Raising $10M annually with Bloomerang Fundraising’s customizable forms

Key Nonprofit Highlights

Since 1987, the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) has offered students across Southern California access to specialized education in performing, visual, literary, and culinary arts. As a tuition-free public charter school, OCSA depends on philanthropic giving to fund its 21 conservatories and bridge a significant gap left by state funding. After years of relying on paper-heavy processes and platforms that couldn't meet their complex needs, OCSA turned to Bloomerang Fundraising to transform their giving programs. Today, the organization operates a largely automated giving program, processing 90% of gifts online and raising over $10 million annually with a small but mighty team. At one recent student event, the school raised a total of $18,541.67, reaching 103% of their $18K goal.

Challenge

Managing a multifaceted annual giving program without digital infrastructure

OCSA's fundraising structure is anything but simple. The organization operates multiple 501(c)(3) nonprofits across two campuses—its flagship Orange County location and its sister school, California School of the Arts in San Gabriel Valley—each with distinct conservatories, annual campaigns, and donor audiences. Generating the fundraising support needed to keep both schools running meant engaging thousands of families every year and making sure every dollar reached the right program.

Before Bloomerang Fundraising, that process depended heavily on paper and manual data entry. Staff tracked pledge forms by hand, processed checks, and reconciled donations in a cycle that invited errors. For example, when donors had to choose the right conservatory from a dropdown menu, funds were regularly distributed incorrectly. Rachel Steinke, who serves as Family Giving Coordinator and Development Administrator at OCSA, described the impact: "Giving the parents that as a dropdown choice made more room for user error, and then funds would be going to the wrong place." The team had tried other platforms, such as Raiser’s Edge, but none could deliver the form customization OCSA needed to manage its unique complexity.

Solution

Automating pledge collection with 650+ custom Bloomerang Fundraising forms

OCSA adopted Bloomerang Fundraising in 2019, drawn to the platform's ability to create highly customizable donation forms. Rather than dropdown menus, the team built a dedicated form for each conservatory, routing donations directly to the correct fund from the first click. Today, OCSA maintains hundreds of giving forms to serve its 21 conservatories at the Orange County campus and 15 at their San Gabriel Valley campus. Bloomerang Fundraising became central to daily operations. Steinke and her team use the platform every day to manage pledges, process transaction changes, and keep financial records clean. “We use it every single day, and it's really simple,” she said. “It’s saved us quite a bit of time and energy because there’s a lot that’s streamlined, especially on the financial processing side."

For events like the annual Dancing with the OCSA Stars, where pro-level dance students and non-dance staff compete for donor votes, the team deployed Bloomerang's fundraising progress thermometers, text-to-give features, and campaign hubs to drive real-time engagement. Watching live donation totals climb encouraged supporters to give more, and Bloomerang kept all activity organized and transparent across the school's many conservatories.

Dedicated support from Bloomerang proved equally valuable. Weekly meetings with their Customer Success Manager helped OCSA navigate integrations and troubleshoot issues as they arose. "I think it would be a lot of work to get to that kind of personalized customer service without those weekly meetings," Steinke said.

Results

Raising over $10 million annually with a nearly paperless, small-staff operation

With a fully automated giving program in place, OCSA raises over $10 million annually with approximately 90% of payments processed online. Most donors complete their transactions independently, with no staff intervention required. "It gives us time to still accomplish a lot for a pretty small team," Steinke said. Saving time with Bloomerang means that their team is able to manage relationships with about 2,400 students and their families, focusing personal attention where it matters most. 

At a recent Dancing with the OCSA Stars event, the school raised a total of $18,541.67 with audience votes, reaching 103% of their $18K goal by tracking giving in real time. The platform's flexibility—particularly its form capabilities for events and customizable hubs—has become a key reason OCSA has been a loyal Bloomerang Fundraising customer for more than six years. 

"We really stick with Bloomerang because of the form capabilities and the ability to create form hubs that look nice and are customizable," Steinke said, "I don't think another vendor that I know of could do that at this point." For an organization committed to giving every student access to world-class arts education, having fundraising infrastructure that can keep pace with that ambition makes all the difference.