Bloomerang understands the unique fundraising challenges of K-12 private schools. There’s no reason for technology to get in the way of funding the next generation’s education. That’s why numerous parochial schools, Montessori schools, classic schools and other private schools nationwide have chosen Bloomerang’s donor database solution.
Below are just a few thoughts and success stories from private schools just like yours.
Saint Mark’s, a college-preparatory coeducational Catholic high school, inspires young men and women to create a better world, one more pleasing to God and more helpful to others, by modeling faith, excellence, humility and integrity.
Saint Mark’s High School was looking for a cloud-based, user friendly donor database that would be easy for staff to learn and use, but that also had a reliable and knowledgeable customer support team they could lean on when needed. “When I arrived at Saint Mark’s we had a database that no one could manage. We sent staff to trainings and they came back uniformed and simply could not manage the data. When we asked for help issues were put in a queue and were never solved the same day. In some cases it took weeks to resolve the problem. As a result data was not entered, reports were not run or took weeks to generate and even simple thank you letters were delayed or not delivered. We wanted and needed a database that was user friendly for all and with support that could give us a solution in a timely manner. We also wanted a product that was cloud based, giving us the ability to access our data anywhere at any time,” said Pete Curcio, Director of Advancement at Saint Mark’s High School.
After getting a recommendation for Bloomerang, Pete was initially drawn to its usability, and data and relationship management capabilities and functionality. “We were involved in a funding program that recommended Bloomerang for not only data management but also relationship management. We found both in Bloomerang. When we got the system we found that everyone could manage the process. We still have dedicated people for specific functions, but truth be told anyone can pick up a process at any time because of the system’s ease of use. On a side note we dropped the funding program but are very glad that we were introduced to Bloomerang because of it.”
The team at Saint Mark’s High School was excited to see improvements with their donor retention and gift development processes by being able to manage and keep better track of their constituent data. With Bloomerang they could gain more power over their data to make more informed fundraising decisions. “We use Bloomerang on a daily basis. In the fundraising world data is king. We have found that with Bloomerang we can generate reports that are beneficial to our donors and Board members, and provide us with the right information to make the right decisions when approaching a donor for a gift no matter what the size. Through Bloomerang we can determine where the donor is in the donor cycle and make the right ask.”
Pete is happy to tout Bloomerang’s ease of use, reporting, functionality, and support as reasons to recommend it as a top donor management system for private schools like theirs. “When I made the switch I did it alone with no help or support. It was basically the administration daring me to make the switch. The changeover was seamless and the benefits to the organization immeasurable. I would encourage any organization to make the switch for ease of use, reporting, functionality and support.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, Saint Mark’s High School has benefited from improved reporting functionality and gaining better access to their data. “Speed and good data have made our lives much easier. When we set up a report we can tailor it to the needs of the donor and the campaign. The program has the flexibility to add and change fields to provide the right data that we need in every situation. We recently ran a campaign and participants wanted different data points throughout the process. By using Bloomerang reports we were able to deliver every time.”
And since increasing their efficiency and gaining better access to their data, Pete and his team have been able to benefit from seeing the big picture when it comes to their donor retention rate and overall campaign progress. “When we begin the year we enter our goals into the system. Thus, on a daily basis we have a snapshot of where we are relative to campaign progress. The donor retention wheel also provides a good picture of where we are with individual donors throughout the year. These are key data points that give us the big picture.”
In addition to high number growth, the team at Saint Mark’s High School has also seen improvements in the quality and frequency of their reporting, data segmentation, and constituent communications. “We now use Bloomerang for all mailing both regular mail and electronic. Each week throughout the school year we send an e-newsletter to our alumni and through the program we can track reads and responses. As a result we are now able to do segmented emails and letters to constituents in our database with ease.”
All in all, it’s amazing what an easy-to-use and innovative donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as Saint Mark’s High School. “The product is great and it has evolved over the years since we began. Keep it going!!”
The faculty and staff of Lutheran High Northeast continue to serve the students of Northeast Nebraska with commitment and enthusiasm, and will strive to educate, develop and prepare Christian servants and leaders for the future.
Lutheran High Northeast was looking for an affordable and intuitive donor database as an alternative to eTapestry. They wanted a functional system with good reporting and communication features at no extra cost. “We were working with eTapesty and wanted to find a database that was easy to use AND a partner that would work with us on price” said Fred Aufdembrink, Director of Development at Lutheran High Northeast. With the timing and opportunity for better functionality, Fred was ready to make the switch.
