Now that our one-stop fundraising platform Panorama has been launched, we've been excited to see the positive reception it's been receiving! To get a deeper dive into what it was like to work on Panorama, we spoke to Grant Halsey, Director of Product Strategy here at FrontStream, about the platform's goals, what problems it solves, and what makes it so much different than any other fundraising product out there.
FrontStream Product Strategy Director Grant Halsey
What was your goal when building Panorama?
The goal for Panorama was to build a platform that is a comprehensive solution for nonprofits, but also one that enables them to connect with constituents and deliver amazing experiences to them at every touchpoint with an organization.
At FrontStream we have a long history of developing best in class point solutions – we’ve solved one particular problem really, really well. The problem we’ve seen is that bringing together these desperate solutions is next to impossible, which means you’re never really getting the most out of any of them. The goal is to engage constituents and compel donors to take action, and to do that effectively means you need a connected system.
What common nonprofit problems were you looking to solve with Panorama?
With Panorama, we’re really looking to increase efficiency within an organization while at the same time letting them better engage their constituents. That breaks down to a couple common problems:
- Wasted productivity – I watch organizations spend time learning multiple systems, manually re-entering data into system, struggled with unwieldy spreadsheets, and sifting through data to reconcile reports.
- Lack of real-time visibility into fundraising success - Having overlapping systems makes it difficult or impossible to pinpoint the ROI on events and campaigns, much less in real time. Understanding performance is crucial to growing an organization, but the amount of time it takes to source, extract and analyze this data means it out of date by the time the right people lay eyes on it.
- Integration cost – For organizations that do try and bridge the systems they have, it takes an enormous amount of time and money to integrating, maintaining, and upgrade these applications. That’s valuable time and money that could be better spent.
- Donor satisfaction – It’s essential that an organization keep their constituents engaged, and that bar is raised every day. An integrated solution ensures the right person at an organization have instantaneous access to all the constituent information they need to nurture and serve their constituents.
What do you think some of the best features of Panorama are?
Above everything else, it’s the real-time nature of the system. The reporting and communication tools are powerful, but ultimately that’s all enabled by data coming across as it happens. No more batch processes, no more imports, no more building one-off reports.
How is Panorama different from other products on the market right now?
Nonprofits have some really awesome choices out there right now, and there are new solutions popping up every day. The current all-in-one solutions on the market today tend to lack the capability to run modern, innovative fundraising events. Giving Days, viral campaigns, social media based fundraising, and peer-to-peer events all take specialized capabilities that no other all-in-one solution does well. For those sorts of initiatives, organizations have been forced to spend additional time and money on one off solutions and have outgrown their legacy all-in-one.
Why do you enjoy working at FrontStream?
It’s easy to come to work motivated when everyday you’re working for users that are passionate about what they do and the tools we provide. That passion is contagious, and it drives everyone at FrontStream to provide the best service and technology that we can.
Learn more about Panorama and why it's the best-in-class solution for your nonprofit!
