Heartburst
Tailored Virtuous CRM consulting and implementation services, alongside crafted websites for nonprofits. Australia based.
About
Heartburst is an award-winning Australian digital agency dedicated to empowering non-profits and purpose-driven organisations to maximise their impact through integrated digital solutions. With over 18 years of experience in the NFP sector, we combine strategic expertise in branding, website design and development, CRM discovery, selection, and implementation, and donor journey mapping to create cohesive strategies that drive engagement, fundraising, and mission fulfilment.
Transform Your Impact with a Donor-Centric CRM
A well-configured CRM empowers your team to work harmoniously, fostering an optimal experience for everyone who interacts with your organisation. But before we build the perfect system, we start with understanding your valuable relationships. Many organisations jump straight to CRM implementation, but we believe in a more strategic, donor-first approach. Our Advanced Donor Journey Mapping service provides the blueprint for Virtuous automation that truly serves your mission. We strive to understand your donors deeply, identify their motivations, and pinpoint opportunities to cultivate lasting relationships.
As a Virtuous Certified Partner, we specialise in leveraging Virtuous CRM to streamline donor management, automate workflows, and foster deeper relationships—while ensuring seamless integration with custom-branded websites and optimised donor journeys.
Our onshore Australian team delivers end-to-end support, from initial discovery workshops to ongoing optimisation, helping organisations like yours build sustainable growth and lasting connections with supporters.
Services
Branding & Identity Development
At Heartburst, we craft compelling brand identities that resonate with your mission and audience, ensuring cultural sensitivity and strategic alignment for non-profits. Our process begins with in-depth research and discovery workshops to uncover your core values, target stakeholders, and competitive landscape. We then develop a comprehensive brand strategy, including logo design, colour palettes, typography, and visual elements, all documented in a detailed style guide and toolkit for consistent application. Whether refreshing an existing brand or building from scratch, we focus on accessibility (e.g., WCAG compliance) and integration with digital assets like websites and CRMs. We emphasise collaboration with stakeholders to create authentic, impactful brands that amplify your purpose-driven initiatives.
- Initial research and onboarding for audience insights
- Brand strategy development with archetypes, tone of voice, and key messaging
- Visual identity creation (logos, palettes, typography) with refinement rounds
- Comprehensive style guide and toolkit for print and digital use
- Optional add-ons: Collateral design (business cards, brochures) and rollout support
Website Design & Development
We specialise in building user-friendly, high-performance websites tailored for non-profits, using platforms like WordPress to ensure easy content management and scalability. Our approach includes discovery and strategic blueprinting to map user journeys, identify pain points, and design intuitive interfaces that drive donations, engagement, and conversions. From wireframing and custom designs to development, content migration, and SEO optimisation, we create sites that are mobile-responsive, accessible, and integrated with CRMs like Virtuous for seamless data flow (e.g., donation forms and event registrations). Drawing from hundreds of projects, we prioritise cultural resonance, fast load times, and features like multimedia integration and analytics tracking to help you connect with donors and stakeholders effectively.
- Discovery workshops for site architecture and user experience planning
- Custom design with wireframes, prototypes, and brand-aligned visuals
- Development on WordPress with plugins for e-commerce, forms, and integrations
- Content strategy, migration, and optimisation for SEO and performance
- Launch support, training, and ongoing maintenance packages
CRM Discovery & Implementation
As a Virtuous Certified Partner, Heartburst excels in guiding non-profits through CRM discovery, and full implementation to optimise donor management and operational efficiency. We start with thorough assessments of your current systems, pain points, and goals, conducting workshops to map "As-Is" and "To-Be" processes. Our experts tailor Virtuous against your needs, ensuring seamless data migration, custom configurations (e.g., automations, dashboards, and integrations with tools like Xero or Mailchimp), and compliance with standards like GDPR. We've successfully implemented Virtuous for a number of organisations like Prison Fellowship, PeaceWise, Moore College and many others, focusing on user adoption through tailored training and change management to boost fundraising and reporting.
Discovery & Strategic Blueprint
This phase lays the groundwork for an effective CRM.
