How Bellevue Youth Choirs keeps things fun and easy for children and parents with Groupanizer!
“Groupanizer has made life easier by consolidating many separate tools into one program. Previously, we depended on a webmaster, but now I’m able to update the website myself or even delegate to a volunteer. Best of all, as a smaller company Groupanizer really connects with its customers. I’ve been able to receive excellent support for whatever questions I’ve had.”
— Madeleine Stephens, Managing Director at Bellevue Youth Choirs
The Client
Bellevue Youth Choirs (BYC) is a large choral organization that comprises six choir levels and serves over one hundred youth, ages 4-18, from the Bellevue area of Washington State. Choir members learn musicianship, vocal technique and performance skills, and participate in mainstage concerts, outreach and community events, as well as regional festivals and tours.
Executive Summary
When Madeleine Stephens stepped into her new role as Executive Director of Bellevue Youth Choirs, she realized she had a lot of organizational work to do. The choir’s operational management system was overly complicated and only editable by a webmaster, who left the organization, taking his system and the knowledge of how to use it with him. These structural challenges and staff changes put Madeleine in the middle of a difficult transitional period, with inefficient work processes, limited organizational support and frustrated staff.
Implementing Groupanizer allowed Madeleine to streamline Bellevue Youth Choirs’ operational processes, managing registration, membership, attendance, payments and more all with one integrated system. Using Essentials, Madeleine has saved time and money, boosted staff productivity, and built Bellevue Youth Choirs into an even stronger community. And the best part? The staff and choristers are having more fun.
The Challenge
When Madeleine started, she discovered an overly complicated, outdated membership database that was only accessible by a webmaster. When that webmaster left the organization, taking his knowledge and database with him, he left Madeleine and her staff scrambling to find the information they needed to do their jobs. Bellevue Youth Choirs found themselves using too many separate tools to accomplish different tasks, leading to a confusing, inefficient workflow that got in the way of daily operations.
It became clear that in order for her small team to manage their large membership, retain choristers, and attract new members, they desperately needed a more comprehensive, user-friendly system - and they needed it fast!
The Solution
Madeleine discovered Choir Genius, a tool built by Groupanizer specifically for the organization and management of choirs. She was able to integrate Bellevue Youth Choirs’ public website and private member database into one system and customize it to their unique needs as a Youth Choir.
User-managed membership database
Parents update their family accounts themselves, saving Madeleine hours of administrative labour. Weekly attendance reminders are automatically sent to program participants, and choristers (or parents) can submit their attendance online or by email.
Customizable account fields
Built-in fields for the important details (including allergies, photo/video permissions and emergency contact information), with customization. Within each family account, Madeleine can add fields to request additional information pertinent to her group, such as grade, theory level, and special skills.
Quick, direct communication
Features like email lists, notifications, and polls are built into the platform, ensuring Madeleine can get important information to the people who need it, when they need it, without the need to manually keep an external list up to date. She can also poll her members and gather any details she needs using fillable forms.
Online membership store
Seasonal renewal went from a big, time-consuming job to being almost completely automated using the online membership store. Returning members were invoiced automatically. Parents were able to easily register for new memberships, and renew existing memberships for multiple children in different choirs in one single purchase.
Website
Madeleine is no longer dependent on an external webmaster to update the choir’s online presence, she is using an attractive template and can easily make changes and customize it herself.
The Results
By implementing Groupanizer’s Choir Genius, Madeleine created an efficient, organized workflow that made her job easier, kept members happy, and realized the following positive outcomes:
Parents quickly adapted to the membership site and shared resoundingly positive feedback. Since introducing the new system, one or both parents of all choir members have used the website at least once a month.
All invoices were paid online, with 80% paid on time, and all choir members submitted their attendance online.
Almost 200 people have signed up for Bellevue Choir’s list in the last year.
Because all the information she needs is available in one easily accessible place, Madeleine has been able to stay on top of a very big job without adding staff.
Madeleine can quickly and easily update the website herself, or delegate simpler tasks to a volunteer.
Even through the challenges of the pandemic, Bellevue Youth Choirs has used Groupanizer tools to deliver their program virtually, debuting the automatic payment processing with great success.
Learn more about using Groupanizer Products to manage your group
Essentials is an intuitive, all-in-one online toolkit that helps groups get organized and grow, by handling registration, membership, invoicing, payments and communications all in one place.
With more than a decade of experience, thousands of customers, and four major platform versions, we have learned exactly what it takes to make any group work better. Trust the experts, we’ll make managing your group easy so that you have more time to spend on the good stuff. Choir Genius is an intuitive, all-in-one solution that helps choirs stay organized by handling their membership, music library, events, payments and communications all in one place, and letting members and parents self-serve.
Choir Genius is a management tool built by Groupanizer exclusively for choirs.
