SRI’s mission is to work to conserve viable populations of critically endangered rhinos in Africa and Asia.

Background

SRI recognises that the future of wildlife is inextricably linked to the communities that share its habitat. By funding field projects and through education, the charity’s goal is to deliver material, long-lasting and widespread benefits to rhinos and other endangered species, ecosystems and to the people living in these areas.

In the financial year 2007-8, SRI raised £604,000, focusing on three main income streams: events; grant-making companies, trusts and foundations; and other strands such as donations, merchandise, membership, Gift Aid etc.

SRI is best known for arranging events that bring in almost a third of the organisation’s annual income. These break down into four main categories: marathons, overseas challenges, other endurance events, and miscellaneous events including parties and lectures.

As well as events, SRI focuses on corporate fundraising and on approaches to grant-making trusts and foundations. It has particularly strong relationships with the International Rhino Foundation, Chester Zoo, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Victor Stationery, and hopes to develop many more such partnerships.

Alongside these are a number of smaller income streams that are extremely important for SRI: restricted / unrestricted and solicited / unsolicited donations; legacies; a membership scheme; merchandise sales and Gift Aid reclaim.

The Project

In 2005 SRI was initially thinking about upgrading its website, to make it more inter-active and give the charity more flexibility, but it quickly became apparent that they needed to sort out the “back end”, the Filemaker Pro database that they were then using. Built up over a number of years, it did not have the ability to export financial data, resulting in much duplication of effort.

SRI therefore started the process of reviewing potential systems, starting with a long-list of eight and narrowing that to a short-list of three. In October 2005, SRI chose Centrepoint Computer Services’ eTarget system, primarily because of the possibilities for interface between the database and website, and other organisations such as www.justgiving.com, and also because CCS were interested in the charity’s own business development plans, and making sure that they would be able to achieve their fundraising goals. SRI staff began a five-month process of specifying their needs in detail, and eTarget went live on 1 April 2006.

The Result - Key Benefits & Utilisation

• Fundraising and Accounts – All income entered into e-target in various modules, fundraising (event sponsorship, donations, grants) membership and Invoice stock control for merchandise income. On a monthly basis this information is exported in order to reconcile the monthly accounts and is used to compare budget estimates against actuals.

  
  

• Gift aid – with this database, SRI’s Gift Aid claims are made easier and more accurate as they can keep a track of past claimants in order not to claim twice on a donation. The charity is are able to cross-reference the donation amount and establish if they have a valid UK taxpayer declaration. The new Gift Aid threshold has been dealt with by CCS as part of its standard update service.

  
  

• Person/organisation record – contact, fundraising, membership and mailing preferences, ability to export mailing lists.

  
  

• Website – SRI’s website, developed by CCS using their NetManager Content Management System (CMS), interfaces into the eTarget CRM back-end database.

  
  

• Online shop – eTarget interfaces with SRI’s website in various areas, particularly their online shop. Any transactions are therefore sent straight through to the database, with the customer details, and the item taken out of stock automatically. This allows SRI to keep track of stock levels and manage all transactions.

  
  

• Event progress – Within the fundraising side it is vital to keep track of fundraising targets and progress event participants, for example, for the London Marathon, in which SRI have around 50 participants running to raise funds. All money raised is viewable by event, and can be broken down by individual and actual transaction, meaning an accurate record of progress can be kept for each person.

  
  

• Event participant and ticket sales – SRI puts on various events such as dinners, lectures, and other miscellaneous events and e-target allows us to process and keep track of both online and in house ticket sales, in order to produce attendee lists and information such as dietary requirements for dinner guests.

  
  

• Reports – A key benefit of e-target is the ability to produce various reports across the different modules, for example lapsed member who need reminder letters to creating a report on how much an individual raised during a fundraising event.

  
  

• Fundraising - SRI use the database to log all approaches and communications to funders (corporate and Trusts and Foundations) in detail, and log further actions to each prospect. The action points can be downloaded as a report, ensuring reporting and further approaches is duly done. The database also lets SRI allocate attributes to each prospect, as well as notes on their funding preferences. The communication log lists all meetings, phone calls and correspondence with the funder/prospect.

  
  

Conclusion

Over the past three years, eTarget has enabled SRI to improve service to its members, donors and associates as well as helping to increase the amount of annual income generated. Cathy Dean, Director says: “We are now looking forward to using eTarget to identify our most active supporters, whether they are runners, members, donors or shoppers, to make sure that we stay in touch with them and keep them informed on the things of most interest to them. We are particularly keen to be able to build stronger links between donors and the rhino conservation projects in the field, and will be looking into how eTarget can help us do that more efficiently.”