Video Testimonial

How Colorado Music Festival and Center for Musical Arts Has Increased Individual Giving by 20% with Bloomerang

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The Colorado Music Festival and Center for Musical Arts runs a renowned summer music festival and community music school in Boulder, Colorado. Struggling with an outdated CRM, they partnered with Bloomerang’s unified Giving Platform to improve donor management, segmentation, and fundraising efforts. With tools like reporting, donor segmentation, and quarterly consulting, they increased donor retention to 63% and saw a 20% rise in individual giving. Bloomerang enables them to segment donors by interests, optimize engagement, and manage relationships effectively.

ABOUT
Colorado Music Festival and Center for Musical Arts

The Colorado Music Festival and Center for Musical Arts operates a renowned summer music festival in Boulder, Colorado, featuring 100 musicians and an internationally recognized music director, alongside a community music school offering broad access to music education for all ages and skill levels.

CHALLENGE
Challenges in communication with donors on an older nonprofit CRM

The center has faced challenges in effectively communicating across their diverse audience segments, ensuring patrons are informed about events, and maintaining excellence in both their performances and operational efforts. Before partnering with Bloomerang, they had a legacy database that was old and clunky. It was a challenge to use, necessitating the organization to make a change.

SOLUTION
Finding software solutions with Bloomerang reporting and segmentation

With Bloomerang’s unified Giving Platform, the center found a flexible platform that optimizes donor management and fundraising. They have leveraged Bloomerang reporting to identify key donor segments, such as consistent 10-year givers, and uses the platform to assign relationship managers and plan outreach strategies. With the help of Bloomerang quarterly consulting, their staff have been able to identify even more strategic segments, organize data to thoughtfully structure campaigns, and manage donor relationships for more successful fundraising efforts.

RESULTS
Seeing fundraising results from consistent donor communication with Bloomerang

Bloomerang’s Giving Platform has played a significant role in improving donor retention and fundraising efforts. With a 63% donor retention rate and a 20% increase in individual giving over the past year, the center credits its success to strategic database use, consistent donor communication, and effective tools like Bloomerang’s reporting features. These reports ensure no key donor groups are missed, such as legacy givers, volunteers, and board members. Combined with storytelling, stewardship plans, and tools like DonorSearch for identifying major gift prospects, they have achieved notable fundraising growth.

The center recognizes they must effectively communicate the program’s impact to attract passionate donors. The Giving Platform helps the organization segment donors based on their interests and giving capacity–as well as identify where donor interests overlap to support both elements of their organization. Festival patrons, who typically have a larger ability to donate, often increase their donations when they learn about the school’s educational work. Meanwhile, student families are screened to identify potential donors, ensuring the database focuses on building relationships and only making an ask when they are ready to contribute. This approach optimizes donor engagement and database efficiency.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The center faces unique challenges with its dual identity, requiring separate websites and fundraising efforts. They are unifying their donation process with a new donation page, allowing donors to easily support both initiatives without confusion. As an arts nonprofit, they strive to communicate their value clearly, emphasizing the impact of music and culture on people’s lives. By gathering feedback from patrons and sharing stories (which they can easily manage and track in Bloomerang), they can connect with supporters who recognize the importance of arts and build a strong case for continued funding.

“We had a legacy database before that was old and clunky, but Bloomerang has been fantastic because I love all the custom data. I love the fact that I can do the research and add in custom fields, but I also have the built-in Bloomerang fundraising best practices for segmentation. I was super excited to throw myself in the deep end of Bloomerang, because I could see early on that it is such a flexible system.”

Cindy Hohman

Marketing and Community Relations Director