Exceeded $1 million match with Bloomerang’s AI strategist, Penny

Key Nonprofit Highlights

The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields in Fairfield, Ohio exists to deliver something extraordinary: a truly big-league experience for athletes with physical and developmental disabilities. The organization runs two fully accessible baseball fields, an inclusive mini golf course, and a growing slate of programs. With an ambitious capital campaign for a new indoor facility, they faced a critical challenge: unlocking a $1 million matching gift by raising another $1 million in a few short months.

The organization needed a strategic partner to identify the right donors and guide their fundraising efforts. They turned to Penny, Bloomerang’s AI strategist, as part of an early preview program (more availability coming soon!) to help bring clarity and direction to a high-stakes moment. With Penny’s support, The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields not only met the matching gift challenge but exceeded it, hitting 125% of their goal, for a total of $2.25 million raised. Penny helped identify key donors and supported successful outreach strategies, transforming their approach from guesswork to precision and offering confidence in making major gift solicitations.

Challenge

Raising $1 million for a capital campaign on a tight deadline

Behind the magic of The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields is a lean reality. They have a very involved Board of Directors, but Executive Director Tyler Bradshaw is the organization’s only permanent staff member. With a small team and a massive mission, every decision carries weight. Bradshaw was navigating donor relationships, campaign strategy, reporting, and day-to-day operations without a large professional staff, while also leading the organization into uncharted fundraising territory: an ambitious capital campaign to build a 31,000-square-foot indoor facility.

When the organization received a defining opportunity—a $1 million matching gift for their capital campaign with a firm year-end deadline—Bradshaw knew he couldn’t do it alone. To unlock the match, the team had to raise another million dollars fast and at a scale they had never attempted before.

The organization needed to quickly identify the right donors, understand who had the capacity to give more, and determine where to focus energy next. But like many nonprofit leaders, Bradshaw had learned to be cautious about new technology, especially AI. “Truthfully, I came into it pretty skeptical,” he shared, explaining that other AI tools often led to dead ends and generic answers.

With a professional team of one, a high-stakes campaign, and no margin for wasted effort, Bradshaw needed more than surface-level data or static reports. He needed clarity, confidence, and a strategic partner he could trust, something that could help him move beyond guesswork without adding more work to his already full plate.

Solution

How Bloomerang’s AI strategist, Penny, brought clarity and confidence to fundraising

The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields partnered with Penny, Bloomerang’s AI fundraising strategist, as part of an early preview program (more availability coming soon!). She was able to bring structure, insight, and momentum to their fundraising strategy. From the start, Bradshaw was surprised by how deeply Penny supported his work. “I was pretty blown away at every interaction I had,” he shared.

Unlike other tools he had used, Penny didn’t stop at surface-level answers. “I think the impressive part about Penny for me was that she was able to resolve every situation that I ran into,” Bradshaw explained. “Most AI tools, it feels like they’re just trying to farm out the phone bank. This actually feels like Penny wants you to engage more, to ask more questions, to get to know your organization even more.”

Using Penny, Bradshaw explored donor density and major gift analysis, prepared for donor meetings, drafted campaign messaging, and even pressure-tested his own fundraising instincts. One analysis alone produced pages of insights that he immediately shared with his board. “I literally copied it, put it in a document, and sent it out to our board,” he said.

What stood out most was how Penny explained why she made recommendations. “The fact that anytime it would generate something, there would be a paragraph or four to five bullet points underneath it was really encouraging,” Bradshaw said. The transparency gave him confidence to move forward with big asks. “I had Penny help me prepare for donor meetings, and was able to say ‘I have a meeting with this individual, can you give me a quick rundown on their history.’ And, it wasn’t just surface level, it was a really detailed analysis. I was shocked at just how thorough that was.”

For such a small team, the impact felt personal. “This kind of felt like we were taking the professional staff from one to two,” expressed Bradshaw. “It’s not an exaggeration or an overstatement for me to say I felt like we had an in-house research assistant that I could ask questions of and be pointed in the right direction.” With Bloomerang and Penny working together, Bradshaw felt equipped not just to act, but to lead with intention.

Penny helped exceed a $1M matching gift. By identifying top major-gift prospects with reasoning for each, she prioritized donor outreach with confidence to hit a high-stakes fundraising goal under a tight deadline.

Penny produced board-ready donor analysis in minutes. What started as a simple prompt turned into a 6-7 page donor density analysis shared directly with board members to guide strategy.

Penny accelerated real campaigns. She wrote year-end and events emails with minimal edits, built targeted thank-you call lists, and prepped detailed donor meeting briefs pulled from CRM data.

Results

With Penny, raising 125% of the matching goal powered next-level impact

With clearer insight and stronger confidence, The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields didn’t just meet their matching gift challenge, they exceeded it, raising 125% of their goal and a total of $2.25M with the matching donation. Penny helped identify the right donors at the right time, explained why they were strong prospects, and supported outreach strategies that encouraged donors to stretch their giving. “Without a doubt, Penny helped us achieve the matching challenge,” Bradshaw said.

Beyond the numbers, Bloomerang helped transform how Bradshaw approached his role. Instead of guessing, he moved forward with precision. Instead of working in isolation, he had a sounding board. “Penny gave me a level of confidence in being able to go out and ask for those gifts that I don’t think I would have otherwise.” For an organization built on inclusion, Bloomerang and Penny helped ensure the future was just as accessible as the mission itself, fueling next-level impact, one confident decision at a time.