Recapturing 300 lapsed donors and increasing gift size with Bloomerang

Key Nonprofit Highlights

The mission of Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington is to empower all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as caring, productive, and responsible citizens. The Club’s four locations serve 700 to 800 children every day across Monroe and Owen counties in South-Central Indiana with after-school care, as well as summer and school break camps. 

For decades, the team ran fundraising on pen and paper and later with workarounds and third-party tools that didn't match their fundraising potential. After the Club fully adopted the unified Bloomerang Giving Platform®, they recaptured more than 300 lapsed donors and achieved a 56% donor retention rate. They also grew their average gift size from roughly $800 to just over $1,000, and their pledge strategy put them half a million dollars ahead on revenue halfway into the year.

Challenge

Replacing manual fundraising workarounds with a unified donor strategy

The Club opened its first location in the downtown Bloomington armory in 1956, but fundraising didn’t have a dedicated team until the mid-2010s when they started using Bloomerang to run their first capital campaign to renovate the original armory and build a second site.

The Club's donor database grew more after adding additional development staff from the 2016 capital campaign, but many of the Club's processes stayed the same. When donor relations director Rebekah Thomas stepped into her role, she found custom workarounds and third-party tools in place that were adding time and complexity to the Club's fundraising efforts. Peer-to-peer events and auctions ran through a third-party vendor, and a separate email tool led to mistimed donor communication and solicitations. “That communicates to your donor, ‘I don’t know you, and I don’t know your support history with the club,’” Thomas said of donors who gave and then kept getting solicitations. 

When school lets out, the Boys & Girls Club expands into full-day summer programming, adding more hours, field trips, and critical family support that represent the organization’s highest cost period. Because donor pledge commitments traditionally arrived during the year-end giving season, the Club historically utilized operating reserves to bridge this standard calendar gap.

Solution

Connecting events, donors, and pledges with Bloomerang Giving Platform

Thomas became the first staff member to dive into Bloomerang Fundraising, and she built their marquee Boys to Men event on the platform, then converted every other event registration and donation form by the end of 2025. Because Bloomerang Fundraising and Bloomerang CRM work as one unified giving platform, every supporter signal—from online donations and events to auctions and peer-to-peer campaigns—comes together in one clear donor profile, so the team can say good-bye to manual data transfers.

Journey Automation and communications within Bloomerang changed daily work for Thomas and the Club. A first-time donor now enters a new-donor journey that sends a welcome video featuring stories from kids and parents, followed by a “did you know” email with Club facts and volunteer opportunities. Drip campaigns within Bloomerang apply conditional logic, so “they’re removed from this solicitation as soon as they give and you can put them into a different pipeline,” Thomas explained. She runs two drip campaigns, including one aimed at lapsed donors. Reviewing the lapsing donors report every morning allows Thomas to better understand why each donor is slipping. “The single best practice that I do every day is going to the profiles of each lapsing donor,” she said. “Just looking at those constituents is where you’re going to get the best results, and having people on our staff take ownership over certain donors has made a huge difference.” 

With the team adopting Bloomerang’s relationship manager feature, staff now own more than 400 donor portfolios and can better provide priority donors with high-touch communications and cultivation. Groups within Bloomerang segment major donors, board members, and campaign supporters, and custom fields capture cultivation preferences, such as a donor who loves kids’ art. “I’ll sometimes have a donor that’s like, ‘Oh, I’m just a sucker for kid art,’” explained Thomas. “So I’m putting that in their profile because anytime I need to give them a gift, I’m going to go work with a kid on a hand-drawn thank-you card.” 

Results

Reaching 56% retention and getting half a million dollars ahead on revenue

Thomas’s changes succeeded in moving every fundraising number that matters. The Club’s donor retention rate hit 56%, and their drip campaign recaptured more than 300 lapsed donors. Their average gift size grew from roughly $800 to just above $1,000. Automation in Bloomerang gives Thomas and her team time for the personal touch. Relationship managers write handwritten notes and make RSVP calls for events. Each GivingTuesday, board members make thank-you calls, completing more than 350 last year and aiming for more than 400 this year. 

And pledge management delivered the biggest surprise. When the team moved to Bloomerang Payments, Thomas rescheduled sponsorship pledges to come due earlier instead of at year-end, with quarterly pledge reminders sent via email and letters. Clear due dates and regular reminders brought in cash sooner. “Basically, because we were reminding donors and we were communicating more, we got cash in the door,” Thomas said. The Club overdelivered on goals at half a million dollars ahead on revenue halfway into the year and is now covering summer camp expenses with incoming revenue instead of reserves. “Yes, pledges are difficult, but Bloomerang can handle it.”

With donor data guiding their work like a compass, Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington can keep investing in the kids who need them most. “I think Bloomerang is for the hardworking nonprofit,” shared Thomas. “The people who don’t have an abundance of extra time for tracking interactions, running reports—the admin side of fundraising—but have a strong desire to do it well. The support’s there, the training’s there, and the features are always made with a respect and appreciation for the work that we do.”