Joseph Maley Foundation
The purpose of the below case study is to feature an organization that has benefited from the Bloomerang/Qgiv integration and who appreciates having a world-class donor database that can integrate with a world-class nonprofit event and fundraising platform.
A Fresh Take on Social Fundraising
Bloomerang users can easily create peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns and personal fundraising pages through Qgiv, while capturing and synchronizing those interactions into Bloomerang.
The Joseph Maley Foundation serves children of ALL abilities through programs that serve the whole child and those who directly affect the child, including parents, siblings, friends, educators, health professionals, and community leaders. Our programs impart:
- Disability awareness to schools and organizations;
- Mental, physical, and emotional health understanding to children;
- IEP and special education advocacy to connect families and educators;
- Sibling workshops which provide an environment to discuss shared experiences;
- Adaptive and inclusive athletics to all children;
- Service-learning opportunities for individuals within their community;
- Acceptance of all through puppets in a relaxed environment for conversation;
- Comfort to parents navigating infant loss.
Challenge
What Originally Drew You To Qgiv And How Is It Being Used By Your Organization?
According to the former Director of Development, in 2013 the Joseph Maley Foundation was looking to make a transition from using PayPal to process online giving to something that could integrate seamlessly with their website, inspire donor trust, and give them event registration and peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities. Qgiv fit that bill perfectly!
Now, Qgiv is being used by the team as a one-stop shop for their online donors. “We utilize Qgiv for our online donation page, to process online program registrations/payments, for online event registrations, for peer-to-peer events (both operated by our organization and to set up custom peer-to-peer events for our supporters), and for our annual gala, which features an auction. We have even used it to sell merchandise (and track inventory) as it relates to particular events or programs.”
How Is Bloomerang Being Used By Your Organization? What Challenges Did You Want A Donor Database To Solve?
When Joseph Maley Foundation was looking for a donor relations-focused database in 2017, they wanted something that could be a true relationship management solution. They wanted to be able to strengthen and formalize systems for things they were doing well, like stewardship, without losing traction in those areas.
“We had been tracking donor activity and generating reports on Quickbooks, utilizing Google Sheets for stewardship activity, but the duplication of effort was staggering, and we were missing out on true relationship management. We knew we wanted to streamline and enhance our stewardship and donor communication while maintaining our personal relationships with our supporters. Bloomerang offered us all that in its customizability, and we’ve been thrilled.”
Now, the team is happy to be able to use Bloomerang to generate appeals, solicit donor feedback through surveys, and to schedule and track stewardship. They’ve also started to utilize the system for their volunteer management.
Solution
Was It Appealing To Find A Donor Database That Could Integrate With Qgiv?
Finding a donor database that could integrate with the systems and processes they already had set up in Qgiv were essential for Joseph Maley Foundation.
“One of our goals in finding a CRM to use at the Joseph Maley Foundation was to reduce and hopefully eliminate duplication of effort across systems. The Bloomerang/Qgiv integration ensured that goal could be achieved with respect to online giving.”
How Has Qgiv’s Auction Platform Combined With Bloomerang’s Stewardship Capabilities Benefited Your Organization?
The folks at the Joseph Maley Foundation recently hosted their annual gala using Qgiv’s new auction software for the event and Bloomerang for stewardship after the event.
Here’s what they had to say about the ease of using Qgiv and Bloomerang before, during, and after their event:
“The amazing thing about Qgiv auctions and the Bloomerang integration was that when we returned to the office on Monday after our Saturday event, all donor information was already mapped into Bloomerang. We were able to use both Qgiv and Bloomerang’s reporting tools to generate individualized stewardship plans for each guest, create those tasks in Bloomerang, and make sure every guest and supporter of the event was thanked personally and in a timely fashion. This would have been impossible without the Bloomerang/Qgiv integration, and gives us great confidence and reassurance going into the end of the year that all of our donors will be reported to and well-thanked. Qgiv has made it possible to move our event to a later time that makes more sense for our constituents. To have everything done so quickly and so seamlessly before we go into our year-end campaign is exactly what we wanted.”
How Does An Organization Like Yours Benefit From Using Bloomerang And How Does It Fit Into Your Constituent Communications, Donor Retention, And Gift Development Processes?
As a small organization with only one development staff person on board when Bloomerang was implemented, it was appreciated how intuitive and easy it was to learn the system, as well how smooth the transition process was for onboarding. As the Joseph Maley team has grown, Bloomerang has provided a transparent and seamless system to onboard staff to gift entry, acknowledgement, interaction and relationship notes, and donor communication tasks.
