What do we celebrate on March 8th? If you guessed March Madness, guess again! March 8th is International Women’s Day. What is maddening is the fact that there’s still so many women worldwide that don’t experience the same rights as men. There’s been a lot of progress, yet still a lot of work needs to be done.
A nonprofit that has worked tirelessly to help women achieve gender equality is the US National Committee for UN Women (USNC-UN Women). USNC-UN Women’s goals are to:
- Advocate for funding for UN Women through US Congress
- Educate on global women’s issues and UN Women in communities around the country
- Raise private funds to support the initiatives of UN Women
- Support legislation on global women’s issues, especially on leadership, economic participation, ending violence against women, and peace and stability
- Partner with other National Committees, women’s groups, and like-minded organizations
- Create chapters and increase membership to build support and funds for UN Women and global women’s rights
I spoke with Maggie Forster Schmitz, President of USNC-NC. Maggie, mother of two daughters, ages 10 and 13, volunteers her time as President and tries to balance her personal life with meeting the responsibilities of running a $772,000 nonprofit with 5,000 contacts in the database.
The reports in CiviCRM have helped Maggie analyze USNC-NC Women’s revenue flow. These reports are emailed automatically on the first of each month to her. Maggie describes why each of the reports is so helpful:
- Memberships: “The membership reports have allowed us to track patterns in membership growth, which align closely with our chapters’ activities. Chapters are most active in the spring and spikes in membership reflect this. This has provided us feedback on the crucial work that our chapters do in reaching out into their communities for support.”
- Membership revenue: “The membership revenue report has provided us with valuable information regarding not only the growth in membership revenue but the increase in average revenue per membership. Since we introduced a monthly giving option for memberships two years ago, the average amount per membership has increased, which has resulted in an overall increase in membership revenue.”
- Donations outside membership: “Finally, the report detailing donations (revenue excluding membership) has allowed us to track our success in attracting funding beyond membership. The percentage of funding exclusive of membership has also grown over time.
For somebody that is pulled in a thousand different directions, Maggie really appreciates how CiviCRM has allowed her to quickly have a holistic view of her revenue stream at a very affordable price.
