Unlocking the full capacities of Bloomerang with AI fundraising partner Penny

Key Nonprofit Highlights

Powell Medical Foundation supports Powell and the entire Big Horn Basin by funding quality healthcare services through the collection and management of gifts and donations. Before unlocking the full capacities of Bloomerang, the foundation’s fundraising operations created extra hours of manual work on top of an already lean, one-person workload. By optimizing their Bloomerang usage and embracing its AI fundraising partner, Penny, Powell Medical Foundation streamlined day-to-day operations, unlocked Board-ready reporting on demand, and achieved a 57% donor retention rate.

Challenge

Managing fundraising tools and reporting as a one-person team

When Executive Director Amy Wells joined the Powell Medical Foundation team, she was able to teach herself how to use Bloomerang via the education and resources provided with the product. However, reporting created a challenge for her lean team. While Bloomerang CRM offered plenty of filter options, assembling the comparisons and campaign analyses she and her Board of Directors needed could become more obstacle than advantage. "Sometimes it just gets too convoluted," Wells said. "‘Add this but exclude this,’ sometimes it’s just too much." The data she needed to drive strategy and communicate results was within reach, but getting to it consistently was another matter.

Solution

Unlocking AI-powered insights for improved reporting with Bloomerang

Everything shifted when Wells attended GiveCon, Bloomerang's annual conference. She came away realizing she'd spent four years with access to capabilities she'd never touched. A one-on-one session with a Customer Success team member changed her entire perspective on the platform she already owned. "It was a godsend," Wells said. "It wasn’t until I went to GiveCon that I realized what I was missing. That was worth the price of admission alone, and then my one-on-one really secured how beneficial it was.”

The most immediate transformation came from Penny. Bloomerang's AI fundraising partner gave Wells a way to ask questions of her own data in plain language using conversational reporting to get real answers instantly. "I am obsessed with Penny. It's almost just easier to type it or talk to Penny than to use the toggles in the reporting," she said. "Penny is a match made in heaven because she has access to my organization’s data. It’s so specific and that’s a game changer.” Plus, at Bloomerang, every AI interaction is encrypted, guided by humans, and vetted by trusted providers.

Preparing for Wyoming's statewide giving day, WyoGives, she asked Penny to surface her most interactive donors, then pushed further, asking which had previously been highly engaged but had gone quiet. "Anything you're thinking, you just ask her," Wells said. She told other nonprofits participating in WyoGives that Penny is "just like literally having another team member, without technically paying for a team member."

Penny isn’t just helping Wells, she’s supporting their Board as well. “She's been amazing so far, and I've just barely tapped into her,” she shared. “They taught us at GiveCon how you can ask her to explain herself or share how she got her information,” which has allowed Wells to easily answer the Board’s questions on more complex reporting and data analyses. 

Wells also uses the CRM Email Builder to communicate and build relationships with supporters. “I love the analytics on emails. I love being able to see if it was sent, opened, clicked on,” shared Wells. “I like getting notifications on things like an expired credit card because it comes to me quicker than I could figure it out on my own.”

Results

Saving time, strengthening donor relationships, and planning next-level fundraising events

With Penny handling reporting and segmentation, Wells turned a recurring frustration into one of her most powerful strategic tools. "It's just telling me exactly what I need with no extra," she said. "It's shortened my time in the system—in a good way—because then it leaves me time to do all the other things I have to do as a one-woman show." What changed most wasn't just efficiency, it was her mindset. 

"It's been a complete mind shift of wanting to do the data entry instead of having to do it," Wells said. She's now actively logging supporter interactions and adding more to the system because she sees what more accurate data produces. Powell Medical Foundation maintains a 57% donor retention rate, which Wells credits to the deep personal connections that define giving in a small Wyoming community of 6,500—bonds she now tracks and strengthens systematically through Bloomerang CRM.

Looking ahead, Wells plans to test Bloomerang Fundraising at a smaller fall event before deploying it fully for the foundation's annual Mardi Gras gala—complete with ticketing, paddle raises, and live logging that will replace the chaos of paper records and post-event scrambles of years past. For a one-person team doing mission-critical work in a rural community, that kind of operational clarity isn't just a relief, it’s next-level impact.