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Get to Know Your Developer: Baird Straughan

Posted on by Karrie Kressler
Get to Know Your Developer: Baird Straughan

Transcript

🧊Icebreaker:🧊

INTERVIEWER: Right now we're with Baird Straughan, Founder and Director of WaterGrass, so let's get to know him a little bit. If you could choose one song to play every time you walk into a room what would you choose and why?

BAIRD: Right now I would choose "I Call Your Name" by The Mamas and the Papas. 🎶

The Making of WaterGrass

INTERVIEWER: How did you start working with WaterGrass, so I guess where did your idea come from?

BAIRD: So I used to teach. I ran programs teaching executive directors, and fundraisers, and organizers. And when I did my second program for organizers I realized these people have no computerized way to track the volunteers and hours that they put in and tracking those volunteers and hours was actually essential to the development of leaders, of volunteer leaders, who would then keep the programs going and growing.

So, I looked around and I just couldn't find anything and so I gave up. I ran the program the participants all said this is a big success our funders all loved getting this information about volunteer hours and leadership development. I checked in with them 6 months later to find out if they'd continued to do it and none of them had and the reason was because it was too much of a hassle to track the volunteers in hours.

And so I thought to myself well if there were an easy way for people to sign up volunteers and track their hours than they would do it. So, I began WaterGrass which was originally just a little module on Salesforce to track volunteer hours and the users of it said well we get that we understand that it's fine but we don't understand this other stuff in Salesforce it's too complicated.

I was dealing with with groups, now many of our groups are much bigger, but at the time almost all our groups were small in starting and so I said well let me simplify the the fundraising part of this too. It's not that hard, I thought, and so I did that and pretty soon all of a sudden it was we were providing the whole thing.

Best Part of The Job

INTERVIEWER: Okay, so who's your favorite client? Just kidding! You don't have to answer that.

BAIRD: I love them all.

INTERVIEWER: That's a good answer! What makes you good at your job?

BAIRD: Man, I guess what makes me good at this is that I really care about the results that the groups get. The database is really just a tool and if I didn't feel like I was contributing to something worthwhile, even if I were making money, it wouldn't satisfy me. And I really like the people who do river work. They're sort of my people. They're sort of tend to be a little techy, and they've got big hearts. They play hard. So yeah so those are some of the reasons, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Nice. Maybe you've already answered this, but what's your favorite thing about your work?

BAIRD: It's the clients.

Personal Pursuits

INTERVIEWER: The clients. All right we're going to get a little personal again. How do you spend your time when you're not working with WaterGrass?

BAIRD: Oh man, I try to get exercise regularly. I used to ride a lot but I had ride a bicycle, but I had a bad accident so I do less of that. I go to the gym and I sail. But of course sailing involves keeping a boat in shape, so by "sailing" I really mean I maintain a boat. Occasionally I'll get out and I'm looking forward to doing more of that now. Oh and I dance a lot, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: I'm glad you mentioned that. Can you tell us about your favorite vacation? 🏖️

BAIRD: Oh gosh so many great ones. I'm thinking about the honeymoon trip that Sue and I took to where we were hosted by friends and just got to truly just hang and that was really wonderful. Just a sec.

INTERVIEWER: Sure. Hi Sue!

SUE: Hello! How are you?

Lightning Round

INTERVIEWER: We're good, we're good. All right we're moving on to the last round, the ⚡lightning⚡ round. So, I'm looking for quick responses, but feel free to to get creative. Okay, what's your favorite color?

BAIRD: Green. 💚

INTERVIEWER: Nice. Favorite animal?

BAIRD: I'm gonna say osprey. 🪶

INTERVIEWER: Favorite place you've been?

BAIRD: Mount Baker in the North Cascades. 🏔️

INTERVIEWER: Are you a cat or a dog person?

BAIRD: Cat person. 😻

INTERVIEWER: Favorite ice cream flavor?

BAIRD: Mocha chocolate. 🍫

INTERVIEWER: Really heavy and rich there. I love that. Best thing you've ever done?

INTERVIEWER: I helped start an environmental group in in Honduras and after I left it it continued and eventually passed the first emissions control laws in the country.

INTERVIEWER: That's awesome, I didn't know that.

BAIRD: It was totally cool because you know that was like three years after I left.

INTERVIEWER: That's great. Well that's all I have for you today. Thanks for letting us get to know you a little bit better. So this again is Baird Straughan, Founder and Director of WaterGrass.

BAIRD: Okay thank you very much.

