Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens is eliminating hundreds of hours per year in data entry and creating transparency between volunteers and donors through VolunteerHub’s integration with Blackbaud’s Altru.
Founded in 1962, Birmingham Botanical Gardens has been a staple in the Birmingham, Alabama community for over 50 years. Since its inception, the Botanical Gardens have grown to a 67.5-acre oasis that provides the community with events, classes, camps, and educational seminars. The Gardens are open 365 days a year and is free to the public. Birmingham Botanical Gardens is the result of a partnership between the City of Birmingham and the nonprofit Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a mission-based membership organization focused on protecting, nurturing, and sharing the wonders of the garden.
Management, upkeep, and expansion would not be possible without the support of community partners, members, donors, staff, and volunteers. To reach its mission of inspiring a passion for plants, gardens, and the environment, Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens calls on the community to serve. Several types of volunteers provide time to Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, including core, special events, and corporate volunteer groups. On average, the Gardens utilize the support of 1600–1700 volunteers per year. Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens use volunteers to provide support in the gardens and greenhouses, offices and library, at special events, and within the education sector.
“Birmingham Botanical Gardens needs the support of members, volunteers, community partners, and donors to function. We would not be able to provide this resource to the community without their commitment,” said Alice Thompson Moore, Volunteer Coordinator for Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Integration Between Member, Donor, and Volunteer Data
Before investing and implementing VolunteerHub, the staff at Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens used a manual data-entry process to record and manage volunteer data. Unfortunately, this manual process was difficult to manage and replicate and did not provide the insights that the organization needed to connect the dots between members, donors, and volunteers.
Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens staff quickly realized that they needed software that would integrate with Blackbaud’s Altru, a solution they were already using to capture donor data. Out of all the solutions that the staff explored, VolunteerHub made the most strategic sense due to its True Integration with Blackbaud CRM’s including Altru.
After implementing VolunteerHub, the integration with Altru has proved to be a valuable strategic move. The integration helps the organization make better decisions, bridges the gap between members, donors, and volunteers, eliminates manual data entry, and provides an extra layer that can be used to build relationships. The integration between VolunteerHub and Altru also provides Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens staff with an outlet to analyze data, understand the motivation of individual supporters, and leverage information to create more strategic cross-promotion campaigns.
“The integration between VolunteerHub and Blackbaud’s Altru has saved our organization hundreds of hours per year. The marriage between the two platforms eliminates hours upon hours of data entry that was required before investing in software,” said Alice.
“Implementing VolunteerHub has allowed our organization to identify a strong relationship between members, donors, and volunteers without having to invest hundreds of hours in data entry and analysis,” said Alice.
Besides its valuable integration with Altru, VolunteerHub also provides Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens with other notable features including personalized communication, user groups, volunteer self-registration, reporting, and kiosk. These features, in conjunction with VolunteerHub’s integration with Blackbaud’s Altru, provide Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens with a streamlined solution for engaging, recruiting, and managing volunteers. Functionality that has helped the organization reach its goals and execute its mission.
“VolunteerHub provides a well-rounded solution to managing, engaging, and recruiting volunteers. The functionality of VolunteerHub has had a profound impact on our volunteer program and our ability to reach our mission,” said Alice
Ready to transform your organization’s volunteer program?
Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens is a great example of how the right volunteer management software can make all the difference in accomplishing a mission. VolunteerHub provides the features your organization needs to transform your volunteer program, including integration with industry-leading CRM solutions.
