CAIR Florida

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a federation of legally independent, governed, and managed chapters` across the country that works together to defend the Civil Liberties of Americans. CAIR National is the founding organization and has its own Board of Directors, as do each of the chapters` across the country. All of the CAIR chapters` board members, employees and volunteers represent the diversity of the American Muslim community.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida, Inc. (CAIR Florida, Inc.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was established in 2001 to challenge stereotypes of Islam and Muslims and defend civil liberties. CAIR Florida Inc has four offices: Tampa, South Florida (Sunrise), Orlando, and Panama City, Florida.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim civil liberty and advocacy group. CAIR’s vision is to promote justice and mutual understanding. CAIR’s mission is based on 3 core goals – enhancing an understanding of Islam, promoting justice, and empowering American Muslims.

Challenge

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – Florida had a multi-page document of criteria for their donor database needs. They spent six months researching and vetting multiple donor database options before ultimately deciding to go with Bloomerang. They needed a user-friendly solution that could provide them the critical fundraising data they need on the fly. They were impressed with how the Bloomerang team handled their questions, and how the product has been able to exceed their expectations from a fundraising data perspective. Hassan Shibly, Executive Director at CAIR Florida, cites user-friendliness and intuitiveness as what he appreciates the most about Bloomerang. It’s saved him time to be able to use the system without any training. “Anyone can figure out the critical functions without training, which is really important when you’re a small nonprofit or have high turnover,” said Hassan.

It’s also important to Hassan and his team that they take steps to make their organization more sustainable and equip themselves with the data they need to do that. Bloomerang’s Sustainability Scorecard feature was built to empower them with that information.

Solution

CAIR Florida had found that not only was Bloomerang fun and easy to use, but they could utilize their data to ramp up their fundraising efforts. Hassan recently used Bloomerang to engage donors in a Giving Tuesday campaign. They used Bloomerang’s features to help identity donors that would be a good match to contribute to the campaign, and they were ultimately able to raise $62,000 online from donors already in their database.

The first step towards sustainability for CAIR Florida is identifying the powerful data they have at their fingertips. Now they’re able to use it to increase donations and make their organization more sustainable. Hassan is able to pull up the reports he needs before one of their three different fundraising events every year. This year, he was able to pull up a report of all of the donors in a city where one of their banquets is held. He used that report to identify donors who consistently gave $10,000 or $15,000 and then engaged with them to increase their amount to the $25,000 to $50,000 range. By using and segmenting the data from Bloomerang to engage with those donors, CAIR Florida was able to raise $530,000 at their Tampa banquet.

For every campaign appeal, Hassan and his team can pull up the profile and summary of every annual donor and use that data to engage them. They can also identify which donors they haven’t been engaging with as much, and increase their engagement with them. At the end of the day, Bloomerang’s Sustainability Scorecard can be used to help CAIR Florida turn current donors into monthly donors, start engaging with all donors on a consistent level (especially major donors), and ultimately encourage consistent donors to upgrade.

Results

Since using the feature, CAIR Florida has been able to make better decisions about their donor engagement, and efforts to upgrade donors and increase donations — all while keeping major donors, employees, and board members in the loop with how the organization is doing. Hassan is now able to meet with his major donors and allow them visibility into the organization’s sustainability and how their gifts are helping. Hassan is able to give confidence to major donors by going to them and saying, “don’t worry, we’re not becoming lazy and only relying on your major gifts, but rather your major gifts are resting on a strong grassroots foundation of small to mid-size donors that you’re helping take to the next level.”

At the end of the day, the single most important thing Bloomerang does to help CAIR Florida increase its impact, raise more money, and ultimately become more sustainable is simple. Bloomerang has helped them become more proactive fundraisers. Because they’re able to spend less time inputting data and entering donations, that gives them more time to actually use the data to make informed fundraising decisions and see better outcomes. Bloomerang has allowed them to streamline and ditch their multiple Excel spreadsheets, all while ensuring that their donor communications are on target for each donor group. “It saves really hundreds and hundreds of staff hours.”

It’s amazing what a user-friendly, fundraiser-focused tool built for sustainability can do for the long-term growth of an organization such as CAIR Florida. “We are absolutely in love with the Bloomerang software.”