Customer Story

Nonprofit Success: The Delores Project Saves 3 Hours a Week with Bloomerang's Journey Automation

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The Dolores Project in Denver, Colorado, serves an essential purpose: providing shelter and support to women, trans, and non-binary individuals experiencing homelessness. The organization strives to permanently resolve homelessness by offering not only shelter, but also wraparound services, such as supportive housing units, case management, and behavioral health programs. To help overcome funding challenges and streamline donor engagement with a small team, they switched to Bloomerang’s Giving Platform. Its communication tools have enabled personalized supporter outreach, wealth screening has enhanced efficiency and built stronger donor relationships, and Journey Automation saves 1-3 hours per week. Overall, Bloomerang has helped The Delores Project secure 503 new donors in just over six months. These improvements allowed the organization to focus on its mission, achieving impressive outcomes, like 42% of shelter guests moving into stable housing and 90% remaining housed a year later.

CHALLENGE
Addressing funding challenges and improving efficiency

Maintaining the comprehensive services at The Delores Project requires substantial funding and efficiency. The organization has faced significant obstacles, including the impending loss of $325,000 in federal funding. With a small development team of four, including just two staff dedicated to fundraising, streamlining donor engagement and expanding support became paramount to sustaining their mission. They switched from Kindful, MailChimp, and GiveButter to Bloomerang’s Giving Platform to capitalize on its integrated tools, enhanced reporting capabilities, and user-friendly efficiency.

SOLUTION
Streamlining donor communication with Bloomerang’s Journey Automation

Lucas Land, director of development, set up a drip marketing automation similar to what had been in MailChimp with the help of Bloomerang support using reports, filters, and interactions. It worked fine, but when Bloomerang’s Journey Automation feature was released, Land knew it would be perfect for The Delores Project’s needs. “When I saw Journey Automation, I jumped on it because it was something I already wanted,” said Land. “It was super fast and easy for me to get it set up, and now I can set very specific automations for new donors and new subscribers to our newsletter.”

Replacing manual, labor-intensive donor communication processes, Journey Automation allows The Dolores Project to create seamless email workflows. New donors now receive a tailored onboarding email series that informs them of The Dolores Project’s transformative work, deepens connections, and encourages continuing support. “Journey Automation helps our donors, especially new donors, feel more connected to us. We say all the time, if people come to our building and get a tour, if they see how we are working to resolve people’s homelessness in a way that a lot of other nonprofits have struggled to do, then they tend to feel like this is something they want to support,” said Land. “Getting supporters to understand who we are with those little touch points that we can have with them—but don’t take up more staff time—can really help us streamline operations.”

Additionally, the organization integrated other Bloomerang Giving Platform features like the wealth screening tool, enabling the development team to identify high-capacity donors more efficiently and target them for personalized outreach. Land highlighted the value of these tools, explaining, “It’s been huge, just having that data at our fingertips. The efficiency of being able to identify who it might be most beneficial to reach out and cultivate relationships with, as a small team, is huge.”

RESULTS
Saving time and gaining new donors with Bloomerang’s Giving Platform

The results of these enhancements have been transformative. Despite being a small operation, The Dolores Project has continued to grow both its donor base and its impact on the community. In just over six months, the organization has gained 503 new donors, with 99 from the first month of a strategic campaign to offset the loss of federal funding. Communicating efficiently with these donors makes them want to continue supporting their purpose. “Having something like Journey Automation to automate communication with donors is immensely helpful in scaling our operations and cultivation strategies,” said Land. “Having this automation within the Bloomerang Giving Platform makes the solution even more powerful—multiple people within my team can rely on Bloomerang to do their jobs and automate their workflows—ultimately resulting in stronger relationships with our supporters.”

Journey Automation greatly improved efficiency, with Land estimating it has saved roughly one to three hours per week—time previously spent tracking and emailing new donors manually. This efficiency also extends into other critical aspects of their fundraising and program planning. “With the suite of tools Bloomerang’s Giving Platform has now, it definitely feels even more like an all-in-one solution,” said Land. “It’s been really nice to not have so many different tools. It’s super convenient because many users are doing more than one thing in the products of Bloomerang.”

The success of The Dolores Project speaks volumes: 42% of guests who exit the shelter move into stable or permanent housing, a rate higher than most comparable shelters, and 90% of those individuals remain housed a year later. Looking ahead, the organization remains optimistic about the role Bloomerang’s Giving Platform will continue to play in their operations. By removing inefficiencies and maximizing donor engagement, The Dolores Project ensures its critical purpose of building belonging and housing security for vulnerable populations remains on firm footing for years to come.

“Having something like Journey Automation to automate communication with donors is immensely helpful in scaling our operations and cultivation strategies. It makes the solution even more powerful—multiple people within my team can rely on Bloomerang to do their jobs and automate their workflows—ultimately resulting in stronger relationships with our supporters.”

Lucas Land

Director of Development