The Salvation Army Western Territory

Database Planning

This Salvation Army organization spans thirteen states in the west of the US, including Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands. Each year, it serves more than 2.5 million people in programs including emergency food, shelter, disaster relief, and rehabilitation services.

The group is dedicated to meeting human needs without discrimination and runs community-building initiatives including youth programs and senior services.

Heller helped us identify our technology process and people gaps. We had this concept that technology was the problem but we also identified there were breakdowns in process.

Elaine Lofton

Donor Data Management Director, The Salvation Army Western Territory

Challenge: Fragmented, opaque data and duplicate processes

The Territory had information on donors and constituents in five distinct data sources, with no unique identifier to show the person’s whole relationship with the org. Data operations were also siloed, with duplicate administrative tasks occurring across multiple systems.

The data fragmentation was hindering the organization’s plans to run integrated marketing campaigns and personalize their donor engagement, which leaders expected would increase revenue.

Solution: A unified data model

Heller Consulting led the organization on an 8-month process to understand and document its data landscape, which included a portfolio management system, donor services, volunteer management, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

We created a data inventory, documenting information at the field level including names, purposes, and allowable values, streamlining the its inputs for better data governance. We mapped its information to a unified data model, identifying redundancies, and preparing it for data warehousing.

Finally, we devised a workflow for the production and use of unique identifiers that the team could use across systems.

We started this project as it being nearly a CRM roadmap and it turned into a technology roadmap. To have the future state specifically outlined and diagrammed helps us prioritize, budget, and plan staffing—while keeping our strategy focused and our staff stable.

Elaine Lofton

Donor Data Management Director, The Salvation Army Western Territory

Results: Holistic constituent data for better service and fundraising

Once the data mapping was complete, Heller experts recommended the organization develop a data warehousing model with systems in a hub-and-spoke design. Coupled with the newly unified data, the new model allows each business unit to work in the best solution for their operational needs while enabling cross-system reporting.

It also gives leadership the confidence to select new technology, including CRM and CDP solutions.

Having a handle on its data and a single unique identifier for each constituent, the Territory unlocked modern fundraising best practices including a holistic approach to privacy, consent, and marketing preferences.

Critically, it also paves the way for more personalized, relevant, and timely donor engagements—the key to a thriving organization.

Building a technology roadmap

Explore The Salvation Army Western Territory’s roadmap and data plan in this on-demand video.

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