The Geena Davis Institute is celebrating 20 years of change and continuing our mission to reinvent, transform, and inspire how global content creators and media tell stories through authentic portrayals of the population in entertainment.
As the Institute’s Donor Database Coordinator, I help our team drive success by expertly managing and analyzing our diverse donor and contact databases. I turn data into powerful insights, keeping our team energized and informed about our incredible supporters and their impact.
Before using Bloomerang, we had our donor data “organized” in various spreadsheets, emails, teammates’ brains, and CRMs. It was very difficult to get at-a-glance, comprehensive information on our donors, especially across the team as a whole. We had a consultant evaluate 5 options, and Bloomerang was the highest recommended. We loved how intuitive Bloomerang was to get started with and absolutely LOVE the amazing support staff that answered all of our questions.
After struggling with event management issues for years, we decided to add the Qgiv platform as a compliment to our Bloomerang tools. We had tried various online hosted forms, email registrations, spreadsheets, etc. to manage our events and register our members with comped tickets. Qgiv integrates with Bloomerang to offer an easy-to-use platform and so many customizable features that we were able to finally launch a ticketed event program, as well as moving all of our donation forms to the platform. We are so pleased!
Qgiv has surpassed our expectations for sure. Now that I have been using the platform regularly for multiple events/donation appeals, I can put together a very polished donation or event page in minutes and know that it will drive organized data right to our Bloomerang database. This saves us so much time on the back end and allows for that time to be spent on engaging with those who support our organization.
The ticketed events we’ve launched this past year with Qgiv have successfully attracted new individuals who previously had no access to our exclusive member events. Additionally, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in member engagement at these events, as they now experience and appreciate the tangible value offered.
We have used a lot of what Bloomerang has to offer but know that there is still so much to explore in the platform to optimize our time. We regularly use and love the reporting features and are looking forward to utilizing the DonorSearch feature more this year. The ease with which we can pull accurate, comprehensive reporting helps us to stay on top of interacting with and soliciting contributions from our wonderful supporters. We love that the dashboard shows the retention rate right when you log in so you can keep track of it without even really trying.
The customer support teams within Qgiv and Bloomerang are an amazing resource. I have sent them questions that were super easy for them to answer—though they never made me feel like it was a dumb question—as well as more complex issues. Each problem sent their way is treated with importance, and the solutions are given in a way that is clear to follow. They are the BEST.
Picking a favorite Bloomerang feature is like picking your favorite child! All of the customization options with reporting filters and columns are much loved and much used. Our favorite Qgiv features are the customizable automated donation acknowledgments/registration receipts (and record updates on their profiles showing this has happened)—a huge time saver.
The fact that all the features are so intuitive to use makes it easy to find ways to optimize your time. On a basic level, you can operate either system without a ton of front-end training. You can jump right in and start automating things. As you dig deeper and fine-tune your database, there are so many reference articles to help guide you. If that fails, the support dream teams are there.
I would recommend Bloomerang and Qgiv because they are highly cost-effective for smaller foundations like ours, providing both growth potential and affordability.
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