The American Heart Association consolidated its payment processing across 130 offices to achieve operational benefits and data integrity. This included centralized caging to deposit donations electronically, capture to collect donor data, and acknowledgements. The AHA saw cost savings, more donations captured, better cultivation, and processing over $1 billion and 7.5 million transactions. They later expanded use of remote deposit capture, achieving additional postal and interest savings.

1. Consolidating Payment Processing
A Nonprofit Perspective
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Today you will …
• Learn how American Heart Association developed a
centralized approach to payment processing
• Explore the operational benefits of a centralized approach
• Discuss the data integrity and consistency that
consolidation achieved
• Leave this session with real-world ideas on how to
approach a centralized processing system and insights into
preparing for payment processing consolidation
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3. Erin Westergaard
Client Director, CDS Global
@eewestergaard
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What industry do you represent?
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5. Chip Sugrue
National Vice President – Customer
Strategies/Affiliate Management Consultant;
American Heart Association
@chipsugrue
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2020 Goal
By 2020, to improve the cardiovascular health of all
Americans by 20 percent while reducing death from
cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent.
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The AHA Mission
Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases
and stroke.
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SD
NE
AHA Affiliates
SouthWest Affiliate
Midge LaPorte Epstein, EVP
AR, CO, NM, OK, *TX & WY
Midwest Affiliate
Kevin Harker, EVP
IA, IL, IN,*KS, MI, MN,
MO, ND, NE, SD & WI
Mid-Atlantic Affiliate
Jeremy Beauchamp, EVP
MD, NC, SC, *VA & WA, DC
Greater Southeast Affiliate
David Markiewicz, EVP
AL, *FL, GA, LA, MS, PR & TN
WY
AK
WA
MT
OR
ID
CO
AZ
CA
NV UT
NM
TX
ND
IA
MO
AR
IL
MN
WI
IN
TN
LA
MS AL GA
SC
FL
NC
VA
Great Rivers Affiliate
Nicole Aiello Sapio, EVP
DE, KY, OH, *PA & WV
MI
KY
WV
OH
PA
DE
NJ
CT
NY
RI
VT NH
ME
MD
DC
PR
HI
KS
OK
National Center
Founders Affiliate
Michael Weamer, EVP
CT, ME, MA, NH, NJ, *NY, RI & VT
NYC
MA
SD
Western States Affiliate
Kathy Rogers, EVP
AK, AZ,*CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT & WA
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CDS Global By the Numbers
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The AHA Problem
• 130 offices with differences in processes:
 Donations captured
 Donations acknowledged
 Donations receipted
 Donations cultivated
• We could not be confident that donors were being
appropriately thanked, cultivated or at a minimum,
meeting IRS receipting regulations
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The AHA Problem
• 2 million+ offline transactions with not enough staff to
capture key donation information into our systems
• Lost opportunity for cultivation and renewal because
contributions were not captured for acknowledgement
• No way to confidently know the value of our donors
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Fundraising, Finance and Customer
• Key Partnerships/Commitment
• Don’t assume all departments have the same goals
• Finance was all about the deposit
• Revenue was all about being able to track the total $$$
• Customer was all about capturing the details of the
donation into the data base and the thank you
• Everyone had to give up something for the greater good of
what we were trying to accomplish
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How many of you have faced a similar
problem?
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What to do?
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AHA Objectives
• Find a caging, capture and acknowledgement solution that:
 Provides consistency across the organization
 Is cost-effective for the Association
 Allows for scalability to quantity demands
 Is “trackable” – provide the Association a means to record if,
when and what type of donation was received and
acknowledgement generated
 Improves the data quality for the Association
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AHA Vision
• Process all financial contributions into accounting system
• Achieve a donor entry turnaround of three working days
from receipt at the donor capture processing location
• Mail an acknowledgement for a contribution with
appropriate IRS terminology within five working days of
receipt of donation
• Identify trends in giving & segment donors
• Design and implement an association-wide
cultivation strategy
 Classifications of donors
 Creation of specific cultivation paths targeted to donor
segment needs
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Three Moving Parts
1. Caging
• How AHA deposits money
2. Capture
• How AHA collects customer data
into the AHA CRM systems (Siebel,
Kintera, etc.)
