The Group is nationally certified through the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) and an active member of the Colorado Search and Rescue Board (CSRB) responding to calls for mutual aid throughout Colorado.

Challenge

Friends of Mountain Rescue was looking for an affordable, web-based donor management system that could help them raise more major gifts and send out segmented communications. After receiving an “excellent description and assistance” from a Bloomerang sales rep, Ed Lukes and his team knew that they had found the right solution.

When asked what originally drew them to Bloomerang, Ed cited the design, affordability, and people behind the software. “Low cost to get started as we were small at the time. Liked overall design,” said Ed Lukes from Friends of Mountain Rescue.

Solution

Even after finding a solution that would work as their first donor database, Ed and his team realized that Bloomerang could help them get so much more out of their major gift fundraising strategy. Friends of Mountain Rescue had finally found a system that could help them send out personalized communications and utilize custom fields to help them “track for identifying club memberships and residence locations” for fundraising events. Custom fields also allow them to track the information that’s important in creating personalized communications that donors can relate to.

These personalized communications can be created in Bloomerang and then be used to speak to donors and potential donors in a more meaningful way. Ed and his team now send out “6 to 8 News stories a year describing rescue missions.” They use storytelling techniques in their communications to appeal to the emotional side of their donors.

Results

Friends of Mountain Rescue has been able to raise more major gifts since implementing Bloomerang several years ago. They define a major gift donation as $30,000 or more, and they’ve been happy with the results they’ve seen with the help of their donor database. “Our goal is a $2,000,000 Endowment fund to make Vail Mountain Rescue sustainable without continued fundraising. The fund was at $500,000 when we started with Bloomerang and is now over $1.4 million.”

At the end of the day, the single most important thing Bloomerang has done to help Ed and his team raise more major gifts is simple, just like the software is to use. “[Bloomerang] helps us organize to report the source of donations and communicate with donors, e.g. news stories and thank you letters. It also helps us with registrations for special events.” The reporting tool has played a big role in helping Ed and his team stay organized and report on where their donations are coming from. And that knowledge is power.

It’s amazing what a user-friendly, fundraiser-focused tool can do for the growth of an organization such as Friends of Mountain Rescue. “Bloomerang has helped us raise a lot more gifts.”

The post Vail Mountain Rescue Group appeared first on Bloomerang.

Challenge

Goodell Gardens & Homestead was looking for an accessible, affordable, and intuitive donor management system that they could use on the go to keep donor records and information up to date. “We wanted to have something simple and accessible. We had cost in mind and were happy to find a reasonable price with Bloomerang.

The challenge was mainly the access for both myself and the Executive director. The list of members was ever-changing and we both wanted to remain in the loop and have updated material when it came to our members,” said Melissa Moreland, Visitor Services Coordinator at Goodell Gardens and Homestead.

Solution

Melissa was initially drawn to Bloomerang because of its affordability and ease of use, but they’ve since come to appreciate the addition of DonorSearch to their development arsenal, as well as Bloomerang’s robust reporting functionality. “The price was what drew us first. We also liked the way it was set up. We now have DonorSearch which is a nice feature.”

Melissa recommends Bloomerang as a reasonable option to keep all their member and donor data available and in one place. Growing nonprofits like theirs who don’t already have a membership database “should try Bloomerang” — it might be the right fit like it is for Goodell Gardens & Homestead.

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, Goodell Gardens & Homestead has alleviated several fundraising pain points through the reporting functionality, and in turn have increased their productivity and efficiency while getting some time back in their day. “The reports are something we easily can make without a lot of hassle.”

Melissa and the team at Goodell Gardens & Homestead have found that Bloomerang fits nicely into their current gift development processes while enhancing what they already have working for them by having an all-in-one system that fits their needs. “It keeps everything together. Even people who aren’t members and want to buy tickets or donate money to us.”

The team at Goodell Gardens & Homestead has also seen improvements with the quality of their constituent communications through segmentation capabilities and streamlining their communication efficiency. “It’s easier to send emails to our constituents based on their needs and ours.”

All in all, it’s amazing what an easy-to-use, fundraising-focused database can do for the growth of an organization such as Goodell Gardens & Homestead.

The post Goodell Gardens and Homestead appeared first on Bloomerang.

Challenge

Wood River Land Trust did their due diligence while looking for an intuitive, user-friendly donor management system. They wanted to streamline their data and ditch complexity by replacing Salesforce.

“Bloomerang was very appealing because of the ability to put people/businesses in households, the detailed reporting, and notes and interactions,” said Josie Brownell, Development Assistant at Wood River Land Trust.

Solution

Wood River Land Trust had finally found a user-friendly system to help with reporting, interactions and detailed note-taking. “The reporting feature has helped us immensely. We use it for everything from creating a newsletter mailing list to running a revenue report. We were also drawn to the level of detail associated with the interactions and notes sections. We are constantly trying to track our meetings with donors, events, workshops, new people involved with the organization, etc. The notes have also helped with grant tracking, so we can manage those deadlines much more easily.”

The user-friendliness, functionality of the system, and ease of reporting and donor communications are what originally drew Wood River Land Trust to Bloomerang. “Tracking the opening rates and clicked links [in emails] has been incredibly helpful in understanding what information our donors, volunteers, and friends want to see from us.”

