Key Nonprofit Highlights
EMERGE125, led by Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher, serves the Harlem community of New York City through professional dance performances and by bringing dance education, including after-school programs, to public and private school students. Using Bloomerang to unify donor, ticketing, and engagement data made it easier to fund free or low-cost school programs, deepen supporter relationships, and grow community impact. With cleaner data, stronger reporting, and easier event and email workflows, the organization exceeded their annual appeal goal at 131%, achieved a 40% donor retention rate, and doubled email subscribers. That strengthened donor support is enabling free student education and performances that help young dancers learn, grow, and feel empowered.
Challenge
Disconnected fundraising tools made donor management harder to scale
Before Bloomerang, EMERGE125 was maintaining data across multiple platforms and spreadsheets, which made fundraising and donor management feel fragmented. As Audience & Donor Relations Manager Audrey Webb explained, “Life before Bloomerang felt really scattered.” Donor information, ticketing activity, and fundraising records lived in disjointed systems like Copper, AirTable, and Google Sheets, making it harder to see a full picture of supporter engagement or work efficiently.
EMERGE125 often raises support for educational experiences offered for free or at low cost, especially in public schools. The team needed a platform that could bring everything together, reduce manual work, and help them focus more energy on building relationships and funding mission-critical programs.
Solution
Bloomerang’s Giving Platform turns connected data into smarter fundraising
With Bloomerang, EMERGE125 brought donations, ticketing, forms, and reporting into one connected system. For Webb, one of the biggest benefits was how seamlessly information flowed into the CRM. “I really enjoy Bloomerang” she said. “I think the thing that feels so easy to me is the ability for any data that comes in through ticket sales or through donations to flow right into the CRM.” That unified experience reduced manual entry and gave the team more time to focus on strategy. Even if EMERGE125 uses outside tools for specific entertainment needs, Bloomerang still helped eliminate repetitive administrative work, improving data accuracy while giving the team more time to focus on fundraising strategy. “With Zapier, I still don’t have to manually enter anything,” explained Webb. “I just set up a connection and it all comes into the system.”
Bloomerang also helped Webb dig deeper into donor behavior and make better-informed fundraising decisions. She used reporting to analyze giving patterns, support planning for recurring giving, and surface valuable contacts from a long-running database. “The reporting is advanced, and I’ve been really enjoying exploring it,” said Webb. “There’s a lot of different ways that you can configure reports to look at your data from different angles. It’s been really helpful for me as we’re trying to build a monthly giving or some sort of subscription style program, so I can look at the average amount that donors give without too much effort.”
On the engagement side, EMERGE125 uses Bloomerang forms for events, RSVP pages, flexible ticketing, and supporter-friendly giving experiences. Webb especially valued how quickly her team could create customized forms and offer clear giving choices. “Now that I’ve gotten into the form building, it’s really fast,” she said. “and feels like I can really personalize it based on the event.”
Bloomerang’s ease of use also stood out. Webb had experience with more complex systems, but she found Bloomerang faster to learn and easier to manage. “I was able to learn Bloomerang very quickly and seamlessly,” she said. “Other systems I’ve used look like Windows 2007, but I like the way Bloomerang looks. It’s a very clean design.”
Those operational wins translated into stronger internal visibility, too. Webb set up recurring reports so staff could stay informed, which has made a big difference: “I’ve set up automatic weekly and monthly transaction reports to go to the staff so they’re really in tune with what’s coming in and who’s participating in things. Bloomerang also makes it really easy to pull reports for our Board who are very interested in the data all the time.”
Results
Improved donor engagement and more support for student arts programs
With Bloomerang in place, EMERGE125 saw meaningful gains across fundraising, communications, and event management. They have achieved a 40% donor retention rate, and last year’s annual appeal surpassed its goal at 131%. Powered by cleaner data, improved mail delivery, and stronger email engagement, Webb’s team was able to reach more supporters successfully through a physical mailer, social media, and newsletter. “When we integrated our newsletter to Bloomerang, our subscribers doubled!” she shared.
Bloomerang’s Giving Platform helped the team run events more efficiently and effectively as well. At their last fundraiser, “we worked together to build the event in Bloomerang, like the RSVP list and raffle tickets,” shared Webb. “We ended up reaching capacity and having almost a 100% attendance rate. Plus, it was so great to have the raffle data go straight into the CRM.”
Bloomerang has also supported the nonprofit’s ability to invest in mission-driven programming. When EMERGE125 won this year’s Love Your Donors Day giveaway, the organization made plans to put the $1,000 donation toward a free spring education performance featuring its student programming. “We decided it was important for their parents to be able to see what they’ve been doing,” shared Webb. “The students will take the stage with our company dancers and really feel that empowerment.”
EMERGE125’s partnership with Bloomerang has resulted in less time lost to disconnected systems, more clarity around donor and audience relationships, and more momentum behind programs that use the arts to educate and empower students.
