Drowning Prevention Auckland: driving community outreach
Transforming water safety education and stakeholder engagement
According to Water Safety New Zealand, the provisional fatal drowning total for Aotearoa to date in 2023 is 471, including six drowning deaths which resulted from Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.
Drowning Prevention Auckland (DPA), an education and social advocacy institution, plays a vital role in water safety awareness in the wider Tāmaki Makaurau region. They work to prevent fatalities by promoting water safety through education, research, and advocacy for individuals, families, communities, and workplaces.
Deloitte was engaged to assist DPA with establishing their requirements for a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, including uncovering the technical, functional and user requirements that will allow DPA to go to market for a new CRM provider. DPA’s existing CRM system was not user-friendly, and annual updates came at a high cost, resulting in ongoing challenges to overall workforce efficiencies and their ability to leverage and foster community engagement. It is also believed to have impacted on fundraising opportunities as the existing platform lacked a lead nurturing functionality.
Exploration activities and workshops were conducted with DPA to identify a CRM system that would be fit-for-purpose and complimentary to DPA’s requirements.
Deloitte helped to develop a comprehensive business case for a new CRM system that would be able to seamlessly integrate donor tracking with business processes.
DPA’s requirements are for an efficient CRM system that can help report outputs and outcomes more efficiently, as well as track clients and supporters to optimise operations, enhance stakeholder experience, and cultivate stronger relationships with the community and potential donors. The ultimate goal was to facilitate greater reach of their drowning prevention education, especially in communities that need it most.
This project took a technology-agnostic approach, to ensure stress points were comprehensively identified and reflected on DPA’s current state. DPA’s existing concerns and future ambitions would then be mapped as technical, functional and user requirements. It was important that the mapped areas of concern and the processes around them would not be constrained by the confines of a specific CRM solution either.
The project has proven that adequate investment in a CRM solution can provide significant benefits to an organisation. In this instance, the benefits conferred to DPA extended to its staff as well and contributed greatly towards its core vision -a Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland free from preventable drowning.
By improving data and research management and streamlining operational (and currently manual) processes, a CRM can help DPA better connect with donors, volunteers, the wider community and other stakeholders, resulting in reduced administrative burden, increased capability to refine funding applications, improved stakeholder relationships, and enhanced overall organisational performance.
The outputs achieved from this project have equipped DPA with the necessary background research and understanding to inform the development of a compelling business case and a robust decision-making process to invest in a CRM solution.
Our team has been delighted to work alongside DPA in this project as part of Deloitte New Zealand’s ‘Good Thinking’ initiative, which provides our consultants with opportunities to volunteer their technical skillsets and experience in meaningful and impactful ways to give back to the community.
1 As at 26 June, 2023
