For more than a decade, 6:8 Inc. has worked to reduce poverty and housing instability in the Sauk Prairie area by helping individuals and families build the relationships, resources and support systems they need to thrive.
With increased demand for these vital services driving a need for stronger infrastructure, the non-profit organization turned to the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) for support. The project Donor and Volunteer Management and Software Upgrade, funded by a WPP Community Capacity Grant, improved how the organization engages volunteers, communicates with supporters and responds to emerging community needs, allowing staff to spend more time supporting people and less time managing administrative tasks.
While the project focused on strengthening organizational capacity, the impact is felt throughout the community. By increasing 6:8’s ability to connect individuals and families with housing, resources and community support, the project helped create the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive.
Amy Basken, director of programs at 6:8, discussed how community engagement can help create healthier communities.
How does 6:8 help improve the health and well-being of the community?
6:8, Inc has been focused on service and poverty reduction for more than 16 years and is a trusted community resource. Our mission is to transform communities by making service personal. Our method is supportive, interdependent relationship-building. Since 6:8 began, we have provided a bridge between residents, churches, organizations and communities and brought together thousands of people who are committed to improving life for those in poverty and in turn the greater community.
One of our most important roles is to partner with and learn from those who are living in poverty. Through transformational relationships, we walk with them in building social capital, improving financial literacy and learning goal setting and accountability as they work to rise out of poverty. In turn, they inform our work and share their insights with local government officials and community leaders. These efforts increase our community’s understanding of the challenges so many face and help us recognize how we can work in partnership to address them.
Together, we strive to break the cycle of poverty for current generations and those to come. At 6:8 we believe that when anyone in our community lives in poverty, everyone is affected. We have learned the best way to help people move beyond poverty is by focusing on dignity, not dependence. We actively involve those in need in their own solution. We work to build long-term, transformative and interdependent relationships that foster authentic, enduring change.
This grant was a huge boost to 6:8. We were able to update our donor, volunteer, communication and fundraising software to sustain the exponential expansion of our programming and the number of people we serve.
- Amy Basken
As demand for your services grew, what challenges did you face?
In addition to the need for more space, one of our greatest challenges was the amount of time and energy required by staff and volunteers to capture important information about donor and volunteer engagement. Over the last two years, the number of participants in our poverty alleviation programming has more than doubled with more than 60 people participating in our weekly education and mentorship programming and 15 active participants in our daily development programming. The number of donors continues to grow exponentially from 600 in 2023 to 1000 in 2025. We had more than 300 volunteers contribute more than 15,000 volunteer hours last year, as well.
We struggled navigating 10 different software programs supporting volunteer engagement, donations, donor development and programmatic activities. It was very time-consuming merging data across the software programs to generate reports to provide a comprehensive picture of donor and volunteer behavior and interactions, or simply to update contact information.
How did the WPP Community Capacity Grant help you meet this challenge?
This grant was a huge boost to 6:8. We were able to update our donor, volunteer, communication and fundraising software to sustain the exponential expansion of our programming and the number of people we serve.
We created a single source of data with three interconnected modules – Donor CRM, Volunteer and Fundraising. This integration of 10 unique platforms increased our efficiency, streamlining processes in bookkeeping, volunteer management, donor development, communication and fundraising. In addition to allowing us to redirect staff time to other programmatic tasks, our volunteer activities run more smoothly, our donor records and associated reports are more detailed and cleaner, and we can be much more responsive to the funding needs of our various programs.
What is the impact of the new system on staff, volunteers and donors?
This new system has allowed us to focus more time and energy on people rather than processes. With a streamlined data system, staff can enter new data more easily and quickly update and duplicate existing tasks and activities, while many repeated activities such as donor response emails are automated. Because we are now all using the same system, we can cross-collaborate and support each other on tasks more efficiently, as well.
Donors have responded positively to the ease with which they can now direct their funds through online donations. They also appreciate the automated yet personalized thank-you letters they receive. It is easy to segment our donors and volunteers to create targeted email updates and bulk mailing communications through the CRM that integrates volunteer and donor data.
Our volunteers love that they are able to self-manage their volunteer opportunities and update the time volunteered through an app on their phone. It was a little bit of a learning curve for many of them, but we are getting there! Volunteers also appreciate the improved communication as we can, at a glance, thank them for what they have given both as a volunteer and donor.
Describe how the new system helped 6:8 purchase two homes for program participants.
I am so incredibly excited to share how we already were able to use the full coordinated capacity of this software, implemented just in time, toward a key mission activity in fall of 2025.
For the last several years 6:8 has had the vision to offer safe, affordable housing for the participants in our poverty alleviation programing. This vision to create multi- income, multi-age and multi-ability housing includes purchasing a 40-acre property in the next three to five years to co-locate single family dwellings as well as an apartment complex and a hub for 6:8’s services. But with housing an urgent and critical issue for our participants, our Task Force and Board of Directors agreed to explore an intermediate measure. In September 2025, an opportunity became available to purchase two neighboring homes, one including an adjacent buildable lot. Within the week, we had accepted offers on both properties. We were able to use our new software to quickly generate reports to prioritize our donors, considering past engagement and giving capacity. By focusing our efforts this way, we were able to raise $635,000 in four weeks to pay cash for both properties. We were then able to use the software to create, in just 20 minutes, a perfectly formatted mailing list with 1300 of our past donor households, and execute a bulk mailing to educate the community about the purchase and program growth, so that we can fundraise for additional repairs and improvements to the homes. Using the integrated donor and fundraising modules, we created personalized thank-you responses for all donors who contribute to this campaign in-person, via mail or online.
The purchase of these homes allows us to support five families on their journey to becoming financially stable through subsidized housing, community support and accountability toward reaching their goals.
How do volunteers, donors and community partners help advance your mission?
Donors, volunteers and community partners are essential to advancing our mission. Our 300 volunteers supporting 15,000 hours of work allow us to achieve outcomes far beyond what our staff of 10 could ever hope to accomplish. In the same vein, we have committed high level donors as well as a large cohort of individual donors critical to funding our growing mission. From cleaning bathrooms to case management to donating to keep the lights on, each contribution is invaluable.
How has support from the Wisconsin Partnership Program positioned 6:8 for future success?
We needed the software to support our ability to react quickly and efficiently to serve the people in our community. It will help us grow our programs and strengthen our capacity to creatively meet the individual needs of those we support. It will allow us to turn to the greater community to build capacity in everyone to do their part in supporting poverty alleviation – in turn building a stronger and healthier community!
