Lustgarten Foundation reinvigorated fundraiser portfolios with Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising tool, achieving an 80% donor outreach interaction rate
Key stats
$1.2
Million
Raised $1,270,532 through AI-powered email outreach
$183k
Raised
$183,956 in new or increased gifts in first year with Gravyty
80%
Interaction
80% interaction rate with emails drafted by Gravyty
4,308
Emails
4,308 emails synced to fundraisers’ database for seamless tracking
About Lustgarten Foundation
The Lustgarten Foundation stands as the largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research globally. Its mission is to transform pancreatic cancer into a curable disease, underscoring the importance of research in improving patient outcomes. With a dedicated team of three frontline fundraisers, the foundation sought to enhance its efforts and implemented Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising tool in August 2023 to optimize its fundraising processes.
The challenge: So many administrative tasks, so little time
With a dedicated team of three frontline fundraisers, The Lustgarten Foundation sought to enhance its efforts and implemented Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising tool in August 2023 to optimize its fundraising processes. The foundation faced several challenges with its existing fundraising and donor management processes. The manual upkeep of contact data proved inefficient and time-consuming. Fundraisers struggled with managing large portfolios and tracking donation data since information on outreach and engagement was not consistently recorded in their CRM system.
This issue was compounded by the busy work involved in updating the CRM separately from gift officers’ personal note-taking, resulting in a fragmented and labor-intensive workflow. These inefficiencies hindered the foundation’s ability to manage donor interactions effectively and allocate resources for relationship building and stewardship.
Glen Peck,
SVP of Technology and Business Intelligence, The Lustgarten Foundation
The solution: Steward large portfolios with the help of AI
Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising solution was instrumental in expanding the capacity of each giving officer, allowing them to more effectively manage larger portfolios. By leveraging Gravyty, fundraisers could track their progress more clearly and were prompted to reach out to donors more frequently.
Email prompts ensured that mid-level donors were consistently engaged and not overlooked or deprioritized. Improved donor stewardship resulted in an increase in the average mid-level gift by $2,139 year-over-year.
Stephanie DerGarabedian,
National Director of Development, The Lustgarten Foundation
The outcome: Empowered fundraisers & increased giving
The implementation of Gravyty’s AI-powered solution elevated annual and major giving as well, generating 218 gifts of less than $5,000 and five gifts exceeding $30,000, including a $105,000 gift. Prior to implementing Gravyty’s platform, Lustgarten’s fundraisers were limited by manual email outreach and personalization efforts, which constrained the size of their portfolios and restricted their ability to build and maintain relationships.
Gravyty revolutionized this process by automating the personalization of 4,308 emails, leading to $1,270,532 raised through AI-powered outreach. The new fundraising process achieved an 80% email interaction rate and generated $183,956 in new or increased gifts within the first year.
Solution spotlight
Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising software significantly amplifies the capacity of fundraisers to engage with up to four times more donors, leading to improved outcomes. By leveraging AI technology, Gravyty creates a sustainable and scalable pipeline for donor discovery, integrates digital giving data, and ensures comprehensive portfolio saturation through omnichannel outreach. The smart prompts, video messaging, and AI-drafted donor communications provided by Gravyty enable fundraisers to reach the right donors at the optimal time, enhancing both donor engagement and fundraising success.
