The Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy collaborates with eTapestry

Jackie Allison didn't waste any time during a recent conference for the American Academy of Neurology.

There, she met medical investigators who indicated interest in research that could positively impact her nonprofit, Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (The Society). The Society is working to find a cure for the rare brain disorder that afflicted the late actor, Dudley Moore, and 30,000 Americans.

Allison entered the information into eTapestry, her Web-based fundraising and communications software, which she accessed through the browser on her laptop. Now, information on investigators who could research the disease was available to board members and staff alike.

"It's really a collaboration of information that everyone has access to," said Allison, assistant director for the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. "You can't tell everybody everything, but you can put it in a central place for them to read."

When upgrading the nonprofit's former database-Access, used in combination with QuickBooks-Allison knew that the replacement system would have to be Web-based.

"We are a global organization and we plan on growing," she said. "What better way to keep in touch than through the Web? The wave of the future is Web-based computing."

The Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy has a staff of seven and no professional IT employee. Allison said it is critical that the staff has little to no involvement with information backups, software upgrades and system maintenance so they can concentrate on their core mission.

The nonprofit's old database system only included information on donors who gave more than $250 or were designated as "friends" of the nonprofit.

"The rest of the donations went into QuickBooks and we printed out receipts," she said. "There was no way for the two systems to talk. We didn't really have a handle on all of our donors."

Now, all of this information is in one place-eTapestry-and accessible through a variety of different fields.

This really allows us to segment our donors and acknowledge them in different and more appropriate ways," she said. "We went from this very simple system to this very sophisticated database with lots of fields and lots of information."

eTapestry's remote accessibility also has given the nonprofit flexibility in how it allows employees to work. A former full-time employee, who left after having a baby, still works on an hourly basis for the nonprofit by accessing the system at night from her home to fix incorrect addresses on returned direct mailings, Allison said.

Board members also like the new system because they receive long reports that that provide details on donors and the history of their relationship with the nonprofit, Allison said. This helps the board members make a stronger connection with the donor when calling them.

"That's been the biggest impact on the group," Allison said.