Charity increases productivity with forms processing

Today, Apr 2000

When people donate

to a charityh they

want their money

used for the cuase,

not administration.

To reduce costs,

Samaritan's Purse

installed a forms

processing system to

double productivity

and shorten

processing times.

Too much of a good thing: that was the problem for Samaritan's Purse, a nonprofit Christian mission based in Boone, NC, which is led by Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Rev. Billy Graham. As the response to their Operation Christmas Child project grew and the donations poured in, the systems they used to record, track and process donations were quickly becoming overburdened.

"We realized that we could not do the work we were chartered to do by using our old methods," says Barry Hubert, director of information systems at Samaritan's Purse.

Handling donations for the Operation Christmas Child project was difficult and time consuming.

As well as receiving checks, the organization also receives donations of toys - millions of them. In 1994, 110,000 shoeboxes filled with toys were received. Today more than 2.5 million shoeboxes are received. And the number of toys received annually is growing by an amazing 60%.

While this is good news, the cost of processing the donations was also increasing. An entire staff was needed to key the hand-printed names, addresses and other information into the charity's computer system.

Since labor was scarce in Boone, and up to 30,000 shoeboxes could be received on a single day, hiring local employees was difficult.

In 1997 matters hit the breaking point. Samaritan's Purse needed to close its books by January 15 and projections showed that this wouldn't happen until mid-February, and then only if they doubled their processing staff!

Samaritan's Purse contacted RecTec (727-446-2600), a systems integrator to help them find a solution. Their needs were complicated because they used a donation form with solid lines underneath the data; not "drop-out" forms.

RecTec suggested OCR for Forms from Microsystems Technology (813222-0414/www.microsystemsonline. com) because it automatically separates relevant information from the form.

A test of various solutions was arranged and OCR for Forms performed well above the other systems. Microsystems won the bid and the system was installed in October 1997.

The system today works pretty much the same as when it was first installed. The donation cards that accompany the shoeboxes are coded in the mailroom and batched into groups. Staff sort the cards and make sure they're not torn or illegible. The cards are then run through Fujitsu (800-626-4686/www.fcpa.com) and Bell & Howell (877-243-4624/ www.bellhowell.com) scanners. OCR for Forms running on a Windows NT server automatically captures the information, or flags the file if information is missing or unclear.

After the data is captured, staff review an electronic image of the form, check the fields that need to be verified and compare the dollar amounts against an on-screen image of the hand-printed form. Once verified, batches of forms are "submitted" and stored as an ASCII file that's later uploaded to the corporate donor database.

Since the system retains a scanned, electronic image of the paper forms, Samaritan's Purse was able to increase efficiency even further by outsourcing some of their processing to InService America. A real-time link between the two organizations enables them to share information simultaneously.

"We knew we could improve our production rate with this setup," says Hubert. "In fact, we nearly doubled the processing rate that we expected. We processed 625,000 contribution forms in a seven-week period. Individual operators, who had previously been processing 100 forms per hour, increased to 150 to 200 forms per hour.

"We closed our books for 1997 right on time. A year later, when we were closing fiscal 1998, we completed our forms processing work on January 9, 1999, well ahead of schedule.

"OCR for Forms made a big contribution toward the uniformity of the data being entered into our system, and to the cleanliness of the data. Before, everyone working in data entry had to know the rules and be good at keying. Now, verification is straightforward, and we can pass on more involved post-processing decisions to a smaller, highly skilled core of staffers."

He extols the product's batch balancing support crosschecks and praises the Accu-ZIP feature that automatically corrects or adds ZIP codes and town names. "This is a highly flexible product for which people are constantly finding new applications," Hubert explains.

In mid-1998, Samaritan's Purse began using OCR for Forms with pre-printed donation forms and handprinted volunteer forms. "We're continually amazed at how well the system converts fairly illegible handprint into accurate and usable data," says Hubert. "OCR for Forms is a cornerstone of the process for us as we grow and expand our ministry."