Bloomerang understands the unique fundraising challenges of Farm Bureau Foundations. There’s no reason for technology to get in the way of working to rebuild the bonds of trust between American consumers and the people who proudly grow their food, fiber and energy. That’s why numerous Farm Bureaus nationwide have chosen Bloomerang’s donor database solution to help with just that.
Below are just a few thoughts and success stories from organizations just like yours.
Our mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service. With a county Farm Bureau in each of Kansas’ 105 counties, we are the grassroots organization in the state. Our county volunteers provide more than 5,000 hours of service in their communities annually.
Kansas Farm Bureau stands up for its members through leadership development, agriculture education, legal defense, environmental advocacy, farm safety, risk management, rural development and international trade.
Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture was looking for a user-friendly donor management system that could help them track vital donor information. “We wanted a database that could keep track of donations, personal information about each donor and follow up reminders,” said Vickie Hoover, Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation’s Operations Manager.
After doing their due diligence and researching several options, they were drawn to Bloomerang’s ease of use and functionality. “Bloomerang seemed to be one of the easiest with a lot of capabilities to do the things we wanted.”
Vickie and her team had finally found a reliable donor management system to help them house donor data, keep track of campaigns, and segment communications to constituents — all while being easy to learn and use. “We like the ease of entering information and retrieving information.”
Kansas Farm Bureau appreciated finding a system that could fit nicely into their donor retention and gift development processes. “Our Farm Bureau is getting ready to hold a centennial campaign. This donor management program will help us keep track of donors and do follow up letters, etc… it is important to have our donor retention program.”
Vickie and her team have also come to appreciate Bloomerang’s ease-of-use, training options, and knowledgeable support staff to help them leverage their database to its fullest potential. “The customer support is awesome. Every time I have called, they are very helpful and thorough. They explain everything in detail so I can understand. One of the best things about this program is the customer support.”
Vickie and her team have benefited from getting themselves and their donor data organized so they can start making more informed fundraising decisions. “We have had more contact with donors and made notes and follow up tasks in the Bloomerang program. The follow up tasks help my boss extremely stay on task.” They’re also excited to leverage Bloomerang for all of the donation follow-up from their centennial campaign.
The team at Kansas Farm Bureau has seen improvements in several fundraising pain points since implementing Bloomerang, especially in their ability to increase productivity and save time on tasks. “We did not have to manually type in information for donors that were currently in the system. That saved a lot of time for staff.”
It’s amazing what a user-friendly, data-focused tool can do for the growth of an organization such as Kansas Farm Bureau. “It’s very easy to use, price is right and has a lot of capabilities that would help other Farm Bureaus be successful.”
The American Farm Bureau Foundation’s mission is centered on agricultural literacy. We strive to connect the American public with the people who feed, fuel and clothe them.
American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture was looking to make the switch to a simple, user-friendly donor database solution with streamlined reporting. They wanted a system that wouldn’t generate letters for constituents marked as “deceased” in the database. “The system we had (iMis) was not user friendly and made many errors. For example, even if someone was marked as ‘deceased,’ it would still generate letters. The reporting functions were also pretty clunky, so IT would have to code a report each time,” said Sydney Andrews, Program Coordinator at American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.
Sydney and her team quickly became excited about the possibilities with Bloomerang. Even its basic functionality could improve their mailings. “We can also trust Bloomerang to actually mark someone as deceased or divorced so we don’t deal with that embarrassment.”
The team at American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture was impressed with Bloomerang’s user-friendly functionality and knowledgeable customer support team. “Bloomerang is simple and user-friendly. Plus there is a team dedicated to helping with issues!” Sydney and her team had finally found a donor management system with the reporting and constituent communication capabilities that they needed. “Customized reports and households were a huge improvement over iMis. Additionally, being able to create letters and manipulate them within Bloomerang has been great so we don’t have to use mail merge.”
In addition to Bloomerang’s functionality, it has fit nicely into American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s gift development and donor retention processes. “Bloomerang is user friendly and we all have access to it. It plays nice with accounting systems so there is far less double entry. It is great to be able to generate reports on lapsed donors and follow up with them. Bloomerang is great because it doesn’t have all the extra ‘stuff’ many management systems have- we only want a donor management system and that is what we got. Therefore it is pretty affordable.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has benefited from improvements in the quality of their constituent communications. “We can thank donors in a more timely manner which is important for donor retention. We also can thank online donors almost immediately for their donations and give them their tax receipt. We now send quarterly letters to donors which reminds them we are a valuable foundation to donate to!”
Sydney and her team have also seen several fundraising paint points be alleviated. “We don’t need to be worried about sending mail to deceased donors AND we got rid of many duplicates. Creating donor thank you letters is a breeze and creating a donor list at the end of the year, we know the information we have is accurate.” On top of that, they’ve been able to increase the amount of dollars raised since switching to Bloomerang. “We can now take online donations which has increased our reach and increased the dollar amount raised.”
At the end of the day, Sydney provides no shortage of praise for the free resources and trainings available (if you even need it). “What I like most about Bloomerang is that it is very user friendly and basically self-explanatory. They also have tutorial webinars and a staff to help you with any questions or issues we’ve had. We started using Bloomerang in June of 2015 and I have only had to email them twice!”
It’s amazing what a user-friendly, donor retention focused tool can do for the growth of an organization such as American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.