Not only that, but by going with Bloomerang, Wood River Land Trust could enjoy both the free customer support, and also better support from more knowledgeable reps. “The Bloomerang staff is awesome! If you ever have questions (even ones specific to your organization) there is always someone available to chat either online or on the phone.”

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, Josie and her team have benefited from the custom fields, the ability to track donations, pledges, and grants for every project, and the detailed lists they can pull from reports. “Since we are an environmental organization, we constantly have multiple land and water projects that we are always trying to fundraise for and track the progress of. Bloomerang helps to differentiate between donations, pledges, and grants for each project.”

Wood River Land Trust has seen improvements in donor communications, reporting, and tracking notes and interactions. And they can now have insight into donor retention statistics. “It’s a nice reminder to see donor retention, campaign progress, and pending tasks on my Bloomerang homepage!”

Josie and her team have been able to alleviate the pain point of not being able to see each donor’s detailed history. They can now add in-depth information to that donor’s profile to better personalize their communications. “We have a fairly high donor retention rate of close to 70%, and I attribute that to our ability to see each donor’s detailed history with the organization. We can review all events they’ve attended, their donations, what mailings they’ve received, and who they’ve met with and when.”

“We also use the interactions feature to track who attends what events/workshops and can tailor our e-blasts to those groups for follow up, and to let them know about future events.”

Donor communication segmenting is key in increasing donor retention, and it looks like Wood River Land Trust has mastered it with help from Bloomerang.

The post Wood River Land Trust appeared first on Bloomerang.

Challenge

Pacific Wild was looking to replace Salesforce with easy-to-use donor management software with knowledgeable customer support. They wanted a system they could make their own without needing to know how to code, and with support, they could rely on. “We have US and Canadian non-profits and were using Salesforce SNSP.

We wanted a user-friendly system where we could accept funds in both currencies, with EXCELLENT support – Salesforce had none and the lack of it crippled us at key times – and you had to know object-oriented programming to customize it,” said Laurie McConnell, Development and Outreach Assistant at Pacific Wild.

Solution

After researching and testing a handful of different donor databases, Laurie ultimately landed on Bloomerang as the best size, functionality, and intuitiveness for their growing organization. “We had a consultant investigate five systems, and winnow it down to three for me to test. Bloomerang was the easiest to use and fit our database size, and the support was very good. The reporting is superb. We also liked that Bloomerang was independently owned and not positioning itself for a buyout – that’s when support and continued development of the platform disappears and clients are left hanging.”

In addition to finding the best database solution to fit their needs, Laurie and her team were more than happy with Bloomerang’s product partner integrations and the ability to build out a robust, multi-channel, custom development machine. “We use almost all of the integrations. We import our Shopify and photographic print orders into Bloomerang through Zapier, segment and communicate by email through Mailchimp, and have GeoTargetly and Fundraise Up implemented on our site. We’ve even provided our sponsors and key donor partners a Fundraise Up donate lightbox that allows their site visitors to donate to Pacific Wild without ever leaving the partner’s website.”

Through the help of integrations, Bloomerang has fit perfectly into Pacific Wild’s donor retention and gift development processes to go into year-end fundraising with confidence, be more strategic in their planning, and do the best job they can at building and maintaining donor relationships. “Because of Bloomerang – and the recent integrations developed, including Zapier – we are now able to work on segmentation, stewardship, and long-range planning. It was always a chaotic ad-hoc end-of-year process and this year feels very different.”

Laurie recommends Bloomerang to other environmental organizations and provides hope that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t have to settle for a donor management system that doesn’t meet your needs as well just because it’s always been used. “It’s always intimidating to consider switching donor databases, and it takes longer than you think, but when you’re done, the relief is so welcome and you really get an idea of a) how much time was lost on your old system and b) how much bigger picture you can plan when donor database headaches are no longer a factor. The ability to train a backup in the organization is also critical. Most organizations do not have adequate succession planning and it’s a real weakness. Bloomerang is easy to train on compared to most systems. And the webinars are excellent.”

Results

Since implementing Bloomerang, Pacific Wild has alleviated several fundraising pain points, specifically around more easily accepting U.S. donations and ensuring donors have the receipts they need upon donating. “Oh, goodness. The US donations problem was solved. The new integration with Fundraise Up is excellent. We can now receive and receipt in any currency, and we can provide tax receipts on the spot for US and Canadian donors.”

Laurie and the team at Pacific Wild now have better insights into their donor retention and dollars raised statistics and can put in the work to start raising more money. They are now set up for development success. “We finally have the time to be able to do this work with all of our automation and integrations. I look forward to comparing this year over last year after year-end.”

Laurie has also been able to benefit from increased productivity and efficiency, especially when compared to their struggles with learning, teaching, and maintaining their Salesforce CRM. “The amount of time we were losing through Salesforce was astronomical. Unless you have a Salesforce administrator on your team (highly paid, highly specialized, which most small organizations can not afford) it’s a time boondoggle. I am cross-training another staffer on Bloomerang and it’s easy to teach!”

All in all, it’s amazing what an easy-to-use, innovative donor database can do for the growth of environmental organizations like Pacific Wild. “I highly recommend Bloomerang!”

The post Pacific Wild appeared first on Bloomerang.