Providing financial and leadership services to United Methodist communities

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Texas Methodist Foundation (TMF) offers assistance to United Methodists in Texas and New Mexico through investments, loans, grants, leadership, purpose discernment, gift planning, and endowment services. As the largest United Methodist foundation in the country, TMF seeks to steward the potential of the Church toward building cultures of purpose, generosity, and courage that will ultimately bring about the potential of a better world.

Prior to working with Soapbox Engage, TMF had difficulties with their previous provider’s platform and support. They were looking for a more user-friendly product that offered better features and greater flexibility. They found their match with the Soapbox Engage Events, Donations, and Forms apps — plus a friendly support team!

Making giving a breeze with the Soapbox Engage Donations app

Beginning in the midst of the Great Depression, Texas Methodist Foundation has been supporting, finding, and resourcing innovations for churches within Texas and New Mexico for over 80 years. To sustain their work over the years, and to help faith-based communities thrive, TMF is buoyed by the support of generous donors and investors.

Luckily, the Soapbox Engage Donations app makes giving through the TMF website easier than ever. The app creates an intuitive donation process on the user-end and offers time-saving organization inside Salesforce on the backend. With the help of custom Salesforce fields, every time a donation is submitted, important data is organized into auto-generated Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, and Payments. Previously, TMF staff had to enter all of this data manually.

The giving process from the donor's perspective is simple and allows the donor to choose whether they would like to make a one-time or monthly gift. Most importantly, a dropdown custom picklist asks the donor to select which specific fund they would like their donation to support, allowing them to prioritize scholarships, outreach, leadership, or a specific initiative. Donors can also choose whether they want to make an anonymous donation and if they would like to cover the transaction fee.

Driving impact and engagement with the Soapbox Engage Events and Forms apps

Whether it’s registration for an annual event intended to engage donors, or an online application for a grant, Soapbox Engage helps support Texas Methodist Foundation in deepening their connections with their network.

With the Soapbox Engage Events app, TMF can create an unlimited number of event pages, capture key data, and generate reports in Salesforce. When setting up an event, it is easy to set ticket capacities, gather attendee information through standard or custom fields, and customize the event details with text, images, or videos.

The ease of creating events with Soapbox Engage saves TMF event planners 5-10 hours of planning and processing per event. Director of IT, Cindy White, remarked that the training/onboarding process for learning to use Soapbox Engage was “very easy,” making for a smooth transition when bringing other TMF staff onto the platform.

This smooth training process is also true for the Soapbox Engage Forms app, which is currently being used for group grant applications to TMF. With questions that are 100% customizable and flow directly into Salesforce, the possibilities with the Forms app are nearly endless.

For years, Texas Methodist Foundation has served as a vital resource to a dynamic United Methodist Church, guided by their core values of servanthood, integrity, and competence. As their mission grows across many miles and many years to come, Soapbox Engage will be there to evolve alongside their needs. To learn more about the mission, history, and work of TMF, visit their website.