Strengthening connections to Jewish life, identity, and community
Jewish Book Council uses Soapbox Engage and Salesforce to support their growing programs and constituent relations
The mission of Jewish Book Council (JBC) is to promote the reading, writing, and publishing of Jewish literature. Through literature, JBC aims to educate, enrich, and strengthen connections to Jewish life, identity, and community.
After over seventy years of meaningful work with Jewish communities throughout the world, JBC encountered the wonderful problem of growth beyond their existing infrastructure. Given the demands of their development, they needed a system to centralize information and grant team members swift access to that information.
Luckily, they connected with Soapbox Engage to build the first CRM instance in Jewish Book Council’s history. The cherry on top? An online donations tool fully integrated into their new Salesforce CRM.
“Through Soapbox Engage’s help with our Salesforce integration, Jewish Book Council is able to focus on the work that really matters for our organization: supporting authors and engaging readers.”
Megan Reynolds, Development Coordinator
Increasing retention rates and engagement with custom fields
Prior to working with Soapbox Engage, JBC used Excel spreadsheets to track a majority of their data. With a robust offering of programs, and many constituent types (donors, authors, members, site organizers, etc.), they needed a system that could support the growth of their organization and communities.
“The Soapbox Engage professional services team was very helpful throughout our Salesforce integration and Soapbox Engage donor page setup process. It was clear they had the flexibility and expertise for the project.”
Megan Reynolds, Development Coordinator
The professional services team at Soapbox Engage helped move JBC from Excel spreadsheets to Salesforce. This included the implementation of custom fields that enable JBC to track information specific to their organization's needs. These custom fields help JBC organize their constituents inside Salesforce, and then track engagement with their various constituent types. Better engagement leads to higher member retention rates and strengthened support for authors.
“Salesforce has allowed Jewish Book Council to easily track membership levels and we can now more easily send renewal reminders, which increases our retention rates and engagement amongst our constituents.”
Megan Reynolds, Development Coordinator
Centralizing data and streamlining operations in Salesforce
Custom Salesforce fields enable JBC to be hyper-specific when tracking their members and community engagement. But that’s not where the data magic ends. Salesforce centralizes all JBC data in a single knowledge base, allowing for seamless cross-team collaboration and real-time data reports and analytics.
“Salesforce has streamlined our operations by centralizing our information and saving us time we used to spend hunting through different Excel documents.”
Megan Reynolds, Development Coordinator
Previously, JBC used multiple spreadsheets to track their programs and offerings, like their annual literary journal, Paper Brigade. Moving their data into Salesforce allowed them to see the status and nature of all their programs in one space. They also now have the ability to use Salesforce reports to understand their data, strengthen engagement, and draw fast comparisons.
Unlimited online donations forms integrated with Salesforce
In addition to Salesforce implementation services, Soapbox Engage offers a number of online engagement tools that are designed to talk to Salesforce. JBC decided they wanted to expand their fundraising abilities with the Soapbox Engage Donations app. They knew this app could offer a recurring payments option, where previously donors could only make one-time gifts.
The best part? All donor and transaction data is automatically stored in their new Salesforce database. A transaction through the Donations app can be associated with an existing Contact or it can generate a new one. With all donor data in Salesforce, JBC staff can easily send emails to check in, encourage membership sign-ups or renewals, or offer exclusive benefits and events.
“The fact that the Soapbox Engage Donations app immediately integrates with Salesforce saves us time and energy that we can spend focusing on our mission and our constituents.”
Megan Reynolds, Development Coordinator
Founded in 1944, Jewish Book Council is the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature. For decades, JBC has brought people together for meaningful discussions about Jewish life, identity, and culture through a literary lens. Soapbox Engage is proud to support this ever-growing organization with tools and solutions that can evolve alongside JBC and their community. To learn more about Jewish Book Council, visit their website or support their work.