By integrating and automating using the Boomi platform, the New South Wales (NSW) arm of Australia’s leading cancer charity is finding new fundraising opportunities.
“From patient support, to research and retail, we offer so many services across NSW, making it critical to have the right building blocks in place to maintain visibility across our operations,” said Cancer Council NSW Chief Information Officer Frances Waterford in a press statement.
Cloud-based iPaaS
The cancer charity provides services that improve the quality of life of those affected, combined with research that aims to lessen the risk of cancer and increase survival. As part of its strategy to become a fully-digital, cloud-first organization, the not-for-profit (NFP) dedicated recent technology investments to ensuring the efficiency and timelines of information, creating 360-degree visibility of its digital assets, and paving the way to enhanced employee and supporter experiences.
Fundamental to achieving its ambitions was the need for digital cohesion and scalability, leading to the decision to integrate its formerly-disparate IT environment using Boomi’s integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS), allowing business units to work more strategically and less administratively.
“By leveraging the Boomi platform to integrate our business-critical applications, we have not just removed barriers between our teams, but established a foundation through which we can use real-time data to better understand our constituents, comprising supporters, volunteers, and clients. This level of intelligence has shaped informed decision-making as we continue to transform our services for those stakeholders,” Waterford said.
Cancer Council used Boomi’s cloud-based iPaaS to link Dynamics CRM with peer-to-peer donation platform Funraisin, fundraising tool Evergiving, project management platform JIRA, and billing software Zuora. With these applications now connected, Cancer Council NSW can trust data is consistent, accurate, and always up to date.
Waterford also said that the company’s digital strategy played an important part in maintaining operations once the COVID-19 pandemic reached Australian shores. Once face-to-face interactions became limited almost overnight, along with broader challenges like an increasingly-cashless society, Cancer Council was at risk of losing one of its main revenue sources. In fact, around 60 per cent of charity fundraisers have gone virtual in the last year, with 47 per cent choosing to invest in digital donation outlets.
Funding for new digital heights
The integration transformation of the cancer charity went live one month after the local COVID-19 outbreak, with parts of the implementation completed remotely once employees needed to work from home. This equipped the charity with real-time intelligence to respond rapidly to changing conditions, all while adjusting to new workplace policies.
“When our annual campaign Daffodil Day hit our calendars, the thought of losing our annual flagship event was a challenging reality. But with the Boomi platform in place, we now had the resiliency to quickly pivot our fundraising tools and methods, in a brand new, socially distant way,” Waterford said.
Shifted off the streets and fitted into a new online model, Cancer Council took Daffodil Day to new digital heights, raising up to $500,000 thanks to donors embracing the online experience.
Boomi Managing Director Australia and New Zealand Nicholas Lambrou said NFPs have been exposed to a unique set of challenges in the wake of COVID-19, with as many as 72 per cent of Australian charities reporting an overall decline due to the impact on community fundraising and events.
“Throughout the last year, Australian not-for-profits have seen existing, daily obstacles amplified by restrictions that have eliminated fundamental face-to-face interactions; those designed for both community engagement and fundraising. With an integrated digital environment providing granular data visibility to transform the constituent experience, Cancer Council NSW has been able to reshape its business model to create more meaningful interactions, while combating the industry-wide revenue decline,” Lambrou said.