INTERVIEWER: Thanks Baird.

The Benefits of User Driven Development

Posted on by Karrie Kressler
The Benefits of User Driven Development

Users drive our CRM’s new features, but what is that like for them?

From our company founder, Baird Straughan:

In 2008 I started WaterGrass thinking that we would just provide support and training so that small organizations could use Salesforce’ basic features to recruit and grow their volunteer and donor bases. That would suffice, I thought.

But within a couple years I was programming a custom interface to ensure donations were entered correctly. Katie Shaddix at Alabama Rivers Alliance had asked for it, repeatedly. It took us a year to take her request seriously, and another to get the buttons and sub-features to her satisfaction, but now the “Enter Account Contact Contribution” interface is probably the most heavily used part of WaterGrass.

We followed with the “Process Participant List” module, to make it easier for the Rock Creek Conservancy to quickly compile sign-in sheets after volunteer events with thousands of participants. That’s been through four iterations since.

Our clients’ then nudged us to create:

  • Registration pages for multiple shifts;
  • Waitlists for events;
  • Maps of storm drains, macroinvertebrate samples and organization donors;
  • A front-to-back process allowing volunteers to propose and run their own events;
  • A custom integration with a fundraising platform to bring in more information about every donation;
  • … etc etc.

What we thought would be a bare bones Salesforce installation now has 1.2 million characters of custom code across four computing languages. There’s hardly a feature that didn’t begin with a user request.

For us, our tenacious clients have been a godsend, holding us to the vision of a CRM that fits and sustains their vital work. 

The user committee that guided our development of volunteer shifts and waitlists: Wendy Lotze (Arizona Trail Association), Jason Frenzel (Huron River Watershed Council) and Barbara Budd (Superior Hiking Trail Association). Hats off to you!

But what’s that like for them?

We asked Jason Frenzel of the Huron River Watershed Council and Wendy Lotze of Arizona Trail Association, two of our collaborators who have worked with us to develop various new features.

“There are two types of databases an organization can use. 1. Off the shelf and in a box. 2. Customized. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Off the shelf you know exactly what you are and aren’t getting. And typically there’s no deviating from that. Also, customer service is often poor. Customized databases are exactly that and often have great customer support. Most customized databases are amazingly expensive. WaterGrass gives you all the benefits of customized databases and the cost is quite reasonable.

Working with the WaterGrass team on customization has allowed the Huron River Watershed Council to get exactly what we want out of the data, database, and interface. Often for a few hundred dollars we are able to make a substantive improvement to functionality. It takes a real investment in staff time, but it’s well worth the improved functionality and/or efficiency. Plus, we get to work with peer organizations in doing so!”

Jason Frenzel, Volunteer & Stewardship Coordinator for the Huron River Watershed Council

“One of the most rewarding aspects of working on custom structures with the Watergrass team is the way it allows us to examine our workflow. I’ve found myself implementing certain policies as a way to work around dysfunctional data collection – and I didn’t even realize how inefficient we’d become until I walked through the “why” we do it that way. The team at Watergrass kept asking us why we wanted certain things and what our end goals were which encouraged greater efficiency and reduced steps.”  

Wendy Lotze, Director of Volunteer Programs, Arizona Trail Association

The unexpressed downside for our clients is the commitment and effort required to fit the database to their organization, to work with us and to evangelize amongst colleagues so that the new software is adopted. 

And there is the unpredictable timeline. We do our best to scope out the project precisely, but as we near completion and users try out the beta product, they inevitably have more suggestions, which pushes the timeline back. We could insist on simply completing the project as originally scoped out, but that turns out to be a mistake. All those small touches that our clients suggest are the difference between a product that gets used and one that doesn’t. So we’ve learned to embrace them.

Jennifer from Clinton River Watershed Council (CRWC) and Baird Straughan from WaterGrass. We’re truly grateful to be working with groups like CRWC, helping to enhance their work and push their mission forward.

The members of the WaterGrass team have worked at the kinds of conservation nonprofits we now serve, so this process of fitting a database to user needs is a natural extension of our previous jobs – a way to meet some of the needs we ourselves experienced. But it’s really the client organizations that make this possible, and it’s exciting to work with them to realize their visions.

Webinar: 9 Database Practices That Grow Organizations

Posted on by Karrie Kressler
Webinar: 9 Database Practices That Grow Organizations

The date for this webinar has passed. If you missed it and would like a copy of the session, please send an email to contact@watergrass.org to request a copy.

