Double the fundraising with Bloomerang’s auction software
Key Nonprofit Highlights
Junior Achievement of Northern California empowers young people with skills in financial literacy, work-readiness, and entrepreneurship through volunteer-led, experiential K-12 programs. Part of a 101-year-old organization, they inspire students to achieve their potential and succeed in a global economy. Junior Achievement of Northern California improved their annual gala’s success with Bloomerang Fundraising’s auction software. Frustrated with their previous software’s high costs and poor customer service, they switched to Bloomerang for its seamless CRM integration, affordability, and superior support. Using features like a countdown timer, live-streaming, text-to-donate, and a $50,000 matching gift promotion, their virtual auction raised over $337,000—more than double what they achieved with their old software. Bloomerang’s ease of use also saved time and helped create an engaging event website, boosting participation and excitement.
Challenge
Poor customer service with previous auction software
The organization hosts an annual gala event called the Junior Achievement of Northern California Business Hall of Fame. This event always features a silent auction. However, their auction software wasn’t fully meeting their needs. The software’s cost and inadequate customer service were pain points stopping Junior Achievement of Northern California from reaching their event’s full potential.
Because success was crucial, they looked for alternatives to the auction tools used at prior events. They needed auction software that was user-friendly for the organization and their guests, could integrate with their CRM, and was accompanied by top-notch customer service. They already used Bloomerang Fundraising for standard online donation forms, so they took a closer look at Bloomerang Fundraising’s auction software while researching options.
Solution
Bloomerang Fundraising’s superior customer support and ease of use
What sold Junior Achievement of Northern California on Bloomerang Fundraising’s auction software was the seamless functionality and superior customer support. “We ultimately decided to go with Bloomerang because of the CRM integration, the competitive price point, and its excellent customer service,” said Lawrence Folsom, Community Outreach Coordinator. With the auction platform decided, the organization set to work putting together their virtual gala event. They added their auction items to Bloomerang Fundraising and made plans to livestream the event using YouTube Live.
To draw more attention to their auction event, they added a countdown timer to their organization’s website and added a button on their auction landing page to add the event to visitors’ calendars. The organization also secured a $50,000 match for the virtual gala event to get participants excited about giving. They promoted the gift match on their auction page in Bloomerang Fundraising, and during the event, they offered various ways to give, including text-to-donate. They even did a screencast of their auction thermometer progress to keep the audience and bidders engaged and excited!
Results
Raising more than double the amount with Bloomerang compared to old software
Junior Achievement of Northern California’s virtual event was incredibly successful, and participants easily registered and bid on items using Bloomerang Fundraising’s mobile app. Overall, they raised $37,000 more than their $300,000 goal. More than $76,000 of that total came from registration fees from nearly 200 participants. “We were able to raise more money than we did at the in-person event last year,” explained Folsom. “And we raised more than double what we had previously raised in our last all-virtual auction with a different software.”
Not only did this event raise more money than the previous year, it also helped Junior Achievement of Northern California save time and money. Bloomerang Fundraising’s reporting, text fundraising system, and the ease of use of its event builder saved the organization time to invest in making their event more successful. With Bloomerang Fundraising’s extensive capabilities and ease of use, the JA team built a robust and extensive website for their gala event, which included multiple pages full of videos and pictures. The team believed this benefited the event broadcast attendance and participation in the auction by creating excitement and driving traffic to their webpage leading up to the event. “We plan to continue to use Bloomerang Fundraising as the platform for our events and are working on ways to build some of our student events on the platform,” shared Folsom.
