The document discusses how the Australian Scholarships Foundation (ASF) implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) system to more effectively manage their growing scholarship program. The CRM integrated their Joomla website, SugarCRM for tracking opportunities and applications, and Moodle for online applications. This enabled ASF to offer more scholarships while reducing costs. Key benefits included increased volume and value of scholarships, lower operating costs, and greater visibility into the program.

1. Increasing Effectiveness Through CRM:
A Case Study
Connecting Up Conference - 1 May 2012

2. “To make the greatest impact on society
requires first and foremost a great
organisation, not a single great program.”
Jim Collins
“Good to Great and the Social Sectors” 2005
2

3. The Facts - NFPs
 NFPs play a key but under-appreciated role in Australian
society
 600,000 NFPs, 60,000 economically significant
 $41B or 4.3% of GDP
 Many NFPs simply do not have funds to develop staff
 Many funders will not fund training and development
 > 50% NFPs spend less than $4,000 pa on training
 56% of NFPs train “as required” and most learn “on the
job”
 Some ppl work in the sector 10-20 years with little or no
professional development
Source: CU Summary Report of Nonprofit e-Business in Australia
3 2011

4. Training for NFPs
ff
Source: CU Summary Report of Nonprofit e-Business in Australia
2011
Training and ASF Mission:
Development To strengthen the overall effectiveness of the NFP
Opportunities sector through training and development of the
sector
4

5. ASF – Who We Are
 ASF was established in 2008 to act as a “circuit breaker” to this serious
problem. ASF is Australia’s only organisation dedicated solely to providing
scholarships to enable directors and managers of NFPs to enhance and
improve their skills to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their
organisations.
 Works with Education Providers including universities, private corporations
and education/ training organisations.
 Has facilitated over 900 scholarships - short executive management training
programs, specialised mentoring services and post graduate university degrees
& courses.
 Low cost, near virtual model – rely heavily on its IT systems
 For funders, our leveraged model means that for every $1 invested, $8 in
scholarships is realised.
5

6. ASF Milestones
2008 2009
 Business model testing  CEO appointed
 Six founding Partners  10 Education Partners
 30 scholarships test marketing via 200 NFP  68,000 NFP participant email list
participants email list  100 new scholarships offered, $450,000 value
2010 2011
 20 Education Partners (12 Universities)
 16 Education Partners (9 Universities)
 600+ scholarships, $1.6 M value
 220+ scholarships, $950,000 value  Launched first ever Fulbright Professional
Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership, sponsored
 120,000 NFP participant email list
by the Origin Foundation
 3rd party (ie non ASF) scholarships promotion  Received and assessed nearly 1,000 applications
started for one scholarship offering
 IT project scoped and funded  New rebranding, website, integrated CRM and
online application system completed; phase two
 Secured $200,000 additional scholarships funding funded – total $135k
from Origin Foundation
 First-ever nation-wide scholarships database
6
underway

7. The Problem
Challenges
 Data collected on Word document
 Could not process more than 100 applications at
once
 Third party vendor for email marketing
campaigns
 Highly labour-intensive manual processes
 Need to track funding opportunities
7

8. The Problem
Why ASF needed a CRM
 Manage and automate the increasing volume of
scholarship applications
 Greater visibility into scholarships and
applications management
 Funding management and tracking opportunities
 Central repository
 Applicants and funders data capture and storage
8

9. The Problem
Why ASF required an integrated
system
 Automate scholarships application assessment
 Reduce manual handling of information
9

10. The Solution
The Tools Used
 The world’s Used to manage
relationships and
leading Open “sales”
Source
Commercial CRM
 Web application
Used to manage and
for creating online
assess scholarship
dynamic websites applications
for teaching and
learning
Provides the “Web
 Open source Front end” of ASF
content
management
system (CMS)
10

11. The ASF Journey Total Integration
Next version underway:
Joomla + CRM + Moodle
Integrate Applications •Integrated user profiles
•Integrated applications
Joomla Website •User managed scholarship and
SugarCRM: organisation profiles management
Complexity
• Opportunities
• Scholarship Marketing
• Scholarship Registration
Moodle for Applications
LeverageCRM
Joomla Website
SugarCRM:
• Opportunities
• Scholarship Marketing
• Scholarship Registration
Paper Applications
Introduce CRM
Joomla Website
SugarCRM for Opportunities
Paper Applications
Joomla Website
• Paper Applications
• Spreadsheet Opportunity Management
11 Time

12. The Solution
Implementation Process
1. SugarCRM implementation: contact base,
marketing tool, management tool of scholarship
funding and applications
2. Joomla website integration to SugarCRM
3. Moodle Learning Management System (LMS)
implementation and integration with SugarCRM
12

13. The Solution
Securing Scholarships Funding
Identify Create
Negotiation Won
Prospects Opportunity
Create Create
Organisation Scholarship
Campaign
Create Contact Created
13

14. The Solution
Scholarship Application & Assessment
Applicant selects
Scholarship list
scholarship and
on website
registers
Application Scholarship
online assessment
Contact set up Scholarship
Scholarship set Application
on Sugar against
up Results update
scholarship
14

15. The Solution
Scholarships Setup
Applicant
Scholarship selects
list on scholarship
website and registers
Application Scholarship
online assessment
Contact set up Scholarship
Scholarship on Sugar Application
15 set up against Results
update
scholarship

16. The Solution
Scholarships List on Website
Applicant
Scholarship selects
list on scholarship
website and registers
Application Scholarship
online assessment
Contact set up Scholarship
16 Scholarship on Sugar Application
Results
set up against
scholarship update

17. The Solution
Application Online
Applicant
Scholarship selects
list on scholarship
website and registers
Application Scholarship
online assessment
Contact set up Scholarship
Scholarship on Sugar Application
set up against Results
scholarship update
17

18. The Solution
Scholarship Application Results
Applicant
Scholarship selects
list on scholarship
website and registers
Application Scholarship
online assessment
Contact set up Scholarship
Scholarship on Sugar Application
set up against Results
scholarship update
18

19. The Solution
Campaign Tracking in SugarCRM
19

20. The Results
Big increase in the scholarships
offered
20

21. The Results
The value of scholarships is rising faster
than the cost of providing them
21

22. The Results
Results
Enables increases in volume of scholarships offered
Lower staffing and operating costs due to reduced
processing costs
More effective marketing and segmentation
Greater visibility into scholarships and applications
management
Increase in confidence of scholarship funders
22

23. The Results
Mind the Expectation Gap
Must have buy in from board, senior execs and staff
Demonstrate the benefits of the CRM – time saved,
costs, efficiencies
Proper training for ALL
Data migration
Daily use
Perfectionists BEWARE – just get started
23

24. Amy Lyden
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Scholarships Foundation
www.scholarships.org.au
Tel: 1300 248 675
e: amy.lyden@scholarships.org.au
twitter: scholarshipsNP www.facebook.com/Scholarships4NFPs
Loaded Technologies – Mark Tallis -
mark.tallis@loadedtech.com.au
24 www.loadedtech.com.au