Flint Public Library

Flint Public Library provides technology and media resources for people of all ages that encourage creativity, learning, entrepreneurship and innovation. FPL also provides programs, services and resources to create young readers from birth to age 5, and to help students in grades K-12 succeed in school. The organization also help parents become literacy-savvy, equipping them to continue their own learning and support their children’s learning at home.

Our mission is to be Flint’s go-to place for learning across the lifespan. That means every person, at any age, for any reason, can come here and gain new knowledge.

Challenge

Flint Public Library was looking for cloud-based, user-friendly and robust donor management software to grow their budding development program. They wanted a solution that could grow with them and help them launch a capital campaign. “When we were researching donor databases, we were looking for several things: primary among them was cloud based capability as we have staff members working in different locations. We were also looking for a user-friendly interface and a robust report building platform. Since our development program is relatively new, and we were also aware that we would be launching a capital campaign, we also wanted something that could grow with us,” said Cassie Mead, Development Assistant at Flint Public Library.

Solution

Cassie quickly found that Bloomerang’s intuitive platform could meet their needs. “The intuitive user interface on the platform was appealing, particularly as we have a broad range of technical capability within our staff. The visual appearance of the database is easy to navigate.” The DonorSearch integration also excited Cassie and the team as they were searching for tools that could help with donor cultivation, prospect research and reporting. “The DonorSearch integration tool was a feature we were also very excited about. We’ve come to appreciate the robust reporting, even more than we had originally anticipated.”

Bloomerang’s feature-set and smooth implementation process was exactly what Flint Public Library needed during a hectic and challenging time to help them ramp up their development efforts. “Overall, moving to Bloomerang has given us more flexibility and capacity to grow our development program. Converting donor databases while launching a capital campaign, with a pandemic thrown in for good measure, could have been a recipe for disaster. With Bloomerang, we were able to adapt and move forward with little to no pause in our forward momentum.”

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, Flint Public Library was able to launch their capital campaign “almost simultaneously with the conversion to Bloomerang with relatively few bumps from the database standpoint – and no known data loss. A less successful conversion would have been a disaster at such a critical point.” Cassie and the team have also found that the reporting functionality has been instrumental in increasing their donor retention rate. “Again, the reporting tool has been instrumental in our donor retention. We have been able to develop YoY reports much easier and with a larger capability than our previous database (which was limited to 4 time periods). We can run data from throughout our history and on nearly any criterion. The soft-crediting capability was a must for us, and works well.”

Not only have they seen improvements with reporting and fundraising, but Cassie and the team at Flint Public Library have also benefited from having more insights into how their organization is functioning. “Key metrics are much easier to track within Bloomerang than with our previous database. This means we are able to provide key decision makers with a more robust picture of the metrics they need to make strategic plans to grow our development program. The dashboards on Bloomerang’s home screen may be helpful for some groups, once customized to the specific metrics they want tracked.”

All in all, it’s amazing what an insightful, intuitive, and donor-focused database can do for the growth of an organization such as Flint Public Library. “It is much easier to track new donors and report on individual campaigns and appeals than with our previous database.”