Feeding Westchester
Feeding Westchester
With a mission to nourish its neighbors in the fight against hunger, Feeding Westchester secures food and donations from national food and grocery manufacturers, retailers, shippers, packers, growers, government agencies, and more. They are the heart of a local network of partners that sources and distributes food and resources to children, seniors, and families throughout Westchester County in New York.
A member of Feeding America, Feeding Westchester is part of the nationwide network designed to address food insecurity when and where the need is greatest. Through their work providing food to food pantries, soup kitchens, residential programs, and community centers, along with programs like providing fresh produce, bringing mobile pantries to communities, sharing nutrition education, and offering SNAP assistance, the organization supports those in need in Westchester County—where, despite its perceived affluence, many people experience food insecurity.
“We had some deep data issues that we wanted to address. Direct mail was the impetus. We wanted to increase the performance of direct mail and ensure that we weren’t upsetting people with the wrong salutations. If we could clean that up, then we could address a person correctly, through mail or on a phone call and not make assumptions about pronouns or titles like “Mr. and Mrs.”
Jeanne Fogel, CFRE
Associate Vice President, Feeding Westchester
Data Accuracy
With a recent change to their development operations team and the desire to communicate in a more modern way, Feeding Westchester identified the need to clean up inconsistencies in their data that were potentially having a negative impact on their direct mail and communications. Salutations were the primary concern. Salutations had once been required for data entry, but with the move to an online donation platform, this requirement was removed. This meant that some records had titles with their salutation, while others had none. Since these fields were being used by their direct mail vendor, there was concern that recipients would not respond to direct mail or emails that addressed them incorrectly.
With direct mail results on the decline across the industry, cleaning up salutations would help to maximize ROI. The shift in direct mail performance also had the Feeding Westchester team focus on activating SMS marketing. However, there had never been a standardized procedure for entering phone numbers in RE NXT, making it unclear whether they were home, cell, or business.
“We considered going through Blackbaud, but they wouldn’t let us meet the consultant beforehand. With NPact, we were able to meet the consultant before signing an agreement. It was easy, quick and comfortable, and that assured us they could help make the changes in RE NXT strategically and thoughtfully.”
Jeanne Fogel, CFRE
Associate Vice President, Feeding Westchester
Clean Data Solutions
Considering working with NPact for the first time, Feeding Westchester wanted to meet the consultant they would be working with before signing a contract. After the initial discovery meeting, they felt confident that NPact would take a strategic approach to addressing their Raiser’s Edge NXT challenges, rather than simply executing requests without evaluating all the underlying variables. Ready to move forward, the first project the NPact consultant helped with was resolving the salutations issue. Together, the team decided to move to a first and last name solution without salutations for direct mail. They were impressed by how thoughtfully the change was made and how the consultant shared outliers that required further decisions or adjustments.
Another key project was to fix how phones were labeled in order to launch SMS marketing. With the NPact consultant’s guidance, a test campaign was sent to track automated responses that would indicate if a number was not a cell phone. From there, numbers were more accurately labeled in RE NXT. Over the course of the three-week contract, the NPact consultant provided tips and had regular check-ins with the Feeding Westchester team. Pleased with the results and overall time savings that NPact provided, the organization has reengaged the same consultant to perform a six-week staff augmentation.
Our deeply experienced team of professional consultants will provide you with powerful tools and know-hows to drive philanthropy in your community. There is no project too big or too small, and work can be performed on-site or remotely. Start the conversation today with our team.