Key Nonprofit Highlights
Abbott House, based in Irvington, New York, builds lasting foundations for children, families, and adults with complex needs, empowering them with opportunities for promising futures. When their legacy donor management system stopped keeping pace with a lean, mission-driven team, they turned to Bloomerang. Starting with Bloomerang CRM in 2016 and expanding to Bloomerang Fundraising and Bloomerang Volunteer in the years that followed, the unified Giving Platform helped transform Abbott House’s data accuracy, communications, and constituent engagement, driving a 14.4% increase in funds raised in the first year, followed by a 22.8% increase in the second. They’ve also achieved a donor retention rate of 45%, credited to Bloomerang's reporting and segmentation capabilities.
Challenge
Outgrowing a legacy CRM that slowed a small team down
Abbott House didn't just need a new CRM, they needed one built for the reality of a small development team where every hour counts. Their previous platform, Blackbaud Raiser's Edge, had become a bottleneck. As Kate Hope Giscombe, Manager of Development and Communications, put it: "We were looking for a cloud-based solution to replace our outdated and, in my opinion, cumbersome previous CRM."
Running reports with Raiser’s Edge felt less like pulling insights and more like solving “a complex puzzle.” And with a small team responsible for fundraising, communications, and constituent engagement, Abbott House couldn't rely on tools that created more work than they eliminated. They needed a platform that would grow with them, rather than holding them back.
Solution
Building a unified giving platform that works the way nonprofits do
Abbott House adopted Bloomerang CRM in 2016, drawn by its intuitive interface and emphasis on donor retention. The fit was immediate. "The interface of Bloomerang—simply put—just made sense to me," said Giscombe, who's been with the organization for 12 years. The team expanded to Bloomerang Fundraising in 2022 and added Bloomerang Volunteer in 2026, completing a unified Bloomerang Giving Platform that connected every corner of their development and engagement work.
"I’ve been a huge fan of Bloomerang since the first time I used it, so it just makes sense to incorporate other products in the suite,” shared Giscombe. “We had been utilizing Bloomerang Fundraising already for a few years when it was called Qgiv, so having it become even more integrated with our CRM was music to my ears. Volunteer was the final piece of software we had been missing in our workflow. It's great to have an integrated systems workflow where everything 'speaks' to each other. Our communications have become greatly streamlined, and our data is more accurate."
Day to day, the team leaned into Bloomerang's reporting tools, email builder, and flexible donation forms. The forms, in particular, changed how Abbott House approached event-based and campaign-specific fundraising—Giscombe noted that "the unique donation forms make creating new giving opportunities and specific asks so simple to collect donations for!" The email builder's drip campaign functionality meant supporters who took a specific action—or didn't—received tailored follow-up rather than a one-size-fits-all message. Constituent Codes and Groups also gave the team precise, flexible ways to segment their audience. For a recent golf outing, Giscombe created a dedicated Group for ticket holders and managed all event communications from one place. Training new team members became faster and easier, too, thanks to Bloomerang's step-by-step tutorials and clean interface.
Results
Raising more and retaining more with the full Bloomerang Giving Platform
The results Abbott House achieved tell the story of a team that's able to build stronger constituent relationships and raise more for the mission because of it. Funds raised increased by 14.4% in Abbott House's first year on Bloomerang, followed by an even stronger 22.8% increase in year two.
Plus, they’ve achieved a donor retention rate of 45%, which Giscombe credited to Bloomerang's reporting and segmentation capabilities. "Our increased, steady, and above average donor retention rate is greatly attributed to Bloomerang, thanks to the powerful reporting and segmenting that allows us to effectively tailor communications and engage constituents." Reporting also reshaped how the team understood their donor base, making it possible to spot giving patterns, anticipate cash flow, and adjust outreach strategy to better connect with constituents.
Giscombe calls Bloomerang, “a powerful, cost-effective, essential suite of tools for any fundraising, development, or communications department.” With the unified Bloomerang Giving Platform, Abbott House is building the kind of lasting supporter relationships that make their work possible for years to come.
