"I’m not exactly an easy person to sell to. I spent years poking holes in everything ... I was really impressed with Kait. She was prepared, knew her business, and what stood out is that she came from the fundraising industry...What really differentiated the experience was Kait’s relationship building."
Products
Key Features
Auctions
Donations
Instant Buys
Ticketing
50%+
time saved on event planning
1
powerful fundraising platform
Why GiveSmart Was the Right Choice
St. Anthony Catholic School had fallen into a pattern of starting from scratch for every fundraiser. Each campaign required rebuilding their approach, creating a patchwork system that felt inconsistent and disjointed. After moving away from GiveSmart to Bloomerang, they found themselves with mismatched systems that couldn’t provide a comprehensive overview of donor activity, forcing staff to rely on memory rather than data when interacting with supporters.
St. Anthony’s serves a community filled with significant needs. The school’s development staff knew that to provide their students with a more promising future, they needed to better steward and grow their donor base and expand their fundraising programs. Without improved systems and approaches, their ability to fulfill this vital mission would remain limited.
Challenge & Solution
Between constrained staff resources and inadequate event and donor management systems, Jennifer B., St. Anthony’s Director of Development, knew the organization needed centralized fundraising and donor management, as well as more fundraising opportunities.
The school had eager, inspired volunteers ready to contribute, but needed user-friendly tools they could use effectively. This led Jennifer to explore GiveSmart again, looking for time savings and top-of-the-line customer service to reach their fundraising goals.
After connecting with Kait from GiveSmart’s customer success team, Jennifer sought three key improvements: volunteer enablement for event management, improved donor visibility, and expanded fundraising options.
Kait’s consultative approach, rich with fundraising insights, demonstrated to Jennifer that St. Anthony’s would be supported as it looked to grow its revenue and better steward its donors. This approach convinced Jennifer that GiveSmart would be a true partner in their mission, leading the school to implement GiveSmart’s full suite for events, online fundraising, and donor management.
Results
The difference in customer experience was immediate and significant. Jennifer experienced top-notch service and support with GiveSmart, which stood in stark contrast to their experience with Bloomerang, where they struggled to even connect with their customer representative.
In using GiveSmart, she recognized that the intuitive design and helpful templates made customization and automation easy for both staff and volunteers.
The single-source solution that connected its fundraising, event, communication, and donor management data helped St. Anthony’s realize time savings and more strategic fundraising. They’re already more strategic with their gala planning, making impactful changes to donor engagement, ticketing, and sponsorships. Using Donor CRM’s stewardship strategy tools, St. Anthony earned a $5,000 donation within 24 hours of their campaign’s start.
Like many development staff members, Jennifer wears many hats at St. Anthony’s. The partnership with GiveSmart not only addresses current needs but also opens the door to future growth. Jennifer looks forward to exploring other fundraising campaigns, such as auctions and peer-to-peer fundraising, without incurring additional costs.
St. Anthony Catholic School just broke ground on its much-anticipated new school construction. St. Anthony’s partnership with GiveSmart makes this investment possible. By fueling the school’s mission and supporting their resilient community, GiveSmart is helping ensure that St. Anthony’s students, families, and community will continue to benefit for generations to come.