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Melwood

Melwood utilizes Angel.com's Virtual Call Center to replace
hardware-based system and expand capacity to drive new donation programs

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The Company
Founded in 1963, Upper Marlboro, MD-based Melwood is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Melwood’s current workforce includes more than 2100 people with disabilities working at more than 70 contract sites around the Washington region. Mail handling, office work, reception, medical technical work and store stocking are among the growing number of occupations available or soon to be within reach for Melwood trained workers.

The Challenge
Vehicle donations are a chief source of revenue for Melwood; the organization raised more than $12 million last year through the charitable donation of unused vehicles. Melwood employees and volunteers field phone calls from donors to complete the necessary paperwork and make arrangements for vehicle pickup.

Ron Farrin, Melwood’s director of vehicle donations, said the organization’s previous phone system had become a limiting factor. As the vehicle donation program grew, an upgrade to the in-house system was beyond the organization’s budget.

“Our legacy system was designed for a much lower call volume and a smaller number of representatives,” said Farrin. “After the expansion of our program the past couple years, we realized an upgrade was badly needed. But at a quoted cost of $150,000, a new and expanded in-house solution would not fit our budget. That’s when I discovered Angel.com and recognized the advantage of a hosted solution.”

The Solution
Angel.com helped Melwood implement a hosted VCC (Virtual Call Center) solution that replaced their previous in-house system at a fraction of the cost. Equally important to Farrin was the ease of setup and implementation of the hosted solution. 

“I sat down with my Angel.com account representative and he built the system right in front of me as I described what features I needed and how it would be used,” said Farrin. “He then tested and deployed the program that same day,” said Farrin. “And, since it’s a hosted solution, I don’t have the extra expense of maintaining in-house call management software. For an organization with tight resources, those are significant benefits.”

The Results
The Angel.com VCC system has allowed Melwood to keep pace with the fluctuations in their donation calls. The result is a more efficient vehicle donation process that Farrin said may allow the organization to expand its donation effort beyond vehicles.

“More than 70% of all donation calls are from people who have never called us before,” said Farrin. “We experience heavy call volume in the evenings and during tax season, so it’s vital for us to have a system that scales with our needs.

“The Angel.com Virtual Call Center has been instrumental in maximizing the value and return of our vehicle donation campaign, and I envision us expanding the program soon to take advantage of this newfound efficiency.”

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