“Bloomerang helps us recognize all donor activity — gifts, volunteerism, attendance at special events — and our stewardship in one place to ensure we are individualizing our outreach to inform our gift development process and mindfully steward each gift. We also use Bloomerang to find “hidden gems” in our database — who is giving loyally? who is incredibly engaged? to personalize our outreach and re-think our prospects. Finally, by using it for our volunteer management, we’re able to better integrate our stewardship efforts across donors and volunteers.”
Results
What Can You Tell Us About Changes In Key Metrics and Fundraising Pain Points Since Switching To Bloomerang?
Bloomerang has been an integral part of Joseph Maley Foundation’s strategic growth over the last two and a half years, especially when it comes to donor retention. Their donor retention rate has increased by at least ten percent in the last year alone.
Most importantly, since implementing Bloomerang, Joseph Maley Foundation has been able to grow their staff in order to increase the programming they offer.
“These hires would not have been possible without increasing revenues from donations, sponsorships, and special events. And those revenues would not have increased (as steadily and easily) without Bloomerang. The main fundraising pain that has been alleviated is the efficiency of our systems. Now, multiple people can be involved in our stewardship and communications processes, and all information is no longer siloed, but accessible to all users.”
What Are Some Things That the Bloomerang/Qgiv Integration Have Helped Your Organization With In Regards To Fundraising?
According to the team at Joseph Maley Foundation, this integration has been extremely helpful in streamlining their fundraising processes. Her favorite part of the Bloomerang/Qgiv integration is their ability to map imports from Qgiv so they appear on the exact right fund and campaign in Bloomerang. “It’s a simple thing but saves us extra steps (and time!) in ensuring our gift entry is accurate. We double-check each gift that was imported and use that time to immediately enter stewardship tasks based on that donor’s history and behavior. It really is seamless and makes it a simple step in our fundraising process.”
If You Were To Talk To Another Nonprofit About Your Experience With Qgiv Or Bloomerang, What Would You Say?
Don’t just take our word for it, take the folks at Joseph Maley Foundation’s:
“We’re incredibly happy with both our Bloomerang and Qgiv experiences. Qgiv’s flexible options for standard donations, peer-to-peer, and auctions make it a fantastic partner for Bloomerang since all of those aspects are part of our overall fundraising strategy.
We particularly love Qgiv’s integration with Bloomerang! The custom mappings for each Qgiv donation, event, peer-to-peer, and auction page make sure our donation information is automatically imported into the correct fund, campaign, and appeal in Bloomerang. This helps streamline our fundraising processes and makes us more efficient, but most importantly helps us focus our attention on our donor relationships and stewardship within Bloomerang.
One big reason I’m such a fan of both companies is the extraordinary customer service and communication from both Qgiv and Bloomerang. It makes a big difference and has helped to shape our overwhelmingly positive experiences.”
And here’s some more praise:
“When the Joseph Maley Foundation adopted the Qgiv donation and peer-to-peer platforms in 2013, it instantly made my job easier. As a one-person development staff, the integrations with other service providers, customizable confirmation emails, and peer-to-peer capabilities have relieved duplication of effort across multiple channels.
Qgiv provides a way for us to not only manage our donations, but it also makes it easy to simultaneously customize and offer online program and event registrations, and makes it easy for our supporters who want to try peer-to-peer fundraising at both our 5K each summer and for independent events. For our supporters to have the simplicity of asking their friends to donate to the Joseph Maley Foundation without the interference of a third-party donation channel is fantastic.
The Joseph Maley Foundation loves the customizable donation and event pages that seamlessly integrate with our website, but more than anything I appreciate the customer service Qgiv has provided for the last four years. They are quick to respond to any question that might come up, and in addition to their accessibility, are always kind and patient as they talk me through any issues. That generosity in spirit is also apparent in the educational opportunities they offer through webinars and blog posts. Taking advantage of those resources has been a great way to continue professional development with thought-provoking and relevant information at no additional cost.
We also utilize Qgiv’s auction platform. We held our event on Saturday, October 12th, and by Monday I was able to confirm and finalize all of the Qgiv auction data that was exported to Bloomerang. Last year’s event was on November 3rd, and it took weeks to wrap up! Because the reporting and acknowledgement processes with our previous provider were so cumbersome, it was a nightmare going into our year-end giving.
Because we were able to finalize everything with Qgiv so quickly and get acknowledgements out to donors before year-end giving appeals, we feel good about moving forward with November 13th as our event date next year. Qgiv has made it possible to move our event to a later time that makes more sense for our constituents. To have everything done so quickly and so seamlessly before we go into our year-end campaign is exactly what we wanted.”