71% decrease in technology costs from $253,779 to $72,780
Increased donor engagement activity with personalized communication
Epilepsy Foundation
Since 1968, the Epilepsy Foundation has been helping families and individuals affected by epilepsy. This non-profit organization has positioned itself as a leader in the fight to overcome the challenges of living with epilepsy by leading initiatives to accelerate therapies, research cures, and improve lives. The organization has connected people to treatment, support, and resources with a nationwide network of 50 partners that aided in 600k+ people trained in first aid and seizure recognition and 125k+ individuals assisted through their 24/7 helpline. The Epilepsy Foundation and its partners and constituents have gathered and contributed a total investment of $86M+ in epilepsy research.
Challenge
Like many non-profit organizations, Epilepsy Foundation struggled with siloed data and technology, resulting in ineffective communication across different teams and stakeholders. The lack of integrated technologies affected their ability to work with crucial research data, communicate with their internal and external stakeholders, and collect outreach and advocacy insights.
Previously, Epilepsy Foundation personnel were responsible for manually exporting and importing contacts, messages, and donation data, reducing process efficiency and increasing the risk of errors. Their CRM and marketing-automation platform lacked technology integration requiring the fundraising team to manually export mailing lists to their CRM and import email campaign data into their marketing automation platform.
Solution
OBO came to help advise Epilepsy Foundation’s leaders on their business processes and recommend technology solutions. After much assessment, OBO found that Salesforce and Pardot would resolve the organization’s pain points. They revamped the organization’s entire process by replacing their previous cloud-based fundraising and CRM solution with Salesforce and Pardot. This change resulted in a 71% decrease in technology costs from $253,779 to $72,780. Chief Development Officer of Epilepsy Foundation, Geoff Delizzio, says, “OBO completely upended how we conducted business over the last 60 years, and for what? Yes, you guessed it, absolute perfection. We were happy in our blissful ignorance until OBO came along and shattered our antiquated worldview. How can one agency have such a deep and profound impact in such a short amount of time? They solved critical problems that we knew about, plus others we didn’t realize were lurking in the shadows. They know our operation as well, if not better than our staff. I can’t think about operating in a world without OBO by our side.”
With Salesforce and Pardot, Epilepsy Foundation leaves every benefactor a customized altruistic experience.
Every donor varies depending on what they can contribute based on their financial situation. Epilepsy Foundation wants to put forth that every donation is significantly appreciated, whether big or small. Empowering each benefactor by sending customized messaging is a priority, but their previous marketing automation system was holding them back from achieving this goal. With Salesforce and Pardot, Epilepsy Foundation could automatically integrate their marketing lists and place donors on their appropriate donor journeys. They were able to segment their donor types to give customized thank you’s and messages promptly, delighting donors and partners to raise more funds. Epilepsy Foundation increased its donor engagement activity by sending targeted, one-to-one communication. They were able to personalize their marketing communications regarding donors’ specific interests and engagement histories. Building and nurturing relationships are now more straightforward processes through Salesforce and Pardot, increasing engagement while leaving benefactors with an altruistic experience.