- Discovery & Planning: Team setup, objective setting, data extraction plans.
- "As-Is" Process Identification: Documenting current workflows, identifying pain points.
- "To-Be" Process Design: Creating ideal future workflows and data models.
- Advanced Donor Journey Mapping: Deep-dive into donor interactions, identifying opportunities for personalization and deeper engagement.
Solution & Seamless Execution
Once your blueprint is complete, we build and implement your tailored CRM.
- Impact Analysis & Change Planning: Smooth transition support.
- CRM Configuration: Tailoring your system with custom fields, workflows, and reports.
- Role-Based Training: Empowering your team with custom materials.
- Data Migration: Cleansing, mapping, and importing data.
- Go Live: Careful planning for successful launch and ongoing enjoyment.
Donor Journey Mapping & Advanced Strategy
Heartburst's Advanced Donor Journey Mapping service provides a strategic blueprint for Virtuous automation, helping non-profits understand donor motivations, personalise interactions, and cultivate lasting relationships. We dive deep into donor data and behaviours through workshops, identifying opportunities for segmentation, personalised communications, and multi-channel engagement (e.g., email, SMS, and website touchpoints). Integrated with Virtuous, our mappings enable automated journeys that drive retention and upgrades, while pinpointing gaps for cultivation. Inspired by our work with clients like Celebrate Messiah, we emphasise donor-first strategies that align with your mission, including impact reporting and fundraising optimisations.
- Deep-dive workshops to map donor interactions and motivations
- Personalised journey blueprints with Virtuous automations and touchpoints
- Strategy for segmentation, cultivation, and opportunity identification
- Integration with branding, websites, and CRMs for cohesive experiences
- Ongoing support for journey refinement and performance tracking
Ongoing Support
We provide ongoing support to ensure your success long after the initial implementation. These are suggested items that will assist with the successful launch and inevitable tweaks and changes that come with implementing a new CRM.
- Launch — The pre- and post-launch functions to ensure that the launch is managed appropriately and smoothly.
- Hypercare — 14-30 days of support post-launch.
- Ongoing support — Heartburst has a series of options for ongoing assistance with the CRM. Our aim is to remain active with our clients to ensure any de-prioritised requirements/features are implemented over coming time periods and feedback/improvements are addressed.
- Quarterly review — We suggest quarterly insights reviews to both assess, analyse, and recommend the performance of the CRM and consider any improvements. We will do this in collaboration with our clients.
Custom Integrations
We provide custom integration services to connect Virtuous to other essential tools and platforms to ensure that information and workflows can be optimised for your organisation.
We are experienced in building the following:
- Custom API development where we integrate directly with Virtuous and a third-party system without the need to use middleware.
- Zapier integration to enable automation between platforms. We go beyond simple connections to complex coding where we can utilise Triggers to accomplish actions including the use of other APIs.
- Webhooks to trigger other actions in other systems.
Heartburst has built its own solution, GiftSync, to enable organisations to sync money received from Stripe or offline sources with your accounting system and Virtuous to provide seamless reconciliation of funds and the creation of invoices and journal entries in your accounting system. GiftSync provides significant time-saving and accuracy of tracking of donations between your CRM, accounting system, and banking.
Images
Resources
Testimonials
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Wayne Forward
CEO - PeaceWiseWe now have an ability to see all interactions with a contact regardless of how they contacted us. This is saving us time but also improves our relationship with our clients.
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Nathan Flannery
National Fundraising Manager - Prison FellowshipThe CRM is now serving us and reminding us of tasks and things that need to be done such as thanking people. We can build meaningful automations that allow us to be more efficient with our resources.
Vertical
All Nonprofits
Health and Human Services
Education
Faith-Based Organizations
International Development & Relief Services
Virtuous Academy Certified
Certified
Virtuous Academy Certified
Implementation Partner
Virtuous Implementer
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Vertical
All Nonprofits
Health and Human Services
Education
Faith-Based Organizations
International Development & Relief Services
Virtuous Academy Certified
Certified
Virtuous Academy Certified
Implementation Partner
Virtuous Implementer
Location
Melbourne, Australia
