Saint Mary's Hall
Situated in San Antonio, Texas, Saint Mary’s Hall is an independent and coeducational campus for students and families of all faiths. With a lower, middle, and upper school, students of all ages build essential knowledge and skills that prepare them for challenging, higher-level studies beyond Saint Mary’s Hall.
Originally organized by the Episcopal Church, Saint Mary's Hall was founded in 1879 on the principles of knowledge, self-confidence, and respect for others. Along with a rich, rigorous curriculum, Saint Mary’s also provides expansive opportunities for exploring the world and discovering oneself through experiential and global learning programs.
“Our all-in-one system wasn’t matching our advanced engagement needs anymore. The tool didn’t allow us to build a robust major gift program, and we really needed to capture, analyze, and deploy data in a high-caliber way. We wanted to move to Raiser’s Edge NXT®, but we needed an expert to help us make the switch.”
Jim Bob Womack
Assistant Head of School for Advancement
Ready to Switch Technology, But Needed Embedded, Expert Guidance
Saint Mary’s Hall managed its software needs with an all-in-one student information platform that included admissions, academics, accounting, development, marketing, and more. The system was convenient from an IT perspective, but the development team needed a more advanced tool—one that could manage complex systems and data, run comprehensive campaigns, and increase their long-term impact on the students, teachers, and school.
Saint Mary’s Hall considered switching to Blackbaud technology, but ultimately didn’t feel they had the internal team in place to make the change without disrupting operations. They needed someone with the bandwidth and expertise to successfully manage the project. Without an embedded person who could provide guidance, management, and training, the transformation couldn’t move forward. Then their account executive at Blackbaud introduced them to NPact.
“NPact came to the job with best practices that helped inform every decision we made. They did the big lift of the transition, immediate training, and then ongoing training. We’ve since launched the most ambitious comprehensive campaign in school history —that’s all enabled by Raiser’s Edge and NPact. This work will vastly enhance the experience of the students and teachers for years to come.”
Jim Bob Womack
Assistant Head of School for Advancement
A Seamless System Transformation with Training and Ongoing Support
With NPact onboard, Saint Mary’s Hall was prepared to move forward with the system transformation. In addition to implementing Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, it was decided that financials would move to Sage Intacct, and school administration would stay in the old system. Of course, all three systems needed to be connected, which required expert insight to set up correctly. NPact worked directly with Saint Mary’s Hall development, business, and IT offices to help plan and implement the successful transition to Raiser’s Edge NXT® and other systems. Some of the team’s bigger goals included ensuring the data was clean, that the pipeline was working efficiently, and to have the ability to build a major gift program.
The transformation was a six-month process in which NPact was onsite for several meetings and training. NPact’s guidance and leadership enabled the Saint Mary’s Hall team to manage their day-to-day operations with minimal disruption. The team remarked that the transition was “seamless” and that NPact really helped them think through their data—how it comes in and out of the system. NPact continues to support the Saint Mary’s Hall advancement services team and database manager to clean up data and perform special projects, including a custom salutations project and a large mailing for their magazine.
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