COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine — Aug. 19, 2013 — Wreaths Across America (WAA), a nonprofit organization best known for its annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and more than 800 other locations nationwide — with a mission to Remember, Honor and Teach about the service and sacrifices of our veterans — recently partnered withBlackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB) to design and implement a comprehensive overhaul and significant upgrade to their online presence and fundraising structure. Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions.
By partnering with Blackbaud, WAA can help their current and prospective supporters more easily learn about the organization’s mission and activities — and translate that knowledge into action — while also allowing the organization to better manage their internal fundraising, tracking and communications processes.
WAA is using Blackbaud products including: TeamRaiser, Luminate Online Marketing, Luminate CRM, and The Financial Edge, and is also partnering with Blackbaud’s design agency Guide Creative on design and strategy services. These systems will provide WAA with a new user-friendly website, the capability to engage in peer-to-peer fundraising, advanced bookkeeping software, a suite of marketing tools and a constituent management system.
A rapidly growing nonprofit, WAA’s need for a strong online presence has increased significantly since 2007 when it filed to be a 501(c)(3). The organization has experienced a consistent 46 percent year-over-year growth since first measured. “The expansion of support for WAA’s mission necessitated a top-to-bottom overhaul if we were going to be able to meet that increased demand and, at the same time, maintain our growth,” stated Karen Worcester, executive director, Wreaths Across America. “Blackbaud’s cutting-edge digital tools will serve to steer more targeted communication through the most efficient channels, ensuring the right audience gets the timely information they need.”
WAA ultimately chose to partner with Blackbaud because of their ability to update and streamline antiquated and disparate platforms, analyze WAA’s current and future needs and design a dynamic and tailored online presence. Operations related to marketing, record-keeping, donor interface and fundraising can now seamlessly interact and help WAA avoid both gaps in service as well as duplication of efforts.
“We are proud to provide Wreaths Across America the technology and services to support their noble mission of honoring veterans,” said Jana Eggers, Blackbaud’s senior vice president of products and marketing. “With their incredible growth, the WAA staff needed a solution that provided an engaging online experience to supporters and efficient operations.”
While most nonprofits collect donations to implement programming in line with their mission, WAA’s operational model is unique. For every donation made, a remembrance wreath is placed on the headstone of a fallen veteran to honor their sacrifice on National Wreaths Across America Day each December. Nearly 91 percent of funds raised go directly to support WAA’s mission.
“This new system is designed to empower our supporters,” stated Worcester. “With Blackbaud’s expertise, we are able to provide our supporters with an easy and intuitive way to interact with the organization in support of our mission to Remember, Honor, Teach.”
Worcester was recently selected to present WAA’s story of how it has achieved such rapid growth and success at bbcon 2013, Blackbaud’s conference for nonprofits.
Follow Wreaths Across America on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/WAAHQ and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WreathsAcross.
About Wreaths Across America
Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman, Morrill Worcester, in 1992. The organization’s mission, Remember, Honor, Teach, is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as hundreds of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. For more information, to donate or to sign up to volunteer, please visitwww.WreathsAcrossAmerica.org.
About Blackbaud
Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 28,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 education, animal welfare and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organizations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), financial management, payment services, analytics and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organizations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognized as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.
