The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus (GGMC) has been making beautiful music in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1982. With about a dozen concerts a year, the group attracts thousands of choral music enthusiasts while providing more than 50 members an opportunity for artistic and social self-expression.
The nonprofit organization is also a pioneering user of NetSuite, moving from a QuickBooks application to the cloud back in 2001 based on a recommendation from their bookkeeper. As a NetSuite customer for more than 13 years, the GGMC has simplified its bookkeeping and launched a critical revenue-generating ecommerce storefront.
Interestingly, the San Francisco-based GGMC signed up with NetSuite five years before we launched our NetSuite.org corporate citizenship program, offering free and discounted software to qualified nonprofits, charities and social enterprises. Taking advantage of NetSuite.org after it went live added to the value GGMC has realized with NetSuite.
“NetSuite.org is the perfect solution for us, especially our SuiteCommerce webstore,” said Randall Kikukawa, GGMC CFO. “We’d be spending a lot more time and energy on financial record-keeping if we didn’t have NetSuite to handle it for us.”
With its NetSuite-based ecommerce site, GGMC handles about 95 percent of its transactions online, saving time and money over previous phone and email processes. The GGMC site, www.ggmc.org(opens in new tab), also makes it easy for fans to buy concert tickets, CDs, T-shirts and other merchandise, thereby driving new interest and sales.
Because the site integrates natively with NetSuite financials and inventory, GGMC avoided the hassles of trying to integrate another web platform with QuickBooks, which is typically problematic. NetSuite’s ease of use and anywhere, anytime cloud access has been a boon for a small organization with volunteer part-time staffers who can’t afford to waste time hunting for and piecing together information.
With NetSuite, Kikukawa can easily put together presentations for the board of directors on cash flow, budget vs. actuals and projected budgets. NetSuite also handles GGMC’s payroll and helps streamline compliance with IRS regulations governing nonprofits.
“We’re very satisfied with NetSuite—it’s very simple and easy to use with very good reporting capabilities,” Kikukawa said. “It’s helped us keep up with our growth, and it’s great to have everything in one place.”
And it’s great to have the GGMC in the NetSuite.org family. As the organization enters its 32nd year of sharing the rich tradition of male choral music, we give its talented ensemble a standing ovation.
For more information on the NetSuite.org donation program, or to read other case studies of nonprofit organizations using NetSuite, visit us at www.netsuite.org(opens in new tab) or join the conversation with @NetSuiteOrg(opens in new tab).