For more than 25 years, Santropol Roulant has been creating food security and durable community networks in Montreal. Their annual winter campaign is an essential source of revenue for this mission. The winter campaign goal was initially set to $70,000, and they’ve been able to raise $88,000 while saving $3,300 in transaction fees with Zeffy.

Today I’m speaking with Melanie, Santropol Roulant’s Fundraising and Communications manager, about Santropol Roulant’s mission, raising money during the pandemic, and how Zeffy’s fundraising tools have benefitted her organization.

The goal of Santropol Roulant is to use food as a vehicle for social inclusion, Melanie tells me. 

“We achieve this through diverse programmings, such as our meals on wheels program and urban agriculture initiatives.” Donations and fundraising are essential to this mission. They allow Santropol Roulant to grow and prepare meals for their clients, host community events and incubate further developments like a bike repair shop and urban beekeeping."

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A More Transparent Way to Fundraise.

Santropol Roulant initially made the switch to Zeffy from a combination of CanadaHelps and Eventbrite. 

“I liked that there were no fees with Zeffy. We value honesty and transparency and like that our donors know exactly where their money is going.” 

They initially made the switch to cover the ticketing for their Golden Gala fundraiser in fall 2019. After using EventBrite in the past, they liked that Zeffy’s ticketing platform included nonprofit-specific features like automatic tax-receipting and the ability for attendees to add an additional donation after their purchase. Since then, Santropol Roulant has used Zeffy to cover their general donations, annual campaigns, and ticketed events. 

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The Need for a Modern Fundraising Platform with a Seamless Salesforce Integration

In addition to the price (or lack thereof), Zeffy’s integration with Salesforce was a decisive factor in making the switch. 

“It was a lot more complex [to use CanadaHelps], the direct link between Zeffy and Salesforce was key.” 

Furthermore, the ability to easily create and embed forms has proved essential, especially during the pandemic. Like many organizations, Santropol Roulant has been forced to limit in-person fundraising for the past two years. Thankfully, they’ve been able to make up for it with their winter campaign and a healthy community of repeat donors facilitated through Zeffy.

Additionally, members of the Santropol Roulant community have started to create their own peer-to-peer campaigns.These campaigns have allowed people to fundraise for Santropol Roulant from within their own networks and communities. A memorable example came from within the organization, when a board member completed a marathon in lederhosen to raise money for their operations. Despite not being able to operate normally, the organization has been able to provide the same essential services as before.

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With Zeffy, Santropol Roulant raised $18,000 above their initial fundraising campaign target, while saving $3,300 in transaction fees.

After more than two years and many successful campaigns Santropol Roulant has saved more than $7000 with Zeffy. 

“Zeffy has been really helpful for us and I’ll continue to spread the word to other organizations.”

Currently, the organization is looking to expand its circle of monthly donors (a fundraising manager’s job is never complete!) and planning their annual general meeting/community celebration at the end of March. If you are interested in learning more about Santropol Roulant’s initiatives or want to support the organization, you can do so HERE.