Constituent Relationship Management | News

2 Institutions Adopt New Constituent Relationship Management Platform

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/11/13

Two institutions have gone public with their adoption of new systems for fundraising database management. The University of Georgia in Athens moved off of Ascend, which was implemented in 1995 and is no longer supported by the vendor, and onto Blackbaud's CRM for constituent management. The new application went live formally in July 2013.

During the same period, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was moving away from Advise, its legacy CRM system, and onto Blackbaud's software as well, which it has renamed as Davie (Database for Advancing our Vision of Institutional Excellence).

Branded as GAIL, Giving and Alumni Information Link, the Web-based system in use by U Georgia is intended to streamline the fundraising function for all schools, colleges and units in the university. It consolidates data generated through annual and capital giving, gift planning, major giving, and related activities that traditionally have been stored in multiple locations.

"Blackbaud CRM will allow us to organize information that will help us build ongoing relationships with alumni, donors, students and friends," said Derek Clark, U Georgia's project coordinator for the new system and director of Advancement Services in the Division of External Affairs. "The enterprise-wide solution will be an efficient system that will improve workflow. "

Users can access the functionality of GAIL through mobile devices. "This new alumni and donor database system will greatly enhance the university's fundraising capabilities and will play a critical role during the years of our comprehensive campaign and beyond," added Tom Landrum, vice president for development and alumni relations.

Blackbaud CRM is also in use at Ohio State, University of Michigan, and Yale University, among others.