eTapestry

USA Cares provides financial and advocacy assistance to post 9/11 active duty US military service personnel, veterans and their families. The organization assists all branches of service, all ranks and components and treats all with privacy and dignity in appreciation for their service and sacrifice. USA Cares relies on donations from private citizens, businesses and foundations for all funding.

Challenge

USA Cares had a website that was built using open source software and housed on a server in-house. With no IT department supporting the server, there was significant concern over the vulnerability of the site.

Additionally, USA Cares had been using a third-party payment processor to manage online donations. When the third-party processor’s system failed, the organization had to look at other options.

Solution

USA Cares needed a website that was housed outside of the organization on a server that was monitored and supported.

The organization selected eTapestry® because it was a part of Blackbaud and was clearly designed to address the needs of nonprofits.

eTapestry provided USA Cares with the website it needed to build donor trust by enabling a more friendly user interface and ensuring uptime.

Additionally, the cost and ongoing maintenance fees to ensure it had the most up-to-date software was right for the size and budget of USA Cares.

Results

Since launching its website on eTapestry, USA Cares has seen website visits increase every month. In February 2010, the first full month on the new website, the website had 7,913 visits. In December, 2010 the number of visits was up to 24,950. Total hits for the month of December 2010 was over 1 million, an increase from 284,654 in February 2010.

During the holiday season, the organization saw a significant increase in both the volume of online donations and the donation amount. Total hits were up 18 percent in December.

The website helped the organization secure funding for a new building. After hearing about the organization, a local business went to the website to research USA Cares, liked what it saw and decided to donate.

For USA Cares, one of the greatest benefits of eTapestry is having a website that helps facilitate its communications and effectively communicates the organization’s messages.

Download this customer spotlight.