A Digital Transformation that Began with Marketing Hub
IGNITE National’s digital transformation story echoes the needs of nearly every nonprofit today. As an agile team with a limited budget, IGNITE needed to take their disparate CMS and CRM systems and consolidate them into one integrated platform. A successful transition would mean improved efficiency and overall impact, made possible by streamlined automation and easy-to-use tools. Over the last three years, IGNITE’s digital platform has improved in every way possible. In partnership with Digital Impact, IGNITE has implemented Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and CMS Hub, and the team is in the process of adding in Service Hub and exploring Operations Hub.
IGNITE got started right away with Marketing Hub. With a quick setup, the team was up and running within a few weeks, building campaigns, email automations and workflows, and landing pages with clarity and ease. While IGNITE’s engagement teams kept the organization’s external work moving, behind the scenes, Digital Impact continued the digital transformation with migrations away from outdated external systems.
Thanks to this powerful partnership between IGNITE and Digital Impact, what followed in the months and years to come is what nonprofit dreams are made of. What began with one program in California with approximately 12 participants is now a fully supported program in close to 40 states, operating on college campuses from coast to coast, and looking to work with approximately 20,000 young women this year.
6.5 Million People, 25 Websites, and One Amazing Chatbot
Leveraging Marketing Hub and Sales Hub, IGNITE executed its most successful campaign of all time: IGNITE the Vote. During the 2020 election, the organization’s small marketing team reached out to more than 60 different social influencers on Instagram and engaged them with clear messaging, audience targets, and CTAs. Over the course of 7 months, IGNITE engaged millions of different audience members and drove them to a custom ChatBot—SophiaBot—built using HubSpot.
Thanks to HubSpot’s existing ChatBot functionality, Digital Impact and IGNITE were able to build out SophiaBot with extraordinary complexity. The bot was designed to help individuals navigate registering to vote, where to vote, rules about voting in person versus by mail across every single state in the United States. Ultimately, IGNITE the Vote reached 6.5 million people, with SophiaBot engaging more than 50,000 on 25 different websites. An incredible feat, if we do say so ourselves!
A Hub For Every Occasion: Marketing, Fundraising, and Constituent Management
IGNITE the Vote was certainly an extraordinary campaign during an extraordinary time—and we’re so glad HubSpot could help when it mattered most. But that single campaign is only part of IGNITE National’s story with HubSpot. Over the last three years, the organization has migrated all of its legacy platforms and systems to HubSpot. The entire time, the team has continued its critical work without missing a beat, integrating new Hubs with intention and excitement.
"The campaign had so many pieces—influencers, ambassadors, advertising, and events. HubSpot made it seamless to manage all of that."
The key to this transformational success according to Digital Impact? First, understanding the tools available to nonprofits, especially the power that HubSpot can provide and all of the disparate systems it is capable of replacing. Then, understanding the data, and finally, understanding what was important from an organizational perspective. Once the mapping and strategy were in place, moving away from legacy systems was a breeze. HubSpot’s native-built integrations with platforms like Salesforce made migrations especially easy, alongside temporary syncs made possible by Zapier and HubSpot’s DataSync tool.
Ultimately, IGNITE National is nearly finished with its HubSpot transformation. They have successfully been able to implement Marketing Hub with nonprofits to communicate to their constituents and their participants as well as Sales Hub for fundraising. Together, the tools have transformed the way development teams think about fundraising and securing and recurring monthly donors. Since their transition, IGNITE has hired a database manager—which speaks to how much value they’ve gotten from HubSpot during such a short time period. Their team members have joined a number of HubSpot groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to exchange ideas and troubleshoot questions.
As of today, the organization is on an ambitious growth trajectory. Under IGNITE’s current five-year strategic plan the team hopes to train 70,000 young women across the US each year- nearly 10x as many women as they reach today. The organization wants to accelerate a nationwide culture shift that builds the belief in young women, that they are powerful, that they can be political leaders, and that they are needed at the decision-making table. And HubSpot will be vital in reaching these numbers of young people.
IGNITE’s message to other nonprofits looking to re-imagine their digital platforms? Make the time investment: It’s the most important investment that you can make. And, if you're ready to make that time investment into transforming your technology needs and your technology strategy, look at HubSpot.
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