Human Rights Campaign:

From Luminate to Engaging Networks

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the leader in advocating for equal rights for LGBT Americans. With an engaged, empowered base of more than 1.5 million members, they win by staying ahead of the curve when it comes to communicating with their supporters. HRC needed to switch online engagement tools to meet their cutting-edge needs, but they wanted to keep their customized CRM. When they were ready make the move and realized the effort it would take to align their many partners and teams, HRC signed on with Firefly to orchestrate the entire process.

All Aboard The Migration Train

In order to be a success, the HRC migration project needed each expert and partner – from the tool provider to the database administrators to the production specialists – to be at the table and ready to go. HRC charged Firefly with crafting a comprehensive project plan and timeline that included a responsibility and task matrix for all parties. Once the migration plan was agreed to, Firefly worked with each implementation partner to break down the work on a week-by-week basis. We monitored the progress at the micro and macro levels, and facilitated weekly planning calls with the project team to review outstanding issues – all with an eye to the HRC launch date.

Calm, Cool And Collected

Through regular team meetings, daily work plans, status reports, and day-to-day problem-solving, everything from data maps to donations forms were created, tested, implemented (and tested again just to be sure). It’s common for projects like this one to experience a hiccup or two along the way, and this one did. Whether it was an unexpected design modification or a change in the way data needed to flow between the CRM and the Engaging Networks tool, Firefly stayed calm, assessed the situation and presented options for getting unstuck.

One Great Experience Leads To Another

We did it! The new Engaging Network tool was launched in time for HRC’s end of year fundraising campaign, but the migration didn’t end there. With this new and more powerful platorm up and running, the potential to create even more sophisticated supporter communications was too enticing. HRC asked Firefly to provide post-implementation support and we happily said yes. Our team created a set of welcome series campaigns to engage new supporters right from Day One.

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Toolset migrations are challenging and time intensive in the best of circumstances. HRC took theirs on with an aggressive timeline and with staff attention being divided between the migration and their day-to-day activities, which were especially hectic at the time given the legislative and political landscape in late 2015. They needed and an outside voice to hold both their partners and internal staff accountable. They found that voice in Firefly.

Moving Systems Can Be Daunting

Every nonprofit organization uses several – if not many – systems, platforms and online engagement tools. And every one of these systems comes with it’s share of challenges and workarounds. When you are experience more pain than gain, it’s probably time to evaluate your online ecosystem and see what else is out there. CMS, CRM and online engagement tools are constantly changing, making it tough to know what the best options are. Firefly’s approach to an online tool evaluation is platform-agnostic. We really want to make sure you are using the best systems for your specific use cases. Maybe your team needs training…maybe the system needs a few updates…or maybe it’s really time to move. If that’s the case, we’ll bring the boxes and you bring the pizza.
Learn more about our evaluation and migration services.