Increasing fundraising by 60% in six months with the Bloomerang Giving Platform

Key Nonprofit Highlights

Feeding South Florida is on a mission to end hunger across the region, providing food assistance, advocacy, and education to help individuals and families move toward self-sufficiency. When they found that disconnected fundraising systems were consuming too much time and leaving real impact on the table, they turned to the Bloomerang Giving Platform to unify fundraising and donor management in one place. Fundraising grew by 60% within six months of using Bloomerang Fundraising. A peer-to-peer campaign built in just three days raised $97,000, and third-party fundraising became more streamlined than ever. With a 52% donor retention rate and a team freed from manual data work, Feeding South Florida is spending less time on logistics and more time on the mission that drives them

Challenge

Clunky, disconnected fundraising tools were limiting reach and revenue

FBefore adopting Bloomerang Fundraising, peer-to-peer and third-party fundraising processes demanded significant time, energy, and resources from the already stretched thin Feeding South Florida team. Third-party fundraising was "pretty non-existent because of how much energy and resources and time it took," said Allyson Vaulx, Associate Vice President of Philanthropy. Without a streamlined system, the organization couldn't execute the volume or variety of campaigns needed to maximize donor engagement. Every event, every campaign, every reporting cycle required manual effort that pulled staff away from the work that actually mattered.

Solution

Centralizing fundraising and donor engagement with the Bloomerang Giving Platform

Vaulx had relied on Bloomerang Fundraising across three different organizations over seven years, so bringing it to Feeding South Florida was an easy call. And adding Bloomerang CRM a few years later was driven by the promise of having fundraising and donor data fully integrated in one place. The results of a unified Giving Platform were immediate and wide-reaching. Before, the team had to manually map and export data between systems. With Bloomerang CRM, donor records flow in automatically from Bloomerang Fundraising, eliminating an entire layer of administrative work across prospecting, reporting, and reconciliation. 

Bloomerang Fundraising's cloning and campaign builder features transformed how the team operated day to day. “In fundraising, you're always looking to do more with less. Bloomerang allows us to automate more, which is a game-changer.” Whether running an auction, a peer-to-peer campaign, or a free community event, Feeding South Florida could spin up professionally branded, customized campaign pages quickly without a dedicated marketing or design team. "Nonprofits don't always have the benefit of a marketing or design person," Vaulx explained, "so Bloomerang makes it easy for us to make everything look good." 

Even free events generated donations simply because a giving option was always present. The team also started using Penny, Bloomerang CRM's AI partner, to surface donor insights that standard reports couldn't always capture, like identifying healthcare partner contacts buried in their database. "The addition of Penny is a game changer. I'm just starting to explore it, but I already know the value of it,” said Vaulx. “Those functionalities are what make a database, a CRM, a fundraising tool effective. They allow you to manipulate and customize all aspects of the processes so that you can get to what you need."

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Results

60% fundraising growth, a $97K campaign in three days, and a 52% donor retention rate

Within six months of using Bloomerang Fundraising, Feeding South Florida achieved a 60% increase in fundraising. The organization also maintains a 52% donor retention rate, a strong signal of how effectively they're building lasting supporter relationships with the help of Bloomerang’s ever-evolving platform. “One of the things I love most about Bloomerang is the constant innovation,” said Vaulx. “I usually stay ahead of trends, so I’m always trying to do something that’s not out yet. When I do that with Bloomerang, they’re there already.”

One campaign captured what the platform makes possible. After learning a board member planned a $35,000 donation, the team activated a matching peer-to-peer campaign in just three days. With a single email to their network, they surpassed their goal, raising $97,000 in under two weeks. Third-party fundraising, once a drain on resources, now runs so reliably on its own through Bloomerang Fundraising’s peer-to-peer tools that Vaulx realized she hadn't actively thought about it in several months. "We squeeze the life out of the peer-to-peer and third-party fundraising methods," she said, "and we're always wanting more."

Looking ahead, Feeding South Florida is expanding into deeper donor segmentation, building portfolios for major gift fundraisers, and developing a legacy giving society, all using Bloomerang's templates and built-in best practices as a starting point. Vaulx's advice to other nonprofits is simple: use Bloomerang Fundraising and CRM together as a unified Giving Platform. "As a fundraiser, regardless of how large or small the organization is, what the mission is, you want a tool that can meet your fundraising needs comprehensively,” she shared. “Together, they meet all sides of fundraising.”