Whether you’re a small group just starting out or an established organization, there are “best practices” for data management that are appropriate for your size and will help your organization grow.

Beginning groups may simply need to standardize their protocol for entering donations and creating new contacts.

More advanced groups may automate outreach for volunteer events and training, or automatically generate key reports to measure progress.

Where are you in your database journey?

In this free webinar you’ll explore your own organization’s “Database Culture” and we’ll help you figure out your next move on the ladder of best practices. Hope to see you there!

“This webinar was incredibly useful and instructive for not only tips on best practices for using the software you have, but also tips and steps for encouraging your organization to see the benefit of investing in donor management software.”

– Alex Faber, Superior Rivers Watershed Association

Webinar: New Email Options

Posted on by Karrie Kressler
Webinar: New Email Options

The date for this webinar has passed. If you missed it and would like a copy of the session, please send an email to contact@watergrass.org to request a copy.

Emailing from Salesforce (and from all databases built on it, like WaterGrass) just improved markedly. If you have worries about deliverability or syncing with your mailing list, new tools can make emailing straight from the database easier, more reliable and better targeted.

In this webinar, we’ll explore:

  • Free emailing from Salesforce itself
    • With DKIM and SPF authentication to improve deliverability
    • Through Salesforce’s HTML Editor
    • And Salesforce’s Lightning Template Builder
  • The new Mailchimp to Salesforce integration (not free, but much better than the previous one)
  • Campaign Monitor and its slick new integration into Salesforce

Special Guest: Carly Schmidt, Membership & Communications Manager for River Network will weigh in on her experience with Campaign Monitor.

The Latest and What’s Coming Next

Posted on by Karrie Kressler
The Latest and What’s Coming Next

WaterGrass’ Recent Developments and Plans for 2024

Just in case you missed it, WaterGrass has been hard at work on some new system features. The majority of our developments have been motivated by the needs and suggestions of you, our users. 

And we’re not done yet. Check out where we’ve been and what’s coming soon to the WaterGrass database.

Recent Developments

  • More Payment Processors: In addition to Click & Pledge and iATS, we now integrate with Classy and GiveLively. In fact, our new data structure allows us to integrate with most apps that non-profits like.
  • New reports to Keep Your Fundraising and Programs on Track: We’ve added multiple New reports, including new approaches to donor and member retention reporting and our Cumulative Annual Fundraising Report which shows how total donations this year compare to the last two years.
  • Duplication Management Keeps to Your Data Clean:
    • We added 6+ de-duping and data cleanup reports to help keep your data robust.
    • Improved record matching to reduce the creation of duplicate contacts.
    • Created a routine to find duplicate emails across all our email fields.
  • Process Lists of Participants More Flexibly: Process lists of event participants and assign hours en masse, now with custom fields and the ability to divide really large lists into chunks.
  • Volunteers Manage Their Own Participation: The new Volunteer Portal allows volunteers to self-report their hours to you (which you then approve or reject), see their total hours, manage their contact information, sign up for new events or cancel their participation. 
  • Membership Renewal Automation: WaterGrass can now email members when it comes time for them to renew. Pilot testing shows many members renew right away, reducing your workload for membership management. 
  • … along with dozens of small improvements or modifications that were necessitated by changes in Salesforce or suggested by you.

In addition to the system upgrades, in 2023 alone we invested thousands of hours in support, training and individualized customization of WaterGrass.

Coming This Year…

  • Waitlists and Shifts for Volunteer Events: Organizers can set up multiple shifts for the same event, and track waitlists and cancellations to keep their events full.
  • Modernized Styling: We are updating styling across our platform, starting with our volunteer registration forms, and providing instructions for how to apply your brand across our features.
  • Soft Credit Tracking: New functionality to better track gift memberships, donor-advised funds, and peer-to-peer fundraising donations.
  • Constituent Mapping: See your donors, volunteers and members on a map. Customize donation thresholds to further refine the map display.
  • Project Mapping: See your projects and their status on Google maps. Can be used to get an overview of projects and infrastructure such as storm drains or trail maintenance sites. The map can be embedded on your website and updates automatically to display the latest information in the database. 
  • Event Calendar: This calendar will automatically display upcoming volunteer events as they are created, and it can be embedded in your organization’s website.
  • …along with hundreds of other small tweaks for our current features.

We’re excited and well on track to start rolling out some of these features mid-year. Thank you for your continued collaboration in the process!

If you see an existing feature you’d like to explore, let us know. We’re happy to walk you through it and get it set up in your system.