Platte Valley Youth for Christ

YFC reaches young people everywhere, working together with the local church and other like-minded partners to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ, and commitment to social involvement

Challenge

Platte Valley Youth for Christ was looking for a donor CRM that could replace their accounting software for managing their constituents. They wanted to be able to segment lists, track campaign progress, and manage online giving in a more holistic view. “When I took this position, this organization had no CRM and only managed their constituents using accounting software. We were unable to internally segment lists, track campaigns and appeals, or manage online giving,” said Jeff Randell, Executive Director at Platte Valley Youth For Christ.

Solution

After researching multiple donor database options, Jeff was immediately drawn to Bloomerang and its simplicity. But something he wasn’t expecting was the personal, efficient, and knowledgeable customer support and data migration teams that he would interact with while getting onboarded with Bloomerang. “I researched many CRMs. Bloomerang’s simplicity was an immediate draw for me, but one additional factor was customer support. The data migration team was personal and efficient. They got us up and running quickly. I appreciate the continued innovation and updates, easy access to live customer support on chat, and the website integration.”

The team at Platte Valley Youth for Christ was also excited to see improvements with their donor retention and gift development processes through Bloomerang’s reporting and segmentation features. “Every constituent matters in running a religious non-profit. Reports and segmentation greatly help us maintain relationships with each household. We can watch for lapsed donors and take action quickly. The dashboard allows us to gain a quick glance at our donor retention rate, and we often set goals to raise this number.”

Jeff and the team at Platte Valley Youth for Christ are happy to tout Bloomerang’s simplicity, innovation, and customer support, as reasons to recommend it as a top donor management system for faith-based organizations like theirs. “I would definitely recommend Bloomerang to colleagues and have done so! I would tell them about the simplicity, innovation, and customer support.”

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, Platte Valley Youth for Christ has gained power over their data and has benefited from making informed decisions. “After switching to Bloomerang, we gained power over our data. Instead of requesting reports from our accountant, we could now run reports and segmentation duties ourselves. We gained efficiencies in adding new constituents and even cutting disengaged donors from our list.”

And since increasing their efficiency and gaining better access to their data, Jeff and his team have been able to benefit from improvements to their dollars raised and donor retention rate. “Bloomerang has helped us manage a 10% growth rate for 3 years running. Many factors play into that growth, but managing our constituents is a key factor. Our donor retention rate hovers around 20% higher than the industry average, and we can attribute some of that to Bloomerang.”

In addition to high number growth, the team at Platte Valley Youth for Christ has seen increased efficiency since leveraging Bloomerang’s custom fields and segmentation abilities. “Our staff now manage their own volunteer and constituents which has lessened the demand on our administration. Our newsletters and appeals have benefited from segmentation greatly. Custom fields allow us to make it our own.”

All in all, it’s amazing what a simple and innovative donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as Platte Valley Youth for Christ.