Increasing supporters and improving online giving by switching to Bloomerang Fundraising

Key Nonprofit Highlights

Catholic Charities Terre Haute nourishes the minds, bodies, and spirits of children, adults, seniors, and families across the Wabash Valley by providing nutritious food, safe shelter, quality youth programming, and essential personal and household needs. For years, the organization relied on an online giving platform that couldn't keep pace. Switching to Bloomerang Fundraising gave the team the freedom to build and customize forms in-house, revive a struggling donation drive through peer-to-peer fundraising, and build a sustainer program directly into its website. In their first year with Bloomerang, Catholic Charities Terre Haute brought on 21 new recurring donors, which grew to 45 newly established recurring donors in the most recent calendar year (an increase of 114%).

Challenge

Outgrowing a rigid, outdated donation platform

Catholic Charities Terre Haute had processed online donations through Acceptiva for several years, but when it learned Acceptiva would eventually sunset its platform, the organization saw a chance to get ahead of the change rather than scramble once support disappeared. Acceptiva offered an unlimited number of donation forms, but building or editing one meant submitting a request and waiting for customer service to make it live, a process that rarely lined up with campaign timing. The forms themselves offered little design or functionality, leaving the organization with no way to bring its mission to life for donors. 

Jennifer Tames, Assistant Agency Director, felt that disconnect firsthand. "Our donation forms weren't easily recognizable, and we couldn't add impact images or statements to communicate how each donation affected our mission. It just didn't give the best impression to our donors," Tames said. But making a change wasn't easy. "Of course we were hesitant to make the switch—no one likes change, and that can be a hard thing to do," she admitted. Still, the team researched its options and chose to move to Bloomerang Fundraising on its own timeline, confident a more flexible platform would serve donors better.

Solution

Customizing donor experiences with Bloomerang Fundraising

Since switching to Bloomerang Fundraising, Catholic Charities Terre Haute has built hundreds of custom donation forms, creating a unique one for every appeal and campaign it runs. That lets the team track how and where each gift comes in, and Google tags layered onto the forms show precisely which channels are driving new donors and donations. "We need forms that are clean, user friendly, and modern—Bloomerang is consistently updating their platform to ensure our donors interact with forms that meet their expectations and are easy to use and up-to-date from the nonprofit perspective," Tames said.

Peer-to-peer fundraising reshaped one of the organization's longtime traditions: its sock and underwear drive. The drive once relied on donors driving to a store, buying items, and dropping them off at a neighbor's collection barrel, and participation was shrinking as schedules got busier. Once Catholic Charities Terre Haute added online peer-to-peer pages that let donors pick their neighborhood and give monetary gifts while still competing for bragging rights, donations climbed again. The team also built its sustainer program directly into its website using carefully crafted language to encourage recurring gifts, then turned to the recurring donation forecaster to set annual goals and track donor giving anniversaries. 

Support from Bloomerang stayed steady throughout: "Bloomerang consistently provides top notch customer service,” said Tames. “Whether it is a new feature that we are trying out or a new team member who needs a little extra coaching to create a new form, customer service has been there to ensure we have the support and knowledge needed to be successful. The AI chat is extremely helpful in providing step-by-step instructions and solutions as well."

Results

Growing new recurring donors by 114%

The move to Bloomerang Fundraising paid off in donor growth Catholic Charities Terre Haute can point to directly. In their first full year on the platform, the organization brought on 21 new recurring donors; in its most recently completed calendar year, Bloomerang helped them reach 45 new recurring donors, a 114% increase. And for their Wabash Valley Rubber Duck Regatta, “the ease and ability to purchase with a card via the Bloomerang page often makes the difference between someone purchasing merchandise and someone not,” Tames said. 

As online giving keeps growing, Bloomerang has kept pace without losing the responsive support that matters most to a small, busy team. "As our economy, especially post-Covid, has moved to a more online-based purchasing and interactions, our online giving has also increased,” explained Tames. “Throughout this growth, Bloomerang has maintained its quality of support and ease of use. Not only did they make our transition seamless, that same support has continued over the years." With a flexible, modern giving platform behind it, Catholic Charities Terre Haute is ready to keep growing its donor base and, in turn, keep more families across the Wabash Valley fed, sheltered, and supported.