How Eau Claire Community Humane Association Reached their Capital Campaign Goal a Year Early with Bloomerang
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
The Eau Claire Community Humane Association (ECCHA) serves as a steadfast advocate for animal welfare in the Eau Claire, Wisconsin community, placing pets into loving homes and providing support and resources for pet owners. ECCHA, like many nonprofits, faced challenges in scaling their impact and managing donor relations. By adopting Bloomerang’s unified Giving Platform, they transformed their operations with features like auctions, peer-to-peer campaigns, and advanced reporting. Bloomerang helped ECCHA exceed fundraising goals, including nearly doubling funds raised for their Fall Gala Auction, reaching $75,000. With Bloomerang, ECCHA met their $6.5M capital campaign goal a year early and significantly advanced their mission to help homeless pets in their community.
CHALLENGE
Looking for a giving platform of fundraising software to scale alongside their nonprofit
Like many nonprofits, ECCHA faced challenges in executing their fundraising efforts efficiently while scaling up impact. Growing as an organization means facing new challenges, such as the need for a more efficient system to streamline communication and manage donor relations. Time-consuming data entry for donations and a lack of integrated systems were bottlenecks that slowed down operations. ECCHA was looking for a solution that would ensure their team stays connected and informed as the organization continues to grow.
SOLUTION
Improving donor engagement with Bloomerang auctions, peer-to-peer, and reporting
With Bloomerang’s unified Giving Platform, ECCHA was able to transform its approach. The organization quickly implemented tools like auctions, peer-to-peer campaigns, and reporting to enhance their operations. “Bloomerang is significantly more user friendly than other giving platforms, and when onboarding at ECCHA, was fairly easy to learn,” said Addie Erdmann, Marketing & Development Director. “The updates that continue to roll out make it even easier, and the customer service is the best I have ever experienced.” One standout feature is the seamless integration between CRM and fundraising tools. “To have all of the donor information integrated is amazing,” she said. “At past jobs I used to hand transfer all of the data!” This not only saves countless hours, but also prevents manual processing errors.
The introduction of Bloomerang’s auctions and peer-to-peer fundraising tools proved revolutionary for ECCHA. The user-friendly nature of the fundraising platform allows attendees to get involved from anywhere—creating new opportunities for donor engagement. “Auctions are so incredibly easy to use—both for myself and those who are bidding!” said Erdmann. “And I especially like peer-to-peer, as it gives us the opportunity to capture donors that were likely not in our network before, turning them into loyal supporters and, hopefully, future donors!”
RESULTS
How Bloomerang helped Eau Claire Community Humane Association double gala funds & exceed capital campaign goal
Since implementing Bloomerang’s Giving Platform, ECCHA has seen remarkable growth in its ability to connect with supporters and strengthen its mission, including their annual Fall Gala Auction. “The first year fully online, we exceeded fundraising goals but were in line with our budget overall, which was great,” explained Erdmann. “But the second year, after knowing our audience a little more, we almost doubled what was raised the year before! Overall, the event raised $75,000 for homeless pets in our community. Before we started using Bloomerang’s Giving Platform, this event was not even bringing in $20,000.”
ECCHA also found immense value in Bloomerang’s cutting-edge reporting tools. By analyzing donor data, the team made informed decisions to refine their strategies. This was particularly impactful during a $6.5 million capital campaign. “We could pull reports based on what marketing efforts we were making and see directly if that was working for us,” said Erdmann. “For example, we could see that print mailers were more successful than anything, which led us to do more specialized targeted mailers, helping us reach our goal a year ahead of schedule. It’s also great to see how certain pushes did in years past, to figure out how we can better enhance messaging going forward.”
Erdmann says that fundraising with Bloomerang specifically has been instrumental in helping ECCHA exceed their goals by a significant margin. “It is so easy to use. And people say that about a lot of things, but Bloomerang is seriously foolproof,” she said. “We have to use MightyCause to host a different fundraiser with shelters across the country, and it’s so difficult to work with for both myself and participants in comparison. I think people who have never tried Bloomerang products don’t know how much easier it could be for them.” Eau Claire Community Humane Association’s success in fundraising is a testament to the incredible difference the right tools can make when paired with a commitment to a cause.
“It is so easy to use. And people say that about a lot of things, but Bloomerang is seriously foolproof. We have to use MightyCause to host a different fundraiser with shelters across the country, and it’s so difficult to work with for both myself and participants in comparison. I think people who have never tried Bloomerang products don’t know how much easier it could be for them.”
raised for fall gala
gala funds raised YOY
campaign reached 1 year early
