Case Studies

iWave is the Secret Weapon of My Fundraising Toolkit

Background:

The Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra (PEISO) is a community orchestra that was founded in 1967 and based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. PEISO is overseen by a volunteer board of directors who work to advance the mission of PEISO to make music accessible to all Islanders and visitors. When Wraychel Horne joined the Board of Directors, she brought 20 years of experience in community development to PEISO.

Challenge:

Ticket sales, fundraising events, and government funding account for approximately 65% of PEISO’s operating budget, so they rely on the support and contributions from donors to make up the difference. In order to find individuals and corporations with an affinity for the music community, the capacity to donate or sponsor, and the propensity to support their programs, the PEISO board relies on iWave.

Solution:

“When you work in this sector, fund development, fundraising, and donor relations have to become second nature,” says Wraychel “It becomes part of the toolkit you use in executive and leadership positions, and iWave has become the secret weapon of my fundraising toolkit”

Wraychel and the PEISO board have been using iWave since January 2020. Since the iWave headquarters is based in Prince Edward Island, Wraychel, along with the chair of the board and staff of PEISO, were able to attend a live demo at the iWave office. “It was a treat to have the in-person demo knowing that iWave does them virtually for clients all across the continent,” said Wraychel “it was very much a special occasion and we were blown away by the product.”

Once the team was onboarded, PEISO made effective use of iWave in their prospecting efforts. Using 360search, PEISO is able to find out individual capacity and understand the value alignment that their prospective donors have with their organization. Like many organizations, PEISO uses real estate as one of the key indicators of a prospective donor’s capacity to give. “The Symphony has a profile of local, retired, medium-higher income individuals and people who could consider bequests or gifts of estate or wills”, says Wraychel, “To be able to use iWave to look easily look up a prospects real estate portfolio, their holdings outside of the province, and their asset-worth, is invaluable information.”

PEISO is also in the process of launching a foundation. “After 55 years this will be a completely new endeavour for the symphony,” says Wraychel, “but we know that with iWave at our side we’ll be able to prospect for a whole new type of donor.” With iWave’s reliable wealth, philanthropic, and biographic data sources, PEISO accesses information on prospective donors and turns that into actionable information to ask the right person for the right amount at the right time.

Organization:

Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra

Location:

Charlottetown, PE

Industry:

Arts and Culture

Key Challenge:

Finding individuals and corporations with connections to arts and culture in their community to support PEISO’s programming.

Key Benefit:

iWave’s robust wealth and philanthropic data allow PEISO to turn information on prospective donors into action.

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“To be able to use iWave to look easily look up a prospects real estate portfolio, their holdings outside of the province, and their asset-worth, is invaluable information."

Wraychel Horne

Director
PEI Symphony Orchestra

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