Fred was originally drawn to Bloomerang’s ease of use, functionality, and “the layout of the system. With only one in the business office and a one person development shop, we needed to find a database that was easy to use.” Bloomerang fit that bill.
Fred has since come to appreciate how easily Bloomerang fits into and improves their existing gift development processes. “First, gift processing is a breeze! I can easily record donations, print letters and get them out quickly. Second, Bloomerang allows me many options for my work from first time donors to reaching out to those who haven’t given a gift in a while!”
Since implementing Bloomerang, Lutheran High Northeast has alleviated several fundraising pain points around tracking their donor retention, segmenting and communicating with various constituent groups, and being more relationship focused. “Bloomerang allows me to treat EACH donor separately! Having family connections within the database is extremely valuable.” Bloomerang’s features and donor segmentation capabilities will also grow with the team at Lutheran High Northeast and make their constituent communications more efficient and effective — saving them time. “Bloomerang allows me to focus on specific donors, i.e., first time donors, Financial Aid donors, multi year donors, etc.”
Not only have they seen an increase in productivity and efficiency in their development process, but Fred and the team at Lutheran High Northeast have also benefited from more visibility into their donor retention metrics and insights from built-in features to improve their percentage. “I believe Bloomerang has helped us (me) increase donor retention percentages.”
All in all, it’s amazing what an insightful, intuitive, and fundraising-focused database can do for the growth of an organization such as Lutheran High Northeast. “You will love Bloomerang! Easy to learn and easy to use.”
The mission of Saint Ann Catholic School is to facilitate strong academic development, and to nurture a lifelong commitment to Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church in a way that promotes the spiritual and educational growth of each student, so that all students become responsible, productive and faith-filled citizens.
St. Ann Catholic School was looking for an affordable donor management system that could help them better track and engage with their alumni. “We were looking for a great way to track our alumni for the school. Once they graduate, they lose touch with us and we wanted to track their accomplishments and keep them connected to our school,” said Angela de Jong, Development Director at St. Ann Catholic School.
With Bloomerang, Angela and the team at St. Ann Catholic School had found a donor database that could grow with them and meet their budgetary restraints. “We like Bloomerang for the affordable non-profit rates and the ability to start small for a lower fee and then pay more as we grow.”
Overall Angela has been really happy that they were able to find an affordable nonprofit CRM solution to help them track and communicate with their different constituent groups. “It’s affordable and does everything we need to track donors and communicate with them effectively.”
Since implementing Bloomerang and ditching Excel, St. Ann Catholic School has seen improvements with several fundraising pain points through data consolidation. “Bloomerang allows us to track donors in one place. No more cumbersome excel sheets.” They have also benefited from improvements in the quality of their constituent communications. “We are hearing positives from our community thanks to better communication.”
In addition, Bloomerang has fit nicely into St. Ann Catholic School’s donor retention and gift development processes. “This database helps us keep up with our alumni and send them news from us. Now we can invite them to events and track their donations. It will help us in the future as the database fills up and hopefully it will result in more donations.”
It’s amazing what a comprehensive, but still easy-to-use, donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as St. Ann Catholic School.
New Ulm Area Catholic Schools in New Ulm, MN consists of St. Anthony Elementary, with grades PreK-6, Cathedral High School, with grades 7-12, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Church and the Holy Trinity Convent. They currently serve approximately 500 students on campus.
“We use Bloomerang as our alumni database. We originate all of our mass mailings, labels, thank you notes and receipts in Bloomerang. We also use it to track all of our donations from alumni and friends. In addition, we generate email blasts out of Bloomerang as well as reports for our Board of Directors,” said Sara Rieland, Director of Development and Alumni Relations.
“We believe we are reaching more alumni through email blasts sent via Bloomerang. It is especially nice that you can see, by donor, all correspondence sent to them.”“We have greatly increased our productivity in that we can easily email blast any communication via Bloomerang. In addition, we can easily generate reporting to assist in our mailing (we can use filters to identify a certain mailing group, then send that Excel report to our print to directly print labels. This has saved us a lot of time!)”
“Bloomerang makes donation tracking very easy. It also makes all mailing functions fast and efficient. Their support is also top notch! No waiting on hold for someone to help you, you questions is answered instantly!”
Success Story: Giddens School