Rapid Response Handling
When an international humanitarian crisis happens, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is always standing ready to respond through its large scale fundraising appeals. Woods Valldata are one of their vital partners in ensuring they urgently raise the money they need.
Goal
The DEC brings together 15 leading aid agencies to raise funds quickly and efficiently at times of crisis overseas, and their work has immediate impact, getting aid to people who need it fast; appeals turn around in a matter of days, and they need partners they can trust to respond immediately when the call is made, with Woods Valldata having been a valued extension of their team since 2010.
Success
- A 15+ year partnership built on trust
- Turn around times with campaign set-ups within hours of briefing
- Handle in excess of 26,000 postal donations per appeal
- Year-round supporter services function to help manage in-bound calls
- Teams that take the initiative to make it happen faster
Our Approach
Audit
With no way to forecast income for an emergency appeal, Woods Valldata need to have the experience, flexibility and capacity to manage the set-up and operations of each campaign as it lands. They act as an extension of the DEC team and when news breaks of a new crisis, Woods Valldata are immediately preparing the way to help handle the responses before the DEC even brief it in. By utilising the DEC Online Tool Kit they are able to obtain much of the information needed for set up with minimal intervention.
Implementation
Immediate income
Processing postal donations and those received through supporter services or via third party feeds, can start immediately. This means there’s no delay between a supporter making a donation and that donation arriving in the DEC bank account to be utilised.
Full visibility
All postal donations are scanned and saved in SmartView, providing everyone with secure access an immediate window into the supporter record for query handling and enquiries. Response volumes and values are automatically uploaded into the Woods Valldata data analytics tool, DAT, providing DEC an up-to-date viewpoint into how the appeal is performing.
Smart Thanking
Thanking is print on demand via SmartThank. This provides DEC with the option to create multiple thanking variables, such as Gift Aid, with only one letter set up saving time and money. Plus, printing on demand means there’s no need to wait for stock to arrive and be managed.
Positive supporter experience
Although the work they orchestrate is huge, the DEC team is relatively small. They work with trusted partners, like the Woods Valldata Supporter Services team, to act as an extension of their fundraising function, facilitating 150 – 200 supporter enquiries a year and ensuring a positive supporter experience.
Continuous Improvement
Woods Valldata fully understand the needs of the DEC. They are determined to make the response handling and fulfilment operations of every appeal as fast, accurate and efficient as possible and regularly review ways to improve the process. Recent improvements have included:
- Migrating the DEC onto a more agile system removing the need for IT development thereby speeding up turnaround from 3 days to 3 hours.
- Introduction of SmartThank reducing the time and cost of multiple letter set-ups.
- Changing payment gateway providing ongoing flexibility in donation payment processing.
Whatever your requirements we are sure to be able to help
What our client had to say
“We’re a small team, and because we launch on such a scale nationally, we rely heavily on partners such as Woods Valldata to give us the support we need.”
Adam Bailey, Head of Fundraising Operations, DEC
“The Woods Valldata team are clued up. If they see a big natural disaster or a crisis unfolding like in the Middle East, they send us a message to say they’ve already started working on it. That’s really great because it gives us a head start.”
Adam Bailey, Head of Fundraising Operations, DEC
“Woods Valldata are dynamic and flexible enough to pivot quickly when there’s a global crisis. We go from naught to one hundred miles an hour very quickly – and Woods Valldata are there for us.”
Adam Bailey, Head of Fundraising Operations, DEC
“I would definitely recommend Woods Valldata. They feel like an extension of our team. Their expertise, understanding and knowledge of the charity sector is second to none.”
Adam Bailey, Head of Fundraising Operations, DEC
