Little People of America
How a nonprofit adopted a web-hosted solution and used it to their advantage
The Little People of America was founded in 1957 to support people with dwarfism and even though more than 50 years have passed with incredible growth all over the country they still operate on a limited budget, according to Joanna Campbell, LPA’s Executive Director. “Way back when we were using a spreadsheet,” Joanna says, reflecting on the AMS purchasing process “We wanted a hosted solution. We’re a nonprofit that works literally on a shoestring so we needed something cost effective.”
MemberClicks was the answer. They signed on in 2007 and MemberClicks was able to start helping with LPA’s needs right away. “We were able to revamp our website,” but that’s not where it ended, according to Joanna. “We were able to have the website solution, the form solution, and the database solution integrated together where as before they were all different. It was great to have it all together and great to have a web-hosted solution that everyone could access whenever they wanted to from any computer.”
That ability to seamlessly access the same database from any computer in the country turned out to be critical. LPA is the world’s oldest and largest dwarfism support organization. It exists to unite and educate people with dwarfism and their families and friends. LPA is all over the country in 13 districts with 70 chapters and is entirely volunteer driven with a part-time staff of three employees.
I have enjoyed the updates to the backside of the website so I can edit changes to the website without needing a ton of knowledge.
From the very beginning, the onboarding process made things go a lot smoother for LPA. “We appreciated that because it was a huge change,” says Joanna, which is true with many associations bringing on an AMS solution for the first time. But with nearly seven years of support, the solution is an ongoing success for LPA. For example, another big benefit is how easy it is for Joanna and other administrators to update the LPA website. “I have enjoyed the updates to the backside of the website so I can edit changes to the website without needing a ton of knowledge.” Since LPA functions on membership and donations, another very helpful service that MemberClicks provides is an easy and complete integration with payment processing. Joanna went on to say “the ability to take donations easily and have them in one place and have all the receipts handy has been great.”
Joanna also expressed her delight with the MemberClicks Maximization team, which helps her and LPA get the most out of their software and ensures they’re updated and ready to go with a complete knowledge of how the software works for them. That’s crucial, because The Little People of America is a different kind of organization. Everyone involved in LPA is a little person or related to a little person and not necessarily a technology expert. According to Joanna, “We truly are a homegrown organization. We’re pretty unique.”
