Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln
Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln is a 501c3 charitable nonprofit organization that brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. They were established in 1988 by local community members, faith leaders, and city officials to address the need for affordable housing.
Challenge
Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln was looking for a modern, innovative and adaptable donor database that could replace their old basic system. “When I came into my position we had a database that didn’t do much, it didn’t talk to any other products, didn’t give additional reports. It just was.” said Christina Zink, Development Direct at Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln, Nebraska.
I was looking for something that was adaptable, something that understood fundraising and what fundraisers needed out of their data, and could work with my website.”
Solution
Christina was originally drawn to Bloomerang because of its seamless integration with its website and ease of use. Since then, she’s come to appreciate the updates made, innovative and helpful features like the Comms Audit Tool, and continued education and free training options available to all Bloomerang customers on not just the software, but also on fundraising best practices. “Originally, I liked that Bloomerang was compatible with my website and how easy it is to use. But what continued to impress me was the training and webinars offered, not just on how to use the system but ways to be a better fundraiser – you even have the Comm Audit Tool built inside your thank you letter! Plus, Bloomerang continues to evolve, take subscribers’ needs into consideration, and offer new products, some free of charge.”
Bloomerang’s fundraising-focused features have fit nicely into Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln’s donor retention and gift development processes by giving them increased insight into, and the ability to segment, their donor data.
“Bloomerang allows me to add a lot of details onto donor profiles so I can segment, target, and thank appropriately. I can add attachments to their profile from the newspaper such as birth announcements and obituaries or notes they wrote to us. I love the dashboard with the new reminder to call new donors! I can’t wait to start using donor preview and DonorSearch!”
Results
Since implementing Bloomerang, Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln has alleviated several fundraising pain points around storing and updating donor data and easily communicating with constituents without needing a separate system. They found the one-stop-shop for their development needs and could save money by ditching other software. “After switching to Bloomerang, all of the donations were immediately transposed onto the donor’s profile, one less step! The built-in email system allowed me to cancel a separate email program saving us money, plus it tracks the email on the donor profile and still provides analysis. Bloomerang has become more of a one-stop-shop where I can store donor information, send out emails, and track volunteer information.”
Christina and the team at Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln have also benefited from using Bloomerang to segment their data and communications to focus on successfully winning back lapsed donors. “Since switching to Bloomerang we have really had a focus on lapsed donors. With the ability to pull a variety of reports, learn more about those donors, and target them appropriately, we’ve seen a significant number of them return.”
In that same vein, Christina has overall benefited from better quality constituent communications and increased productivity since making the switch. “Being able to send communications (email) through Bloomerang has alleviated a large headache. The new templates are great and the ability to test and preview on desktop and mobile make sure we have everything correct before sending it out. We’ve even started an e-newsletter to a specific constituency base and with the analysis we can track the open rate and see who isn’t reading our emails!”
All in all, it’s amazing what an insightful, innovative, and updated donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln.
“Bloomerang has it all! And if it doesn’t have what you want, they are probably working on it.”