Chris’ ReStore location wanted to speed up their tax receipt process and switch as many customers as they could to self-scheduling. They chose Vonigo’s non-profit donation pick-up software to help them add some automation to their process.

Now, Chris says, three-quarters of all pickups start with their online booking forms. This saves them loads of time and money.

“It saves us about $3500 a year in postage for tax receipt forms, as now we email tax receipts,” says Chris. “It has saved us $10k a year in salaries due to automated scheduling. As well I would say another $10k in time gained due to communication. The driver can upload info of the pickups themselves, and not have to talk to the warehouse receiver.”

A Quick and Easy Process for Donors and the ReStore Team

“It’s self-scheduling,” explains Chris. The donors confirm the date and time, which helps. Our scheduling team reviews and communicate any changes, then our driver shows up and completes the service. Our warehouse team processes the donations, and then the donor’s tax receipt arrives within 30 days.”

Not Just Savings, But Customer Satisfaction

“A third of all of our donors are self-scheduling,” says Chris. So it’s cut a third of our scheduling and staffing costs. It has also improved donor satisfaction. We did a survey, and 98% of donors said that we have made donating ‘very easy.’ I attribute that to our staff, to Vonigo, and to the flow of self-scheduling.”

More Automation to Come

“We are looking in the future to engage with Evo for payment services,” adds Chris. “For our donors to get quotes online and pay online for our services. We are also looking to engage in Vonigo’s drop-off service.”

Try Non-Profit Donation Pickup Software for your ReStore or Non-Profit Retail Location

Want to learn more about non-profit donation pickup software can help your location? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.