Northeast Arc

The Northeast Arc helps people with disabilities become full participants in the community; choosing for themselves how to live, learn, work, socialize and play.

Challenge

Northeast Arc was looking to make the switch from Abila to a user-friendly system that could empower their fundraising decisions and help them better track and improve their donor retention. “Abila wasn’t user friendly, didn’t empower us to track contacts/touchpoints, our reporting capabilities were limited (and limiting). Also had a limited number of licenses, which further encouraged agency to rely on outside systems (like Excel spreadsheets) to capture information. Couldn’t track donor retention, didn’t have easily adapted/customizable features, no modern interaction with web/email/etc. Also, our data was not entered well and it was time for a full change across the board,” said Allison Mitchell, Director of Development at Northeast Arc.

Northeast Arc was looking for a change. They wanted to ditch their old system and excel spreadsheets while streamlining and improving their processes.

Solution

Northeast Arc appreciated finding a system that was built by fundraisers, for fundraisers. Bloomerang is a donor management system, not an all-in-one solution for everything. “Designed for and by fundraisers – other products were all-purpose CRMs that required us to adapt/create DIY solutions.”

Allison and her team were originally drawn to Bloomerang’s functionality, especially the built-in email feature. “Using the system, I LOVE THE EMAIL FEATURE. LOVE.” On top of that, Bloomerang’s support team and ease of use were a big bonus. “Great support – we love your online chat team – and easy to learn. Incredible bargain for a system that incorporates social media, web integration, donor tracking, reporting, email, etc. Definitely would recommend – and we have – to other Arcs.”

Results

Allison and her team have benefited from making the switch to Bloomerang. They’ve been able to clean up their old, unreliable data, and can now use Bloomerang’s built-in email tool instead of Constant Contact, which will help them see cost savings. They’ve benefited from an increase in productivity, which will increase even more when they’re done cleaning their old data from spreadsheets and their previous database. “We’re soon moving to using Bloomerang to send the majority of our mass emails – no more importing unsubscribes from Constant Contact. Bcc feature also saves time and allows email capture – that’s been great.”

Allison and her team have also noticed an increase in donations since making the switch. “Off the cuff, I can attest to increased donations.” But one of the most important things Bloomerang does for the Northeast Arc team is allow them to catch several issues they’ve had in the past before they become problems. “It has already allowed us to catch issues before they become problems – example being not acknowledging a gift received. With the letter feature, we generate TY letters/invoices/receipts right away and can also confirm right on the record what was sent and when. Much better than previously exporting to Microsoft Word!” Allison and her team have more peace of mind and can now implement more efficient fundraising processes.

It’s amazing what an affordable, user-friendly, and data-focused tool can do for the long-term growth of an organization such as Northeast Arc.