University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT Maximizes Gift Officer Performance and Increases Donations for U of D Jesuit
“If we had some other database provider, we wouldn’t be nearly as organized as we are with Raiser’s Edge NXT.”
University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy is committed to providing the highest quality of Jesuit Catholic college preparatory education to young men in southeast Michigan. And with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, the school has intelligent software proven to help them raise more money by engaging, retaining, and expanding supporter value.
From auction galas and golf outings,
to Venmo and PayPal, U of D Jesuit
connects with donors in dynamic ways
Founded in 1877 by the Society of Jesus, University of Detroit Jesuit High
School and Academy remains one of the oldest continuously functioning
secondary schools in Michigan. With private school tuition funds only
covering approximately 70 percent of operating revenue, the school needs
financial support to maintain excellence and give the opportunity of a Jesuit
education to all the young men that walk through the doors.
U of D Jesuit leverages Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, the leading software
for nonprofit fundraising, to manage its 45,000+ constituent records,
maximize gift officer performance, and increase total dollars raised.
Vice President for Institutional Advancement David Gumbel explained
that his team uses Raiser’s Edge NXT to track donor attributes, which
furthers the segmentation they can do with their data. “If we had some
other database provider, we wouldn’t be nearly as organized as we are with
Raiser’s Edge NXT,” he said. “Tracking attributes, segmenting our database
and putting contacts in different groupings for strategic outreach really
drives our fundraising.”
U of D Jesuit hosts an auction gala and two golf outings a year. The event
management tools within Raiser’s Edge NXT make it easy for Gumbel’s team
to engage the right contacts for those events and others. “Our B.A.S.E.
Alumni & Friends Reunion formed about 30 years ago and meets annually,”
Gumbel said. “We utilize the data in Raiser’s Edge NXT to pull a list of who
we know would be interested and send them an email through the system.”
He also shared that his team uses the marketing and email tools to send out
monthly newsletters or specific news to different club-based groups.
“Gift officers are engaging more strategically with donors, which will be instrumental for and during the upcoming campaign.”
Setting the Foundation for Fundraising Success
Gift officers heavily relied on proposals to drive fundraising success for the
school’s previous Campus Expansion Project, which raised over $9 million.
Gumbel created a set of proposals for gift officers, and with the robust
dashboards, everyone could easily see how many had been accepted or were
still in cultivation.
“We’re starting to ramp up for our 150th anniversary campaign and Raiser’s
Edge NXT will help set the foundation for another successful campaign,”
Gumbel explained. “We really appreciate the actions and insights it provides.
Gift officers are engaging more strategically with donors, which will be
instrumental for and during the upcoming campaign.”
U of D Jesuit raises over $2 million annually to provide scholarships to
students in need of financial assistance. To date, there are more than over
100 endowed scholarships at U of D Jesuit, allowing the school to award
around $3.5 million in scholarships annually. The team uses Raiser’s Edge NXT
especially when donors name a specific scholarship and want to open it for
others to contribute. One gentleman started an endowed scholarship in his
late wife’s name and told all his business contacts and friends about it. “His
outreach spurred over $400,000 for the scholarship fund, which is also the
gift total amount of a fully funded named scholarship,” Gumbel said.
With an influx of new donors now added to their database because they
donated to this specific fund, the team leverages the ability to create
different solicit codes and marks them appropriately. By marking donors with
unique solicit codes, gift officers can maintain relationships with them in a
better, more informed way.
“We do our best to take care of everybody’s information and that’s one way
Raiser’s Edge NXT helps us do that,” Gumbel added. “It keeps us organized,
and if we didn’t have those different solicit codes or other ways to mark
records, we probably would have lost a lot of donors over the years.”
“I’m able to take a data-driven approach to map out events and solicitations that can account for the months when giving is down.”
Capturing the Next Generation of Donors
With each year, the number of constituents in the high school’s database
grows. U of D Jesuit can easily convert the typical graduating class of 180
students into new alum contacts and use Raiser’s Edge NXT’s capabilities to
seamlessly continue engaging with them and their parents post-graduation.
A relatively new fundraising approach for U of D Jesuit is offering donors the
option to make recurring gifts, which is encouraged in every mailing. Within
a few years, the number of donors committed to recurring gifts has reached
nearly 50. “Having the ability to pay via Venmo and PayPal as an option
through Blackbaud has helped our efforts gain traction,” Gumbel said.
The insights available in Raiser’s Edge NXT informs U of D Jesuit’s outreach
strategy. The team can see trends when their fundraising is up or down,
which allows them to determine in advance what they can do to
boost participation.
“I’m able to take a data-driven approach to map out events and solicitations
that can account for the months when giving is down,” Gumbel said. “Raiser’s
Edge NXT ensures that we’re bringing in the funds to account for the 30% of
revenue that isn’t covered by tuition every year. I look forward to expanding
our use of the tools available in the software and seeing what greater impact
we can make.”
Ready to power your passion?
Request a customized demo to see how Blackbaud is made for your unique challenges and needs.
All fields required
Thank you for your inquiry.
A Blackbaud representative will be in touch with you shortly.
Prefer to chat now?
Click here if you’d like to speak directly to a Blackbaud representative, today.