Bloomerang understands the unique fundraising challenges of public benefit organizations. There’s no reason for technology to get in the way of important work in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties, community improvement, education, philanthropy and volunteerism, and voter education and registration. That’s why numerous public or social benefit organizations nationwide have chosen Bloomerang’s donor database solution.
Below are just a few thoughts and success stories from public benefit organizations just like yours.
Grand Seven Detroit was started by leadership at Harvest Christian Church in 2013 and named “Build It Detroit” in an effort to restore the neighborhood around the church. It has been relaunched as Grand 7 Detroit, to better reflect our commitment to the neighborhood near the intersection of Grand River and Seven Mile.
Grand 7 Detroit is building a vibrant, thriving community near the intersection of Grand River and Seven Mile in Detroit.
Grand 7 Detroit was looking for a more formal and robust way to track constituents, handle online donations, track giving records and patterns, run reports, and send out email updates through a donor CRM. It was time to make the investment. “When I started at G7D, there was no system in place at all to keep track of donors or even contacts. Although we had already led multiple volunteer events and taken some donations, there were only paper records of those people’s contact info. I knew this would not help us grow so I started looking for a digital system. I first used a free software that I was familiar with, but it did not have much capability for an organization and I knew we were going to have to find something more robust. I needed a system that could track constituents’ contact info, take donations online, track giving records and patterns, run reports, and send out email updates. I looked at 3 or 4 programs online and felt that Bloomerang was the best fit for G7D’s size and budget. They had options specifically made for start-up nonprofits and I liked that it was web based so I didn’t have to worry about backing it up. At that time I had no idea how amazing their online support would be!” said Leigh Fehr, Development Director at Grand 7 Detroit.
Leigh was initially drawn to Bloomerang’s ease of use and affordable price point, but has come to appreciate the friendly and knowledgeable customer support team more and more since getting set up. “I was originally drawn to the lower price packages that were available for a small organization like G7D. I also liked that the system looked easy to use since I would be doing all the updates. Now that I am using Bloomerang, what I love the most is the support! I often use the chat support and get help very quickly. I have also watched and read many online tutorials. Even more amazing is all the webinars that teach invaluable lessons on using the software.”
The team at Grand 7 Detroit was also excited to see improvements with their donor retention and gift development processes by being able to keep better track of their constituent data. “G7D uses Bloomerang primarily to track all its constituents. That includes keeping their contact info all in one place, tracking their donations, sending them updates via email blasts and snail mail, and sending year end tax receipts. ON top of that, we also use Bloomerang (and its partners) to take online donations via credit card and EFT.” An additional big-picture benefit to Grand 7 Detroit came in the form of Bloomerang’s integration with Benevon, a sustainable development model. “One of the other benefits for us is Bloomerang’s partnership with Benevon. G7D decided to use Benevon as a development model even before we chose Bloomerang as our software. Having a system that works with that model means keeping us on track with connecting and following up with contacts and giving us a picture of how we are doing.”
Leigh is happy to tout Bloomerang’s trainings, online webinars and resources, and built-in customer support as reasons to recommend it as a top donor management system for public benefit organizations like theirs. “For a small start up like G7D, Bloomerang’s excellent support system is huge as the learning curve is pretty big. Like me, most Development Directors for super small orgs need a lot of help and training. This is all available through Bloomerang’s weekly webinars and online support. You can become a great Development Director simply by tuning into these valuable resources.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, Grand 7 Detroit has gained power over their data and has benefited from making informed decisions. “Once we switched to Bloomerang, we were able to begin tracking our constituents including all our volunteers. Without a great deal of time, we could input spreadsheets of info into the system and know that the contact info could be easily accessible. This makes following up with donors and volunteers much easier!”
And since increasing their efficiency and gaining better access to their data, Leigh and his team have been able to benefit from raising more money. “Before using Bloomerang, donors could only give by check. Now, we receive online donations by credit card and from bank accounts. This means more donations and easier tracking.”
In addition to high number growth, the team at Grand 7 Detroit has also seen improvements in the quality and frequency of their constituent communications. “Before Bloomerang, we weren’t sending out any updates to our contacts. With Bloomerang, this is relatively easy to do via email or mass mailing if we choose.”
All in all, it’s amazing what a simple and innovative donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as Grand 7 Detroit.
We are a nonprofit organization which develops and fosters partnerships between area schools and northwest Ohio businesses, government agencies, organizations and churches. Funded by contributions from businesses, individuals and the community, we leverage our most important investment — the education of our children.
Partners in Education was looking for an easy-to-use donor management system that could help them organize, access, and keep track of all their donor data. “We were looking for something easy to use, easy to pull data out of and something that tracked everything we needed,” said Michelle Klinger, Executive Director at Partners in Education Toledo.
After hearing more about Bloomerang from Jay Love and Steven Shattuck, Michelle was initially drawn to its attractive interface, functionality, and intuitiveness. “I heard a presentation by Jay Love and then, Steve Shattuck visited us in Toledo for a presentation when I was the director of The Center for Nonprofit Resources here in Toledo.”
The team at Partners in Education 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. “We are a small company but we want to double our programming in the next four years. Our organization had been struggling to find ways to manage data for a number of years. Bloomerang provided a mechanism that our staff could learn and use easily. To be truthful, we are not yet scratching the surface regarding what Bloomerang can do. We have used it religiously to inform our board about who is giving and where we need to go with respect to donor development.”
Michelle is happy to tout Bloomerang’s ease of use, data management functionality, and built-in constituent communication abilities as reasons to recommend it as a top donor management system for public benefit organizations like theirs. “I have recommended Bloomerang to every nonprofit we work with. Our organization runs an initiative called the Afterschool Alliance with over 435 members and we recommend Bloomerang to everyone because of the ease of use, the data it provides us and how it keeps us on track to thank donors and stay in touch.”
Since implementing Bloomerang, Partners in Education has gained power over their data and has benefited from making informed decisions. “Really, for this organization it was about consistent data collection and Bloomerang’s attractive interface. Also the fact that the software is accessible anywhere our staff needs it to be, has helped us a great deal.”
And since increasing their efficiency and gaining better access to their data, Michelle and her team have been able to benefit from increased donations and online giving, along with improved fundraising and development efforts. “I can tell you that our fundraising has improved every year since we began using Bloomerang. Our annual fund donations have doubled in the past three years. And our online giving has increased by 100%.”
In addition to high number growth, the team at Partners in Education has also seen improvements in the quality and frequency of their reporting and constituent communications. “Having Bloomerang does allow us to create reports at the drop of a hat, which is great. We hope to use it to improve our constituent communication in the near future. And we now have a much better idea of who is giving and what programming areas they are most passionate about.”
All in all, it’s amazing what a simple and innovative donor database can do for the growth of an organization such as Partners in Education Toledo.