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Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Organization: Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Making an Impact On: Veterans and First Responders

Located In: Staten Island, NY

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How The Tunnel To Towers Foundation Found A Partner, Not Just A Vendor, In Kindful

 

Stephen Siller was an FDNY firefighter. On 9/11, he got the call that the first tower was hit.

He was on his way to Staten Island to play golf with his brothers, but he turned his truck around, drove to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, put on 60 pounds of gear, and ran through the tunnel to reach the Twin Towers.

Stephen was killed minutes later in the tower collapse, leaving five children under the age of seven behind.

So his siblings got together and decided to do good in his honor. It started out as a race retracing his steps, which happens every September, that now has over 30,000 runners.

Today, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation honors fallen first responders, wounded veterans, and gold star families by providing them mortgage-free, accessible homes.

play icon Kindful + TtTF

Searching For A Software Solution That Truly Got To Know Them

Larry Olson, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, was somewhat frustrated during their search for a CRM.

“In our vendor selection process, there were folks who didn’t even take the time to really understand who we were. Didn’t ask what we did. Didn’t really understand what our mission was all about. That’s a real red flag.

We were lucky we found the folks from Kindful, who not only sought to understand who we were, but also anticipated what we would encounter in the software implementation. That was really critical to our success,” he said.

Kindful + Tunnel to Towers Foundation

In Larry's words, here’s a look at how they use our software to bring together multiple data sources, spend time on what matters the most, and build donor relationships in ways they never had before.

Save More Tiime

"We kind of relied on Kindful as our consultant to say things like 'You know, maybe we want to think about stretching this out a little bit more' or 'Maybe we want to do more with this list,' things like that. And it was just really, really helpful to have that guidance."

Raise More Funds

"It's incredibly important to have clean data. Without that, it's virtually impossible to do your job. So everything from thank you notes, to tax notifications, to year-end summaries, all those sorts of things that are an integral part of managing a monthly recurring donor program, they understood. They had been there, done that."

Do More Good

"When we run reports, either from our peer-to-peer fundraising platform or our CRM, they're in sync. That's enormous. Without that, a marketing and development team would be hamstrung to try and figure out what to do. Kindful is the center spoke in that wheel."

”

They were more like a consulting firm in helping us figure out not only what our CRM solution should be, but how to use a CRM effectively.

Larry Olson, Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Kindful: Power At The Center Of A Fundraising Engine

The foundation maintains a robust monthly giving program, as well as an active broadcast advertising strategy. This generates not only hundreds of ongoing donor relationships, but also many inbound interactions that have to be handled by a large team—all of whom interface with Kindful.

“We had calls coming into our call center, many of whom were asking questions, about renewals, their credit card, their recurring donation, wanting to make a new donation, etc. So we had to be able to not only hire, but to also train the team.

So, as the supporter identifies themselves, our donor services group is able to pull up their account as they are identifying themselves, so they can say, ‘Oh, I see you, I know you. I have it right here. How can I help you?’ Simple things like that. That just kind of speaks to the ease of the program, because that could have been horrific if they couldn’t figure out how to access key information.

It’s been life-changing for us,” said Olson.

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