Backpack Buddies increases their donation revenue by 720% Using Keela
Key Metrics
With Keela, Backpack Buddies refined its donor communications and fundraising strategy to raise a record amount of donations for its back-to-school campaign.
60%
Increase in Annual Revenue
720%
Increase in Donations within 24 months of using Keela
200+
New Monthly, Recurring Donors
$150,000
Raised via Keela Forms
How Keela Supports Backpack Buddies
Personalized Communications
Backpack Buddies used Keela’s donor communication tool to create, design, and send personalized fundraising appeals to the right donors at the right time.
Effective Donor Management
Using Keela’s contact insights and recommendations, the Backpack Buddies team segments its donors and nurtures each donor based on their giving history.
Enhanced Reporting
Keela’s reporting tool allows the Backpack Buddies team to monitor their campaign progress in real time and make the necessary adjustments.
Challenge
Over the past eight years, Backpack Buddies has supported children in schools across Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island through their annual back-to-school campaigns.
In 2020, the pandemic forced schools to close, and as such, more children didn’t have access to school-based programs that supplied their weekday meals. Their parents struggled to make ends meet as they felt the impact of the economic downturn. These unprecedented events made Backpack Buddies’ 2020 back-to-school campaign more challenging than expected.
The previous school year had seen a 50% increase in weekly deliveries, causing the Backpack Buddies team to redesign their distribution model and move into a new warehouse. However, the weekend hunger gap became the 7-day hunger gap with the pandemic, which meant more funds were needed to complete more weekly deliveries. Backpack Buddies realized that it was essential to improve their donor communications and introduce new campaign strategies while keeping their database intact and accessible to soften the pandemic’s impact.
Solution
Despite the pandemic, school closures, and workflow changes, the Backpack Buddies team was determined to raise more funds and support even more children. They dug deeper and leveraged Keela’s cloud-based nonprofit software to collect donations, communicate with donors, manage their database, and measure their impact.
“Keela made it simple to track donations, follow up with donors, and keep track of our progress. It provided support by allowing us not to have to worry about donor communications, [that’s] one less thing to worry about.”
— Emily-Anne King, Vice-President & Co-Founder, Backpack Buddies
Using Keela’s email marketing platform, Emily-Anne and her team sent branded, thoughtful, personalized appeals that resonated with donors. Keela’s donor management tools supported her team as they nurtured leads and converted them to active donors. They used Keela’s intuitive reporting tool to track their donor engagement, make data-driven decisions, and ultimately streamline their fundraising efforts.
“[I like] how easy it is to pull reports,” Emily-Anne said, “It’s a feature I use almost daily, so it makes life really easy!”
Results
In their most challenging year yet, the Backpack Buddies team had one of their most successful back-to-school campaigns. They raised more than $150,000 and gained over 2,000 new subscribers (including 200 monthly recurring donors) via Keela’s mobile-friendly donation forms. With the funds raised, more children across 66 schools in British Columbia have the food they need to be healthy and productive during the school year.
Since Backpack Buddies started using Keela in 2019, they’ve increased their donations by 720% and grown their revenue by 60%. This remarkable feat is a testament to the Backpack Buddies team’s incredible work, supported by the ease and flexibility of Keela’s fundraising, donor management, and communication tools.
With Keela’s all-in-one nonprofit software, Backpack Buddies has reached more donors and sent thousands of successful fundraising appeals with clear messages that convey impact. They’ve also enhanced relationships and communications with their network of donors, supporters, volunteers, and partners and gathered powerful donor insights while keeping a healthy database. Keela has empowered the Backpack Buddies team to work better and maximize their time by focusing on what matters.
Looking Ahead
Backpack Buddies continues to introduce new and improved fundraising and communications strategies to ensure more children don’t have to live with food insecurity. They plan to grow their network of supporters and grassroots partners, hire more staff, and get more creative with their campaign efforts.
You can learn more about Backpack Buddies’ story here.
Reach More Donors with Keela
Like Backpack Buddies, your nonprofit team can be more effective at attracting, segmenting, and personalizing interactions with your donors. This will ultimately lead to improved donor engagement and more fundraising revenue.
Keela’s CRM has all the email templates and fundraising insights you need to share your nonprofit’s story, send targeted fundraising appeals, steward donors and track your success. Now’s the time to turn your routine donor communication into meaningful connections.
Start Growing with Keela Today
With tools to streamline your nonprofit’s fundraising and donor communications and a world-class customer care team excited to guide you every step of the way, scaling your organization’s growth with Keela has never been easier.
