West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation

The mission of the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation is to support the West Lafayette Community School Corporation in improving the schools’ educational programs and operations by obtaining funding to support the school’s mission and strengthen alumni ties to the schools.

Challenge

West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation was looking for a simple donor database that would work better for them than their previous system. “When I came on to work for the Foundation, it was clear their current database was not working. I was tasked with researching several different ones and selecting the one I liked best. I wanted to keep with my comfort zone and stay with the one I had used at my previous position. Seemed easy enough. However, after stumbling upon Bloomerang, it all made sense. It was intuitive, interactive, bright, simple, and offered me a lot of what I wanted and didn’t know I needed in a database. I was looking for a database that told me what I needed quickly, was easy to run reports, and was mobile-friendly. Bloomerang was the only one that checked off all boxes,” said Lindsay Walls, Director of Operations at West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation.

Solution

After stumbling upon Bloomerang, the team at West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation quickly became impressed with its intuitiveness, reporting functionality, and knowledgeable customer support. “The layout. The idea that things were easy to find. The reports are easy to run and when I have questions, the live chat is always right there to help me. I have had great experiences using the live chat and the overall customer service is extraordinary.”

West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation was also happy that they had found a solution that could take their constituent communication to the next level. “We communicate with our donors. We call them, email them, track their lives. Before Bloomerang we were unknown and cold. When someone calls, the first thing we do is open their record and verify all of their information. They appreciate this.”

Lindsay and the team have been so happy with their decision to switch to Bloomerang that they’ve been recommending the donor management software to other nonprofits. Here’s Lindsay’s advice to other school foundations:

Switch now.
The time we save by having accurate account information and data is worth every dime tenfold. It also helps avoid awkward conversations about why we mailed to a deceased alum, forgot to mail to a new alum, spelled someone’s name wrong, etc.
The data you receive from emails, donors engagement, etc. helps me speak confidently on how we are doing and what is working for us.
The things I am able to do with the information provided are priceless. I love data and being able to generate various reports is fantastic.

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation has seen several fundraising pain points be alleviated. “Our ability to segment our annual campaign letter increased our fundraising significantly. Before we were blindly mailing to everyone in the database. This was not cost-effective. We’ve used engagement and generosity reports to help us in our capital campaign and these insights have led us to great successes in fundraising.”

school foundations. Bloomerang has also fit nicely into the foundation’s donor retention and gift development processes with its built-in email tool. “Our online donations have skyrocketed and our ability to communicate with our donors in a meaningful manner has led to higher gifts. As a foundation, we sent our first mass email through Bloomerang in our entire history. It was eye-opening how we could design and communicate to different groups with a few simple clicks. Alumni drive our organization and they love to hear about what is going on at the school. This has helped us in planning their reunions and ultimately has increased our donor records significantly and has made them much more accurate. A win-win.”

And if that’s not enough, Lindsay and her team have seen improvements in dollars raised through targeted mailings. “In our first year with the Bloomerang, we went from mailing 8000 letters to mailing 972. We went from raising $16,000 to $21,000. The second-year we doubled that dollar amount and mailed only 650 pieces. Math doesn’t lie.”

At this rate, imagine what improvements the team could continue to see. “Bloomerang is user-friendly, helpful, and constantly changing for the better. They listen to their users and are always there when you need them. My job is easier because of Bloomerang and they have made our organization much stronger both financially and in terms of overall legitimacy.”