Bloomerang understands the unique fundraising challenges of Catholic schools. There’s no reason for technology to get in the way of uniting faith and educational excellence for the next generation’s success. That’s why numerous Catholic schools nationwide have chosen Bloomerang’s donor database solution.
Below are just a few thoughts and success stories from organizations just like yours.
Bellarmine, as a Catholic college preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition, through dedication to academic excellence and development of the whole person, graduates young men and women of competence, compassion and conscience, who are committed to leadership and service.
Bellarmine Preparatory School was looking for flexible donor management software that could help them with donor outreach and engagement. “Our primary challenge with our old system was the inflexible nature of producing reports and lack of linkage to our electronic method of engagement and solicitation of many of our donors,” said Dean Hanks Vice President of Development at Bellarmine.
Setting up a donor database solution with Bloomerang looked really appealing to Dean and his team. They were originally drawn to the system’s accessibility and intuitiveness. “From the outset Bloomerang was a more accessible and intuitive system that our entire team could use more capably. We have been able to produce reports quickly and easily with consistent and accurate data outcomes, and our ability to reach our donors linking Bloomerang to electronic platforms has been seamless. The ability to access all of Bloomerang’s applications on multiple devices was particularly appealing.”
After choosing Bloomerang, the team at Bellarmine hasn’t looked back. “We are very pleased with our switch to Bloomerang and we even have the President of our school easily and directly adding his donor engagement notes to the donor record immediately after his visit. This is something he did not do when we were with Blackbaud because of how complicated and cumbersome the process was.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, Bellarmine Preparatory School has seen several fundraising pain points be alleviated. They now have a central system to house and easily report on all of their donor data. “The primary remedy that Bloomerang provided for our entire team was the ability to easily and effectively access data for donors and easily create and produce reports for analysis and review.” They have also been able to focus more time and energy on improving the quality of their constituent communications. “The immediate impact has been felt in that each team member can more easily review donor information and engage donors more effectively.”
Bloomerang has also fit nicely into Bellarmine’s donor retention and gift development processes. “With more than 10,000 registered alums we are constantly striving to enhance our electronic communication with them to keep them informed of what is happening in their school and how they can help us achieve our mission. Bloomerang gives us the tools to seamlessly and effectively stay in contact with our donor base and effectively track their level of support and involvement.”
In a nutshell, the team at Bellarmine is confident in their ability to retain more donors and raise more money through engagement. “We are confident that by better measuring the quality and frequency of how we engage our donors it will most certainly affect our donor retention percentages and our overall dollars raised.”
It’s amazing what a user-friendly, donor engagement focused tool can do for the growth of an organization such as Bellarmine Preparatory School. “If you desire a database management system that is open, flexible, user friendly and still provides high quality donor records and provides for more effective interaction, then Bloomerang is what you should consider.”
New Ulm Area Catholic Schools in New Ulm, MN consists of St. Anthony Elementary, with grades PreK-6, Cathedral High School, with grades 7-12, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Church and the Holy Trinity Convent. They currently serve approximately 500 students on campus.
“We use Bloomerang as our alumni database. We originate all of our mass mailings, labels, thank you notes and receipts in Bloomerang. We also use it to track all of our donations from alumni and friends. In addition, we generate email blasts out of Bloomerang as well as reports for our Board of Directors,” said Sara Rieland, Director of Development and Alumni Relations.
“We believe we are reaching more alumni through email blasts sent via Bloomerang. It is especially nice that you can see, by donor, all correspondence sent to them.”“We have greatly increased our productivity in that we can easily email blast any communication via Bloomerang. In addition, we can easily generate reporting to assist in our mailing (we can use filters to identify a certain mailing group, then send that Excel report to our print to directly print labels. This has saved us a lot of time!)”
“Bloomerang makes donation tracking very easy. It also makes all mailing functions fast and efficient. Their support is also top notch! No waiting on hold for someone to help you, you questions is answered instantly!”
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School assists parents with the education and formation of their children in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty through a Christ-centered environment, challenging academics, and hands-on learning so that each child becomes a disciple of Christ and is prepared to respond to God’s call.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School was looking for easy-to-use donor management software that could streamline their processes and keep all their data stored in one accessible place. “We had our data in too many places. Every time I wanted to mail or email something, I had to combine spreadsheets and never felt I was including everyone I wanted to,” said Missi Adami, Development Director at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School.
After getting a Bloomerang recommendation from a fundraising consulting firm, Missi agreed that it could be the solution to their donor data challenges. With Bloomerang, Missi also found that her day-to-day development responsibilities could be a little more manageable. “I am able to be much more consistent with my communications which helps our relationship with our donors.”
Missi recommends Bloomerang to other Catholic schools who could benefit from an intuitive system to empower their development decisions. “I do think Bloomerang is a good product for a small development office. It is simple to use if database management is not your strongest suit.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School has alleviated several fundraising pain points through its reporting capabilities, which in turn has given them the ability to make more informed decisions about their donor data. “Bloomerang streamlined our donor database to one system. It also helps me remember when and how I have communicated with the donor.”
Missi and the team at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School have found that Bloomerang fits nicely into their current gift development processes, while enhancing what they already have working for them by having an all-in-one system that fits their needs. “Truly keeping my data organized and allowing me to easily communicate with my constituents has been a life saver.”
Missi has also been able to see significant improvements with the quality of their constituent communications through segmentation capabilities, as well as increased productivity and efficiency. “Improved productivity and consistent constituent communication have truly made me better able to fill my role as development director. I feel I am able to be more organized and planned in my processes thanks to Bloomerang. I look forward to continuing to improve in this area.”
All in all, it’s amazing what an easy-to-use, fundraising-focused database can do for the growth of Catholic schools such as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School.