FirstClass Newsletter Spring 2008

Welcome to the Spring 2008 edition of the FirstClass email newsletter.

Since our last newsletter, the FirstClass team at Clearwater has been kept busy supporting and developing FirstClass. Here’s an idea of what we have been up to.

Current Versions and Recent Developments

The latest (general release) version of FirstClass (2.1.34) has been rolled out to most FirstClass users and most of the feedback has been good.

The Added Value functionality was eagerly anticipated and a number of charities are starting to make good use of it. It has been suggested to us by one of our users that the Added Value records could be moved to the Finance tab on the Case form. What do other users think? Another idea was to display the Total Value Added to the Case on the Case form header where it was always on display. All feedback welcome!

Following upgrading to Version 2.1.34 a number of users discovered that their Case Browser Settings had been lost. Please accept our apologies. Unfortunately, with a system as extensive and flexible as FirstClass it is not always easy to ensure that all possible testing for all combinations of circumstances has taken place. Rest assured that we will try even harder to prevent this happening again in the future.

New versions of FirstClass are now numbered 2.2.1 onwards. The latest version of these will soon be ready for general release. This new version now contains two new major developments:

Life Interest Module
In the last couple of months GDBA went live with our new Life Interest module. This development was designed to match a specification initially drawn up by Gordon Crowe and further refined by Linda Henley with input from ourselves. The Life Interest module allows GDBA to record additional information about Trusts including their associated life tenants, trustees, properties and share portfolios. This is available at a small additional cost. Please contact Gordon (Cooke) if you are interested in knowing more about it.
Grants Administration Module
In September last year, we were approached by Peter Smith, Head of IT at Dogs Trust. He was looking for a system to help his charity better manage their Grants Administration process. He recognised that FirstClass already had much of the functionality he was looking for, for example the ability to store information about organisations and people. Also he needed functionality to enable incoming post to be scanned, letters to be automatically created and emails to be sent and received. Last week this new module went live at Dogs Trust. They will use it to record details about all of the Charitable Trusts they have contact with. This will include processing all of their Charitable Trust Applications and recording all of the actual grants they receive as a result. Once again please contact Gordon if you would like to know more about this new development or you would like to pass on information to one of your colleagues.

Ideas for new FirstClass Developments

We have recently been asked if we could develop a new module to record information about a charity’s Free Will Scheme. We would be very interested to hear from any other FirstClass users who would like to know more. Does anyone have any other ideas for further developments to FirstClass?

Legacy Monitor

At the start of this year Clearwater entered into a collaboration with Legacy Foresight, working with them to collect and analyse data for Legacy Monitor, a new programme incorporating an annual Legacy Market Audit and quarterly Benchmarking Surveys. The programme was initiated by some of Legacy Foresight’s longstanding clients, who have been helping them to develop the service. Over 30 charities have joined the consortium, of which 21 are FirstClass users. If your charity is one of these, you will have already received a number of Grid Reports to help you provide the required data easily. You will also have seen the first Legacy Monitor Benchmarking report, which is based on quarterly income and notifications from the last 2 calendar years.

Our relationship with Legacy Foresight is working well. They have extensive experience in analysing and forecasting legacy income, and interpreting trends in legacy giving. Both teams are committed to making the service as informative and effortless for our clients as possible. We hope that it will lead to further joint projects in the future – so watch this space!

Welcome to new FirstClass Users

Since our last newsletter, The Children’s Society and The Royal Star & Garter Homes have started using FirstClass. In both cases we had to migrate data from Raiser’s Edge to provide a set of ‘go live’ FirstClass data. We also set up links to Raiser’s Edge from within FirstClass for both charities.

Additionally Alzheimer’s Society, Blue Cross, NSPCC and The Children’s Society have started using the FirstClass scanning module, while UNICEF has started using the FirstClass ‘In Memoriam module’.

FirstClass Express

We now have 8 charities using FirstClass Express. The YMCA, HAPPA and The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts are our most recent converts.

Just over 6 months ago Mind moved from the old ‘Access’ version of FirstClass to FirstClass Express. (We now only have two charities left using this old version of FirstClass. Hopefully, both will have moved onto either the latest version of FirstClass or FirstClass Express before too long.)

Linda Norgrove has been working from home as a consultant for Mind for a number of years now. Moving to FirstClass Express has helped Mind to streamline their legacy administration. Linda is now able to maintain all of the Mind legacy data using FirstClass Express, while Mind personnel are able to access their data to run reports etc.

Linda comments that “FirstClass Express is a joy to use – very user-friendly and compact, whilst retaining the essential features of First Class. Access to FirstClass Express has meant avoiding duplication of effort and both speeded up and increased the efficiency of the legacy administration process.“

Four of the charities now using FirstClass Express do so because it enables external legacy consultants to maintain their legacy data remotely, while allowing the charity access to the data themselves.

At the time of writing another charity is in the process of moving to FirstClass Express; more news in the next newsletter.

Finally we have changed the way that we licence FirstClass Express, so that more than one user from a charity can access their data at the same time. Please contact Gordon if you would like to purchase an additional FirstClass Express licence.

CARE Contacts and Raiser’s Edge

FirstClass has the ability to link to most supporter databases. We now have about a dozen FirstClass users making use of these links.

Two of the main databases that FirstClass has been configured to link to are the Raiser’s Edge and Care Contacts databases. As such, we have had discussions with both of these companies to see if these links can be further developed and more streamlined. Presently we are working closely with members of the Blackbaud Product Development team to enable us to be able to call the Raiser’s Edge Search and Contact screens directly from within FirstClass.

We will contact all users when we have further information on this.

FirstClass Support

And finally once again a quick reminder that we have a dedicated email address for FirstClass support:
firstclass.support@clearwater-consultancy.co.uk

This is in addition to our individual email addresses. If you use this new email address your email will be forwarded to each of us in the FirstClass support team.

Please note that we are still on the phone on 01257 272730, so please remember to call for any urgent matters!

If you want to catch up on previous newsletters, please visit our website:
www.clearwater-consultancy.co.uk

Many thanks

F Gordon Cooke

Clearwater Consultancy Ltd. 18 St. George’s Street, Chorley, Lancashire. PR7 2AA

Tel: +44 (0)1257 272730