CRUK adopts new events CRM software to increase donations

24 Jan 2012 News

Cancer Research UK is the first UK charity to implement TeamRaiser software from Convio UK and will use it to manage its Relay for Life fundraising website.

Cancer Research UK is the first UK charity to implement TeamRaiser software from Convio UK and will use it to manage its Relay for Life website.

The charity has been organising Relay for Life events in the UK since 1996. It hopes that the new customer relationship management (CRM) platform, which includes online registration, online donations, real-time fundraising reporting and event management tools, will increase participation and donations.

Simon O’Leary, head of volunteer fundraising at Cancer Research UK said: “TeamRaiser allows us to provide a better experience to members of the public who are registering for our Relay for Life events and crucially provides more integrated fundraising capability that we can use to drive incremental income growth.”

Relay for Life events are organised by volunteer committees and teams of between eight and 15 take part in overnight fundraising relays. They run all over the UK throughout the year and last year 46 events took place, raising £2m for the charity. Cancer Research UK expects this year's events to raise £2.1m.

The American Cancer Association, which developed the Relay for Life events in the 1980s has been using TeamRaiser since 2005. It has seen its online revenue increase by 48 per cent since implementing the software.

TeamRaiser is an entirely cloud-based software meaning that charities should not need to invest in any additional IT or server support.

Last week Blackbaud announced it intends to acquire Convio. And last summer Convio announced it would bring its products to the UK market through the aquistion of Baigent Digital, which has now re-branded as Convio UK.