Your mission is to open doors for kids with special needs in Catholic schools across the Peoria Diocese. This is your financial case for the tools that make it possible.
Data in three places. A volunteer team doing everything manually. No way to nurture donors between events. That's not a fundraising problem — it's a systems problem. And it's costing you schools.
GiveSmart, Excel sheets, Word docs across 10 volunteers. When donor information lives everywhere, it's effectively nowhere. You can't see patterns, you can't spot major gift prospects, and you can't make smart asks.
CRM consolidation fixes thisA golf outing and a Christmas dinner. That's two chances a year to connect with donors — and every year, the same faces. Without new donors entering your pipeline, attrition will eventually catch up with growth.
Peer-to-peer changes that mathWith only ~10 volunteers, every manual task — chasing expired cards, printing envelopes, tracking who gave — is time not spent expanding into new schools. Systems that work automatically give your team capacity back.
Automation handles the manual workYou've set a goal: two more partner schools by end of year. At $10K–$20K per school, that's $20K–$40K in new fundraising you need — on top of maintaining what you already raise. The summer is the right time to build the foundation.
"Each of our schools takes about $10,000 to $20,000. My goal is to add two to three more schools — which takes more money."
— Kara, Incoming Executive Director, FIRE Foundation of Central Illinois
These projections are grounded in Bloomerang's real customer data. Adjust each slider to match your goals — and watch what happens to your bottom line.
Projections based on Bloomerang customer performance data. Individual results vary. Adjust sliders to reflect your own assumptions.
It's easy to think "doing nothing" is the safe choice. But for a growing nonprofit with big goals, inaction has a very real price tag.
At $10K–$20K per school, not closing the fundraising gap means another year without adding new partner schools. Kids who could have been served — aren't.
Without wealth screening, you're guessing on ask amounts. Coming in too low leaves money on the table. Coming in too high scares donors away. Both cost you.
Without new donor acquisition through peer-to-peer, your donor base naturally shrinks each year as people move on, change priorities, or pass away.
Manually updating expired cards, merging spreadsheets, printing and mailing — that time isn't going toward mission. It's going toward friction that a system should handle automatically.
GiveSmart is a solid event platform, and we understand your board has history with it. Here's a clear-eyed look at where each platform excels — and where the gaps are for an organization with your goals.
| Feature / Need | Bloomerang | GiveSmart |
|---|---|---|
| DONOR MANAGEMENT | ||
| Unified donor database (CRM) | ✓ Purpose-built donor CRM — all data in one place | ~ Limited CRM functionality; primarily event-focused |
| Donor health scoring & insights | ✓ Built-in engagement scoring and lapsed donor alerts | ✗ Not a core capability |
| Wealth screening (DonorSearch) | ✓ Included — scores all 800+ contacts for major gift potential | ✗ Not included |
| Data import & migration support | ✓ Dedicated onboarding — consolidate your scattered data | ~ Basic import tools; limited white-glove support |
| COMMUNICATIONS & ENGAGEMENT | ||
| Built-in email tool | ✓ Native email — no MailChimp or Constant Contact needed | ~ Basic email; integrations required for advanced segmentation |
| Automated donor journeys | ✓ Trigger-based sequences: first gift, birthday, lapsed, campaign | ✗ Not available |
| Outbound texting | ✓ Text donors directly from the platform | ~ Event day texting only |
| Letter campaigns & mail merge | ✓ Avery label printing, personalized letters, merge fields | ✗ Not a core feature |
| FUNDRAISING TOOLS | ||
| Peer-to-peer fundraising | ✓ Included — advocate pages, campaign tracking, new donor acquisition | ~ Available but add-on cost; less robust P2P tooling |
| Recurring giving with auto card update | ✓ Cards auto-update like Netflix — zero volunteer effort required | ~ Recurring giving available; manual card update process |
| Ticketed events & auctions | ✓ Full event management + silent auction — native to platform | ✓ GiveSmart's strongest feature — robust event & auction tools |
| Online donation forms | ✓ Customizable, branded, embeddable donation pages | ✓ Strong online giving pages |
| OPERATIONS & VOLUNTEERS | ||
| Volunteer management | ✓ Bloomerang Volunteer — signup, scheduling, hours tracking | ✗ Not offered |
| Reporting & dashboards | ✓ Real-time fundraising dashboards and custom reports | ~ Event-focused reporting; limited cross-channel views |
| Everything under one roof | ✓ CRM + email + P2P + events + volunteer + wealth screening | ✗ Primarily events; other needs require additional tools |
| SUPPORT & ONBOARDING | ||
| Onboarding & data migration | ✓ Dedicated onboarding team helps you consolidate and get started | ~ Standard onboarding; less hands-on migration support |
| Nonprofit-specific platform | ✓ Built from the ground up for nonprofits — not repurposed B2B software | ~ Nonprofit-focused but primarily for events and auctions |
The honest summary
GiveSmart excels at event-day experiences — if your entire strategy is events, it's a strong tool. But FIRE Foundation of Central Illinois needs more than events. You need to consolidate scattered data, nurture donors year-round, track volunteers, and add new donors through peer-to-peer. GiveSmart simply doesn't do all of that. Bloomerang does.
At $6,499 annually — roughly $541/month — Bloomerang gives FIRE Foundation every tool needed to hit your goals, serve more schools, and grow a sustainable donor base.