Source: Blogs.Microsoft.com
The USS Midway Museum is preparing to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2024 and is making plans for their largest capital campaign in the organization’s history. They have chosen Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit and MISSION CRM to modernize their systems and processes.
The museum evaluated their current technology solutions and identified an opportunity for improvement. They operate two separate IT systems: one for managing volunteers and another for managing monetary donors.
“A patron would give us a cash gift and I would pull up a record and have no idea the relationship they had with our organization. Yes, maybe they gave a $5,000 cash donation, but they’ve also been volunteering every Saturday for the last 18 years. It was just impossible to know,” says Midway Foundation president Laura White.
White says the USS Midway Museum is looking for a “fresh start,” which is why they have recently chosen the Microsoft platform and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit for their donor and volunteer management needs. With Fundraising and Engagement built on Dynamics 365 Sales, together with Volunteer Management and Volunteer Engagement, the organization can work off a common platform instead of multiple solutions.
“It’s kind of a dream for fundraisers and for those of us that are building different relationships throughout the ship to be able to know that a person is a member, a donor, a prospect for a campaign, a volunteer AND an original board member. All of a sudden, these dots are all coming together!”
White also noted that since the museum was already using other Microsoft applications – like Outlook – the staff and volunteers with varied technology backgrounds were able to feel a familiarity between existing Microsoft cloud products and new solutions, providing a sense of comfort with the programs with which they work.
With Microsoft Partner MISSION CRM, the selection committee at USS Midway quickly realized how the technology can be an extension of their staff. “We can set up campaigns and business processes, and the technology is like an additional staff person. This is really like having more hands in the department. And every nonprofit needs that,” says White.
“We want to be America’s living symbol of freedom. The best way to do that is to stay relevant – use technology like Microsoft Dynamics 365 to bring our data together, allowing us to stay connected to all of our constituents.”
Microsoft believes technology can help public museums and libraries like the USS Midway Museum to streamline operations and bounce back from the hardships the pandemic has created for nonprofits. Microsoft provided over $3.2 billion in technology and grants to more than 300,000 nonprofit organizations globablly in their fiscal year 2022.
Microsoft has committed to doubling the number of nonprofits served over the next five years. To help achieve this goal, they have expanded their nonprofit technology offers to public libraries and public museums across the world.
You can read more about Microsoft’s expansion of discounts on their blog.