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    From Hidden Data to High-Impact Insight

    How Concourse Cloud Helped the University of Cincinnati Foundation Unlock Real-Time Analytics, Streamline Operations & Strengthen Stewardship—Without Adding Headcount

    Download Concourse Cloud Overview

    Introduction 

    The University of Cincinnati Foundation (UCFND) stewards a $2 billion+ endowment and 2,600+ funds devoted to advancing UC’s mission.  Yet their CRM—hosted by a previous provider—locked away the very data their analysts needed. Gift-officer questions stalled, IT tickets piled up, and leadership flew blind.

    UCFND needed enterprise-grade analytics across any BI or visualization platform—without the six-figure cost of custom code or the risk of donor-data exposure.

    That’s when they partnered with Concourse Cloud.

     

     "We did not have direct access to tables in order to implement an advanced reporting tool.”  — Carrie White, VP Technology & Philanthropic Strategy

    The Challenges

    Something had to give at University of Cincinnati Foundation. They needed a partner who could unlock their data, end the ticket traffic jams, and light the path from guesswork to real-time insight.

    Locked Data

    No table access → BI tools couldn’t connect

    One-Size Hosting

    Only canned reports or expensive custom dev work

    Ticket Traffic Jams

    Every schema tweak waited hours—or days

    “Concourse feels like an extension of our team… a mutual alignment of our needs and strategies.” — Carrie White, VP Technology & Philanthropic Strategy

    •  

    Crafting the Game Plan Together:

     UCFND didn’t just adopt Concourse’s approach—they owned it. The framework, the tools, and the outcomes are now woven into their day-to-day fundraising operations.

    Shoulder-to-Shoulder Partnership

    Crafting the Game Plan Together — from discovery workshops to go-live tune-ups, Concourse moved in lockstep with the foundation, transferring knowledge, removing blockers, and equipping their own people to innovate confidently.

    White-Glove Migration & Validation

    Concourse engineers handled the heavy lifting—replicating databases, re-platforming the CRM, and running parallel validation—while UCFND subject-matter experts signed off at each checkpoint. systems, as well as billing solutions. Our hosting environments are optimized to meet healthcare's stringent regulatory and performance requirements.

    Role-Based Access      Blueprint

    Together we drafted a permission model that balanced stewardship with agility: read-only production for analysts, full admin rights in test/stage for developers, and granular audit logging everywhere. seamless processing and compliance for your insurance operations.

    BI Enablement Workshops

    Instead of generic training, we used UCFND’s own fundraising queries to show analysts how to wire Power BI, Tableau, or Looker directly into the new cloud stack—so lessons stuck immediately. and Quality Control systems, helping streamline workflows and optimize production.

    Embedded Support Cadence

    A dedicated Concourse success engineer joined UCFND’s weekly stand-ups for the first 90 days, troubleshooting in real time and continuously tuning performance to their evolving needs.

    Continuous Optimization Loop

    Performance dashboards, cost analyses, and quarterly architecture reviews ensure the environment scales with campaign growth—making the Data Liberation Framework™ an ongoing, living strategy rather than a one-off project.

     

     

    “All our alumni and fundraising numbers are on dashboards now—everything we need.” — Shawn Schaeffer

    Results After Go-Live

    100+ live BI dashboards

    now refresh automatically, giving every fundraising and alumni team instant visibility.

    Code deploys in minutes

    Analysts push changes straight to test and promote to production without waiting in ticket queues.

    Same-day decision-making

     Replaced weeks-long report cycles, letting gift officers act while donor intent is hottest.

    Stewardship risk slashed 

    Full audit trails, PRISM controls, and single-tenant isolation.

    70 % fewer IT tickets

    Freeing staff to focus on strategic projects instead of access requests.

    No added headcount

    All gains came from the Concourse migration.

    Are You the Next Success Story?


    If your analytics vision is stuck behind “read-only” walls or endless IT tickets,  let us work with you. 

    • We move your workloads into a purpose-built private cloud.

    • We hand your team the keys—safely.

    • You ship BI insights at the speed of curiosity

    Schedule a Consultation

    20-Minute Feasibility Call

    Let's start a conversation- we would love to hear more about your unique hosting needs and explore solutions to what's holding you back. Schedule a consultation now to get your questions answered and receive a proposal based on the solutions you need to do your best work.

