Welcome to DARCY

This site is designed to provide up-to-date information on the latest project news regarding the Darcy Implementation project.   Please visit this site as we will be updating it often.  If you have any questions, please email darcy@yale.edu.

HAVE YOU HEARD? 
DARCY (Donor and Alumni Relations Constituents at Yale) is the new application that will replace Benefactor and BERT.  DARCY is Yale’s Implementation of Blackbaud’s Enterprise Constituent Relationship Management application.
 
WHEN IS THIS HAPPENING?
DARCY is planned to deploy July 23,2012.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT AT GO-LIVE?
The main goal for DARCY is to replace the existing functionality that you currently have in Benefactor & BERT. This includes:

• Core constituent data –key information about our alumni and other constituents at a single glance; ability to easily search for individuals and groups of constituents.
  Updated Dues & Online Giving Pages– Improved online tools for making dues payments, gifts, or pledge payments with enhanced integration for revenue processing.
  Event Tracking – Ability to track event invitees and attendance (similar to capability today).
  Donation and Dues Transaction Processing – Enhanced integration for credit card and other transactions.
  Reports and Queries – Enhanced, flexible querying and reporting tools.
  

ARE THERE OTHER KEY SCOPE OPPORTUNITIES AFTER GO-LIVE?
YES! In addition to the items above, staff will now have a tool for:

• Constituent Contact Management –  Ability to track your interactions (personal contacts, volunteer activities, written communications)  with your constituents benefiting in a more robust sense of interrelationship among constituents, volunteers, organizations and other affiliations, all expanding Yale’s 360 degree view of how we interact with our constituents.
  Prospect & Volunteer Moves Management – New and improved tools for managing and cultivating your prospects and volunteers.  Expanded use of the Prospect Management module (that fundraisers use) to assist you in moving your super volunteers to higher levels of involvement.
  Direct Marketing –Integrates direct marketing campaigns with constituent information, enabling you to plan and set budgets, identify and target high-performing segments, view marketing activities, and monitor real-time performance results, as well as send and track broadcast email messages to your constituents through DARCY.
  Event Management – More than just tracking invitees & attendees. It streamlines creating and tracking event progress, expense, registration, invitations, seating and much more.

Design Cycles

The project team is using an iterative approach to designing and configuring the end user experience by conducting a series of Sprints. While overall design will use the same 30-calendar day cycle as the technical Sprint cycles, design will also be grouped into logical cycles by business area.  One logical design cycle may span multiple Sprints. The implementation will have eleven design cycles. The design cycles will address core functional and technical requirements, security mapping, conversion data mapping, and will influence custom solutions and interfaces to be designed by the Technical team.  Click here, to view our Design Cycle diagram.  

Access to the sandbox for SMEs:  After each design cycle we are encouraging SMEs (subject Matter Experts) to get in and play with the system and begin some high level process testing for us.  We provide them with documents that will help guide you on your next mission.  

Each Design Cycle is comprised of five major activities:

1. Preparation
2. Training and Pre-Design Configuration
3. Design Sessions
4. Configuration and Documentation
5. Design Review: Design validation and approval

The Design Cycles are:

Design Cycle VII: Alumni Net Community (complete)√
This design cycle addresses interactive online components of the solution not specifically covered in other Design Cycles. This will include the online directory, career network, club sites and email communication.
Design Cycle VI: Event Management (complete) √
The business processes that support Development and AYA event management will be explored in this cycle. This includes, event budgeting, registration (online and offline), invitation processes, registration fees, and related event solicitation and follow-up activities.
Design Cycle V: Stewardship and Recognition (complete)√
This design cycle will address stewardship plans and activities, endowment fund stewardship, recognition programs and giving level programs, and courtesy thank yous.
Design Cycle IV: Mass Marketing and Communications (complete) √
This design cycle reviewed all business processes and reporting related to acquiring and soliciting annual fund donors and constituents through multi-channelled direct marketing, communications, and solicitation efforts.
Design Cycle III: Revenue Operations (complete) √
Business processes supporting revenue management were examined in this design cycle. This includes online donation forms and related functionality, operational revenue processing, receipting, reminders, acknowledgements and reconciliation.
Design Cycle II: Prospect Management (complete) √
This design cycle examined the strategies and tactics that will drive prospect management, prospect research and planned giving.  Prospect Management II, (Design Cycle III) will examine the business processes related to managing grant proposals for corporate and foundation donors.  All business processes related to alumni engagement, communications and volunteer prospecting managed by the AYA will be discussed in this design cycle as well.  Click here to view a list of the PMI & PMII teams.
Design Cycle I: Core Principles (complete) √
Core Principles, which included an array of topics such as constituent record overview, membership types, relationship types, search components and techniques, address management, managing schools, degrees and education as well as how to expand and track our campaign fundraising methods.  Click here to view a list of the team. 

WHERE SHOULD BERT RETIRE TO? stay tuned.....

Questions?  
Under the strategic guidance of sponsor leadership, team members are the first point of contact to ensure your questions and business needs for your department are met.   Each team member is a valuable, knowledgeable resource and will be able to provide assistance to members of their department with the application.  Click here to view the Yale-Blackbaud Project Team.

Supporting Yale’s solution for fundraising and alumni relations