3. Acknowledgement
• The “Thank You”
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Caging: What Did AHA Gain?
• Ability to electronically upload data into existing applications
• Ability to develop a reporting infrastructure
• Solution consistently applied/standardized cash receipts guidelines
• Ability to track batch status within caging process
• All affiliates now participating in cash pooling program
• Minimal start-up costs
• Minimized ongoing training costs after implementation
• Ability to add additional income sources
• Minimized impact on system infrastructure
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Capture: What Did AHA Gain?
• Maximized the number of donors captured
• Provided better opportunity for 360 degree view of customer
• Solution consistently applied
• Met data security and internal privacy requirements
• Ability to identify the source of the donation and market
• Disaster recovery is included
• Ability to adjust to future changes in technology
• Gave designated staff visibility to the donation process
• Minimized redundancies in processing between caging and capture
• Ability to have consistent data verification
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Acknowledgements: What Did AHA Gain?
• Ability to comply with IRS reporting guidelines
• Standardized process for thanking our donors.
• Increased cost efficiencies by co-mingling mailings
• Better customer service in responding to donor inquiries
• Customization of acknowledgements by event or activity
• Ability to track status of acknowledgement
• Ability to cultivate and re-engage donors
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AHA Cost Savings / Reallocation
• Existing lockbox costs reduced (e.g. HeartWalk)
and reallocated
• Reduced the number of lockboxes needed from 21 to 14
• Some mail costs shifted from affiliates to vendor
• Reduction in copying costs and time spent copying checks
• Staff time reallocated/redeployed due to
increased efficiencies
• Depository fees savings of approximately $26,000/year
with 8 deposits from the vendor per day versus
300 deposits
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21. American Heart Association Caging,
Capture and Acknowledgement
Phase 2
Expansion and Results
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How many of you are using a remote
deposit capture solution?
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Expanding the AHA Program
• Reengineering the process by switching to scanners in
100 of the 130 offices
• Added accounts receivable processing
• Customized acknowledgement letters for Youth Market
donors, repeat donors and work place giving donors
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What Did AHA Gain with RDC?
• Savings on postal costs $31,000+ per year
(FY14 71% scanned)
• Savings on Tyvek envelope costs $11,830 per year
 Information scanned in the morning/deposited
the same day
 Decreased time to deposit by 4-5 days
 Information available in systems within hours
 Small interest opportunity (76% of total $$)
 Income and documentation in one system
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What Did AHA Gain with Accounts Receivable?
• Centralization of process across country
• Consistency in billing process
• Vendor handles caging, capture process
• Reallocation of staff resources
• Documentation/Transaction in one place
• Easily viewed
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What did AHA gain with Acknowledgements?
• Planned giving wills and estates (10,500+ requests)
• Volunteer opportunities (818 requests)
• Provide research information
• Opportunity to join You’re the Cure Advocacy Network
• Soft ask for additional donations
 FY 11 – $47,000 / 689 donations / $68.21 gift average
 FY 12 – $93,443 / 736 donations / $126.96 gift average
 FY 13 – $62,804 / 663 donations / $94.72 gift average
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The Impact In Numbers (2009-4/1/2014)
• More than $1 billion in income processed
• 7.5 million transactions
• 3.1 million acknowledgements mailed
• 11,300 requests for information
• More than 4.7 million new donors added to CRM
• More than $380,000 savings in acquisition costs
• More than $250,000 in unsolicited
second gifts
• Savings of more than $100,000 in bank fees
• Savings of more than $24,000 by
eliminating seven lockboxes
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Actionable Takeaways
• Meet with Finance, Development and Customer teams to
ensure all agree on end goal and are on-board
• Establish consistent guidelines and standardized workflows
for all processes touching the payment
• Identify early adopters and leverage these resources for
the initial implementation phases
• If looking at outsourcing, consider the following:
 Minimal financial investment
 Quick Implementation timeline
 Minimal investment in technology
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29. questions
Erin Westergaard @eewestergaard
Chip Sugrue @chipsugrue
#PaymentsSummit