Mission-based nonprofit uses donor insights to
strengthen fundraising to support retired sisters.

For nearly a century, the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk have carried out their
mission to “make God known and loved,” and to “make a difference in society
through the witness of their lives, which are profoundly rooted in simplicity,
harmony, mutuality, and hospitality.”

In New York and Connecticut, the sisters administered schools through
several Catholic dioceses. Their work has changed over the years, but they
continue to be active in Catholic school education, parish and pastoral
ministry, hospital and hospice ministries, social justice and outreach, and
spiritual leadership.

Now the sisters continue to serve but have reached retirement age, and
benefits from Social Security are not enough for them to make ends meet.

Working Smarter with a Small Team

“The sisters gave their whole lives to serve, so now we need to serve them,”
explained Melissa Azzara, development office manager for the Ursuline
Sisters of Tildonk. “Blackbaud products have helped us raise support for
the sisters and made our small team able to accomplish more than what
we could on our own. Blackbaud’s wealth analytics have felt like an extra
staff member.”

Azzara and her part-time team of two utilize Blackbaud’s data intelligence
capabilities in conjunction with Blackbaud eTapestry® for insights on
potential donors’ wealth and likelihood to support their mission. The team
did not have significant analytics capabilities before, mostly employing a
one-size-fits-all approach to asking for support and researching prospects
suspected to have major gift capacity ad hoc.

Donor insights provided by Blackbaud have enabled them to find new
giving potential among individuals not previously on their radar and
provided the tools to segment their database and focus their limited
resources on the right people. There is real meaning to the phrase “work
smarter, not harder” for the development office.

“I’m amazed at how much the sisters have touched former students, and
we get notes along with gifts on the lasting impact they left,” Azzara said.
“Those who have a personal connection make up about 90% of our donors
but that extra 10% is critical and growing thanks to Blackbaud.”

Understanding Who is Most Likely to Give

Before implementing Blackbaud’s data insights, the development office did not have the resources to effectively solicit all 8,000 of their constituents in Blackbaud eTapestry.

They needed to know who was most likely to give at what level. With data intelligence from Blackbaud, Azzara quickly proved that data-driven decision-making could have a powerful impact. “We wanted to make more data-driven decisions, and we have been able to move in a whole new direction with our fundraising. It has also helped us get so much more out of eTapestry.”

Prior to utilizing data insights from Blackbaud, there was no segmentation
so every potential donor received the same mailing and ask amount. Now
the team uses data insights to employ targeted ask amounts, personalize
messaging, and generate targeted lists for their different fundraising
efforts—strategies that are driving fundraising results, with a response rate
that has tripled and an increase of 50% in the average donation amount.
“Our use of Blackbaud’s data insights and eTapestry is making a difference for our sisters who gave their entire lives to make a difference for others,” Azzara reported.

As the team strives to support the sisters well into retirement, they can
determine the right ask for the right people, something they were not able to do previously. “Analytics magnifies the impact of the sisters and allows them to be cared for,” Azzara said.