Key Nonprofit Highlights
USA Water Polo grows the sport of water polo nationwide and sustains competitive international excellence, fielding teams that compete for medals at the World Championships, the Pan American Games, and the Olympic Games. They turned to Bloomerang's unified Giving Platform to clean up their supporter records, track every interaction across a donor base spanning more than 50 countries, and build a peer-to-peer fundraising program that lets junior athletes tell their own stories. The payoff shows up in the numbers: a 295% increase in GivingTuesday revenue, a 177% YOY increase in supporters, and a 147% increase in first-time supporter giving total. USA Water Polo isn't just chasing medals anymore—they're building a philanthropy program strong enough to carry them all the way to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games (LA28).
Challenge
Untangling scattered donor data across a growing global program
As USA Water Polo approaches their 50th anniversary in 2028, timed with the Olympic Games returning to their home soil and backyard in Los Angeles, they faced a familiar nonprofit challenge: donor data that was scattered, incomplete, and hard to trust. When Grant Jones joined USA Water Polo as Head of Philanthropy and Advancement, he inherited a supporter database that hadn't yet been put to full use. USA Water Polo had already been a Bloomerang customer for three years, but years of gifts had gone in without context, family members weren't linked through householding, and supporter record naming and interaction documentation were inconsistent and lacking.
"There was no tracking of interactions. There was no householding or record relationships established. There were shared records," Jones explained. The stakes went well beyond tidiness. USA Water Polo's donor base spans more than 50 countries, and their philanthropy program was about to face a level of visibility it had never seen before with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Every gap in the data was a missed chance to thank a supporter properly, follow up on a pledge, or simply know who was powering the mission, right as the stakes for that mission had the opportunity to climb.
Jones and his team made Bloomerang's unified Giving Platform the backbone of their daily fundraising operation. In Bloomerang CRM, constituent timelines give the team continuity across a supporter base in 50+ countries and protect institutional knowledge through staff turnover. "I'm leaving behind notes for myself, and also for the future as additional team members come on board, they can also see that full history—strengthening our abilities to serve our supporters with continuity and confidence," Jones said.
Solution
Centralizing supporter engagement with Bloomerang CRM and Bloomerang Fundraising
USA Water Polo built its annual Athlete Fundraising Campaign, a peer-to-peer fundraising program for junior and rising athletes, entirely on Bloomerang Fundraising, with the GiftAssist feature giving donors the option to help offset processing costs, which Jones calls "the gift that gives to the gift." Participant data syncs seamlessly into Bloomerang CRM and funnels into Journey Automations, letting the team run this campaign from March through September that raises more than $1 million across 500-plus junior athletes telling their own stories about their passion for water polo and their dreams in the sport. As one athlete’s mother shared with Jones about the Athlete Fundraising Campaign and its peer-to-peer fundraising structure:
“I have been truly inspired by the Athlete Fundraising Campaign and by the support and guidance that you and USA Water Polo provide to the athletes. The encouragement, generosity, and sense of community have been incredibly meaningful. My child has been personally reaching out to each donor to express his gratitude and it has been remarkable to witness the growth this experience is fostering in him. The emphasis on gratitude, connection, and kindness is clearly shaping not only the athletes’ journey but also their character. This philanthropic component is a powerful addition and is truly raising stronger athletes.”
The team relies on Penny, Bloomerang's AI fundraising partner, to speed up reporting and analysis that used to eat into relationship-building time. “Just earlier this morning, I was using Penny, and I said, ‘Give me the longevity list. How many donors have given consecutively for more than 20 years,’” Jones said. “That would normally take a lot of time, and it was a two-minute query with Penny.” He now treats the tool like a sounding board, a shift he described as Bloomerang becoming less of a documentation requirement and more of “an alongside partner and dynamic solution” to build monthly reports for the organization’s Board of Directors, future giving projections, campaign dashboards, and much more.
Jones is also collaborating directly with Bloomerang's product team on a Fundraising Innovation initiative, testing how gift-option layouts and geography-based targeting on USA Water Polo’s peer-to-peer donation forms affect conversion rates ahead of the traffic surge expected around the LA28 Games. “We're ambitious about philanthropy at USA Water Polo. We're testing donor experiences, modernizing giving pathways, and exploring new technologies. Bloomerang leadership welcomed the opportunity to partner on this journey to experiment with results that are translatable to other nonprofits and applicable for the industry as a whole,” he explained. “We need vendor partners who are willing to listen, challenge assumptions, experiment, and evolve alongside us. Our experience with Bloomerang customer success and product teams have helped us create that kind of relationship.”
Results
Raising 295% more on GivingTuesday and inspiring supporters' biggest gifts yet
The numbers tell a clear story of growth. In 2025, USA Water Polo exceeded their budget in both cash and pledges and surpassed their annual and peer-to-peer fundraising goals. Their most successful GivingTuesday campaign yet brought a 295% increase in revenue and a 177% increase in the number of supporters compared to the year before. They logged 451 more gift transactions and 668 more unique supporters year over year, grew their average gift size by $43, and saw a 147% increase in first-time supporter giving total. Monthly recurring supporters doubled. Most strikingly, 86% of USA Water Polo's supporters made the largest gift of their giving history to the organization in 2025.
Those numbers mean USA Water Polo can walk—swim and splash—into the 2028 Olympic Games, and their own 50th anniversary, with a fundraising program built for the extraordinary moment instead of scrambling to catch up to it. Jones credits the results to treating philanthropy as a full ecosystem rather than a series of disconnected touchpoints. "You must look at that 360-degree, multifaceted experience," he said. "It's not just a narrow vision on only our donation form, our receipt, or in our database. It must always be focused on the heart of the support and their generosity, the full giving experience, and having continuity in the look, feel, emotion, and verbiage."
Jones sees Bloomerang as central to sustaining that growth through the biggest moment in USA Water Polo's history. "Technology does not inspire generosity. People do," he said. "Technology's job is to remove barriers, increase intelligence, make generosity easier, and give fundraisers the tools to build stronger human relationships."
And as the torch makes its way to the United States and the flame is lit at the start of the LA28 Olympic Games, Jones and his team look forward to thanking all of the supporters who believed in the vision and helped make the journey possible, including their giving platform. “Bloomerang helps us steward supporter generosity more thoughtfully and continue building a fundraising program worthy of the extraordinary community we have the privilege to serve,” he shared. “Bloomerang is truly a relationship and partner to me that's helping unlock impactful resources for our athletes as part of a multi-million dollar campaign. And when Team USA is standing on the podium at LA28, I hope that Bloomerang knows they were part of that team to get us there.”
