How Novi Uses Bloomerang’s Giving Platform to Sustain a 49% Donor Retention Rate
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Novi provides trauma-informed support to children in war zones and uses Bloomerang’s tools to streamline donor management and improve fundraising efforts. Features like donor timelines, customized giving forms, GiftAssist, and automated emails have boosted engagement and helped secure major gifts. Novi’s 49% donor retention rate reflects the relationship-building made possible by Bloomerang’s email and communication features. Positive experiences with Bloomerang’s customer support and learning opportunities like GiveCon have equipped Novi to plan for what’s next.
ABOUT
The Novi Community
Novi, an international non-governmental organization, is on a mission to restore childhoods disrupted by war. More than 450 million children currently live in war zones and conflict-affected places. The Novi Community works with parents, caregivers, teachers, social workers, and health professionals to strengthen their competencies and meet the needs of children and youth affected by war.
Jon Peerbolt, Director of US Operations, joined the Novi team three years ago, and most recently, he and his wife served communities in Ukraine. “We spent about a year traveling the front lines of Ukraine, visiting villages,” he explained. “We did a lot of food support, but we also offered mental health support. We were training parents and caregivers on how to better care for kids who’ve been through extreme traumatic experiences, which sadly, all of them have.”
CHALLENGE
Clunky and hard-to-use nonprofit CRMs that weren’t integrated
When they were founded in 2022, Novi started out using Kindful, DonorBox, and Wix CRM. It was an okay fit, but Steve Gumaer, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, knew they could find something more efficient with stronger integration options. They were tired of wrestling with year-end reporting and manually transferring donor records.
Finding an easy-to-use nonprofit software was one of their priorities, and after demoing Bloomerang, they knew they found the perfect fit. Gumaer explained, “Bloomerang offers the donor management power that Kindful lacked, and we found more flexibility with the giving forms and fundraising options.”
SOLUTION
Connected nonprofit software that saves time and improves donor engagement
Bloomerang streamlined Novi’s donor management by connecting emails, reports, and timelines to one place—making it easier to manage multiple supporter relationships. “There’s no way I’d be able to manage as many donor relationships as I am without having all that data in one place,” said Peerbolt. Customized giving forms and GiftAssist support stronger fundraising and donor connections. Automated email features also improve engagement through segmentation and better targeting. “We can write the emails when we have time, and then they go out to the right people when we need them to. The Email Builder saves us tremendous time,” said Peerbolt.
The Novi Community has had extremely positive experiences with the customer support team, including in-person at Bloomerang’s conference, GiveCon. “Shout out to literally everybody on the customer service team because they are unbelievable,” said Peerbolt. “I work alone all day, every day, so sometimes talking to them is my only social contact for my workday, and I’ve had such enjoyable conversations with them.”
RESULTS
A donor retention rate above the national average for nonprofits
Using the timelines on Bloomerang’s donor records has helped Novi keep track of how often their supporters are giving, preventing lapsed donors and resulting in major gifts—sometimes from a single, well-timed ask. Peerbolt explained:
“I remember one time I was looking through a donor’s timeline, and I noticed they had actually given quite a bit in previous years, but they hadn’t given anything in about a year. So I asked our founder Steve, ‘Hey, have you sent an appeal to these people recently?’ and he hadn’t. So he sent an appeal, and they gave $10,000 on that appeal. The timeline feature is great for that, so I use it all the time.”
That kind of proactive engagement helped Novi achieve its impressive donor retention rate of 49%. “I think a big part of our retention rate is the relationships that we can keep up on a regular basis using Bloomerang’s emails and sharing our blog–it’s a great way to stay connected,” said Peerbolt.
WHAT’S NEXT
What’s the next fundraising goal for the Novi Community?
As Novi continues to learn more about Bloomerang, they look forward to launching peer-to-peer campaigns and using DonorSearch more often. Peerbolt attended Bloomerang’s GiveCon event to learn more about the nonprofit industry and looks forward to implementing what he learned.
“I don’t come from the nonprofit world, so GiveCon was a big eye-opener,” he explained. “We’re going to start setting up our donor journey experience, first-time donor plan, and major donor stewardship—I didn’t know about any of that. Without Bloomerang, we would be years behind, but now I have the foundation to build on. So for me, it was a life-changing experience.”
And would he recommend Bloomerang to other organizations now that he’s part of the nonprofit world? “I can definitely recommend Bloomerang to any nonprofit with confidence,” said Peerbolt. “The integrated functionality and the way everything works together make my life so much easier.”
“Bloomerang puts everything in one place: our emails, reports, donor timelines, and more. There are a million ways that it all works together. There's no way I could manage as many donor relationships as I am without having all that data in one place.”
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