Cadence sometimes misses the beat
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Cadence is a texting platform that allows us to interact with our constituents via text. This works well for those that we can't reach through email and also allows us multiple avenues of communication with those donors who have both an email (we use a separate software platform for email communication) and mobile number. We inform our audience (donors and alums) of events on campus, opportunities for engagement, and ways to support our mission. We are able to reply to any responses in real time, or through "smart messages" where a key word or words triggers an automated response.
Pros
- easy to set up segments in order to reach certain portions of the audience
- easy opt-out for recipients
- simple reporting after texts are sent
Cons
- There is built-in connection with Raiser's Edge NXT but the field mapping is overly complicated and setting it up requires action both on customer end and Cadence end
- Cannot update a bad email address without deleting the record and re-importing it
- Cannot simply add records - must be done through import from a spreadsheet
- assigning a record to a user can only be done during initial import
Return on Investment
- Too early (one year) to have hard ROI info, but we have had constituents who have indicated a preference for text as their primary means of interacting with our organization.
- Even with the integration with Raiser's Edge NXT it takes time to update the database with opt-outs.
- We have fewer constituents with mobile numbers than those with email addresses. We will have to appeal to our constituents to share mobile numbers with us
Alternatives Considered
Mailchimp
Other Software Used
Raiser's Edge, Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT, Mailchimp