Constituent Relationship Management | News

U Sciences Applies Sage Millennium To Woo Donors

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/13/12

The United States' oldest pharmacy school has gone public with its implementation of software for managing its relationships with 14,000 alumni. The University of the Sciences, based in Philadelphia, began using Sage Millenium from Sage North America in August 2010 to maintain connections with constituents through the use of relationship trees and a more comprehensive donor database and to provide more timely data for trustees. The school's endowment was about $154 million in June 2011.

Sage Millenium provides functions for managing events, campaigns, online giving, and memberships and also does reporting and analysis.

About three years ago, the university learned that it would have to either convert platforms with its existing alumni application or switch vendors. Working with a consultant, the school formed a committee of people from multiple business offices--the registrar, development, IT, and finance--to evaluate alternative programs. Said Necie Steward, director of advancement services, Sage Millennium was the winner based on functionality and cost.

"[The] Visual Analyzer module allows us to pull all the data our board of trustees needs to see in real-time through the live system," she explained. "Our board members love that module. Previously, we had to print reports prior to board meetings, and by the time the meeting started, the information in the reports was already outdated."

Gift officers have seen an improvement in the quantity of data entered from a contact standpoint, she noted. "All our users benefit from the relationship trees, because they can see how everything links together. Our old software couldn't give us access to that level of information. Our gift officers also appreciate Sage Millennium's user-friendly interface."

Virginia Commonwealth University also uses Millennium.