Nonprofit Success: Altru Health Foundation's Donor Management & Retention Transformed by Bloomerang CRM
KEY NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHTS
Altru Health System is made up of nearly 3,500 dedicated health professionals and support staff who have been serving the Grand Forks, North Dakota region for over a century. Guided by its mission of making a difference for those they care for, Altru provides primary, specialty, and emergency health care services while extending its commitment to health and well-being into the communities it serves.
Altru converted to Bloomerang’s Giving Platform in 2020 for its ease of use, cloud-based functionality, and user-friendly design. With the help of Bloomerang’s conversion team and educational resources, they successfully migrated and cleaned their data. Since implementing Bloomerang’s Giving Platform, Altru has achieved a 58% donor retention rate, 87% pledge fulfillment rate, and 21,000+ annual transaction count—plus streamlined donor communication and enhanced data accuracy, enabling them to continue serving their community.
CHALLENGE
Outgrowing legacy systems: Altru Health Foundation’s seamless transition to Bloomerang
Altru Foundation was looking for a modern, intuitive donor management system to replace their last CRM, which was desktop-based. Described as difficult to navigate and overly complicated for reporting, it was no longer helping the Foundation to grow their donor base and drive analytics. Altru knew that a new cloud-based system would be essential to enable remote work and improve efficiency. After recognizing the potential for better functionality, researching several CRM options, and participating in demonstrations, Altru was ready to make the switch.
SOLUTION
Comprehensive support: Altru Health Foundation’s easy start with Bloomerang’s training & onboarding
Getting started in Bloomerang’s Giving Platform went smoothly, with a dedicated conversion project manager to help them plan the data transfer, stay on schedule, and tackle the significant task of cleaning up their data. “They were incredible in helping us think through exactly how we wanted our data to transfer over, and they kept us on track every step of the way,” said Brittany Caillier, Director of Philanthropy.. “We had lots of clean-up sheets to scrub our data, so it was a massive undertaking.”
In addition to the conversion team, Altru appreciates Bloomerang’s knowledgeable sales and customer support teams. Caillier also recommends Bloomerang’s free learning resources, regular webinars, and training opportunities. “They have some of the best free webinars,” she said. “Their commitment to education has been incredible for our team!”
Altru ultimately chose Bloomerang as their CRM for its ease of use. “I’m a strong advocate for Bloomerang because it’s so user-friendly!” said Caillier. “With a small team at our Foundation, it was important to find a system that new team members could pick up quickly. Bloomerang has made it easy for us to get up to speed, streamline our work, and stay organized—it’s been an incredible tool for us.”
RESULTS
Bloomerang helps improve donor retention and engagement
Since implementing Bloomerang’s Giving Platform, Altru Foundation has alleviated several fundraising pain points around donor engagement and streamlining their development processes. The organization uses Bloomerang to record and track gifts and pledges, send mass emails, create thank-you letters, and log all phone calls, emails, and in-person visits with donors.
“I think it’s incredible how we can process thank-you letters in Bloomerang, and they are attached to the donor’s profile,” expressed Caillier. “In addition to the built-in email builder, we love the BCC feature, which automatically saves email correspondence to a donor’s profile. We also use Bloomerang for moves management with our major donors to track our cultivation and solicitation planning. In fact, we recently concluded a nearly $14 million capital campaign, and Bloomerang’s pledge tracking made it easy to manage commitments and ensure accurate reporting. It’s been a reliable tool throughout the entire campaign process, from cultivation to stewardship.” With a transaction count exceeding 21,000 annually and an impressive 87% pledge fulfillment rate, the platform has been a game-changer for their operations.
Not only have they seen increased efficiency in their communication processes, but the Altru team has also seen an improvement in the quality and cleanliness of their donor data, which includes 296 first-time donors in the last year and 31,210 total constituents. “The nightly National Change of Address (NCOA) updates keep our data clean and up to date,” Caillier explained. “We used to get hundreds of letters returned for bad addresses every time we did a mailing and had no time to update all those addresses!” These improvements in engagement and supporter relationships have resulted in an impressive 58% donor retention rate.
The switch to Bloomerang’s Giving Platform has transformed the way Altru Foundation manages donor relationships and fundraising efforts. With intuitive tools, cleaner data, and a commitment to ongoing education, Altru is now better equipped to focus on what truly matters—building strong community relationships and advancing their mission.
“I’m a strong advocate for Bloomerang because it’s so user-friendly! With a small team at our Foundation, it was important to find a system that new team members could pick up quickly. Bloomerang has made it easy for us to get up to speed, streamline our work, and stay organized—it’s been an incredible tool for us.”
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