    Schedule Now
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    TESTIMONIALS

    Habitat for Humanity

    "Concourse is not only our hosting vendor but also our Blackbaud CRM partner. Their support team is top-notch, and all the folks at Concourse go above and beyond with customer service. They help us with a number of back-end efficiencies to make our CRM run better."

    Jay Merchant

    Manager, CRM Operations

    CommonSpirit Health

    "We needed control over our environment without worrying about managing it. Concourse has us covered."

    Will Curtis

    System Vice President, Philanthropy

    Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation

    "I just wanted to say thank you to the whole staff at Concourse, you all were incredibly helpful for us and always great on customer service and help tickets. Can't thank you enough for that, would definitely recommend you all in the future."

    Kyle Combs

    System Analyst

    The University of Arizona

    "Concourse delivers solutions that are secure, timely, and efficient. They continuously provide technical guidance, support, and solutions to our network issues. Glen, and the entire team, always go above and beyond to help us find efficient solutions to our technical roadblocks. I have worked with other hosting services in the past, but I have never experienced such great customer support as I have with the Concourse team."

    Winifred C. Blumenkron

    Senior Director, IT Operations, Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement

    Jewish Federations of North America

    "I wanted to extend our deepest gratitude for your outstanding work on the environment rebuild project. Your expertise, dedication, and partnership have been invaluable to me and my team. Thanks to our collective efforts, we successfully implemented this critical project! Your partnership and support were instrumental in ensuring a seamless and efficient cutover. We are truly grateful to have Concourse as a partner."

    Cheryl Blawusch

    Senior Manager, CRM Applications

    CommonSpirit Health

    "Concourse for us is the linchpin in order to accomplish the goals we need to. Without a database, without a server to have the data sit on top of and be able to do all the different customizations, all the different work within the environment—we can't fundraise at the level we fundraise as an organization."

    "When things come up, it isn't 'hey, you guys figure it out,' it's 'hey, let's work together to get to the answer.' It's a partnership and solution-oriented group of folks."

    Will Curtis

    System Vice President, Philanthropy

    Habitat for Humanity

    "Concourse is not only our hosting vendor but also our Blackbaud CRM partner. Their support team is top-notch, and all the folks at Concourse go above and beyond with customer service. They help us with a number of back-end efficiencies to make our CRM run better."

    Jay Merchant

    Manager, CRM Operations

    CommonSpirit Health

    "We needed control over our environment without worrying about managing it. Concourse has us covered."

    Will Curtis

    System Vice President, Philanthropy

    Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation

    "I just wanted to say thank you to the whole staff at Concourse, you all were incredibly helpful for us and always great on customer service and help tickets. Can't thank you enough for that, would definitely recommend you all in the future."

    Kyle Combs

    System Analyst

    The University of Arizona

    "Concourse delivers solutions that are secure, timely, and efficient. They continuously provide technical guidance, support, and solutions to our network issues. Glen, and the entire team, always go above and beyond to help us find efficient solutions to our technical roadblocks. I have worked with other hosting services in the past, but I have never experienced such great customer support as I have with the Concourse team."

    Winifred C. Blumenkron

    Senior Director, IT Operations, Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement

    Jewish Federations of North America

    "I wanted to extend our deepest gratitude for your outstanding work on the environment rebuild project. Your expertise, dedication, and partnership have been invaluable to me and my team. Thanks to our collective efforts, we successfully implemented this critical project! Your partnership and support were instrumental in ensuring a seamless and efficient cutover. We are truly grateful to have Concourse as a partner."

    Cheryl Blawusch

    Senior Manager, CRM Applications

    CommonSpirit Health

    "Concourse for us is the linchpin in order to accomplish the goals we need to. Without a database, without a server to have the data sit on top of and be able to do all the different customizations, all the different work within the environment—we can't fundraise at the level we fundraise as an organization."

    "When things come up, it isn't 'hey, you guys figure it out,' it's 'hey, let's work together to get to the answer.' It's a partnership and solution-oriented group of folks."

    Will Curtis

    System Vice President, Philanthropy