Case Study: Arthritis Foundation achieves 55% average online fundraising growth with Blackbaud Sphere

Arthritis Foundation Increases Online Fundraising with Blackbaud Sphere

The Arthritis Foundation is a national nonprofit (founded in 1948) that supports people with more than 100 types of arthritis and is a major private funder of arthritis research. Facing the need to unify fundraising across 40 multi-tier chapter accounts, the Foundation sought to boost online giving and participant engagement and to integrate online donor data into its Team Approach® database.

In 2004 the Foundation rolled out Blackbaud Sphere with Friends Asking Friends® across all 40 chapters, using quick-deploy event templates and a periodic data adapter to feed donor data into Team Approach. Since then the Foundation has raised over $16 million online from 1,700+ events, seen online event fundraising grow an average of 55% over three years, added 612,016 new supporters, and—despite consolidating events in 2008—increased online revenue by 17%; in 2008 over 60% of participants registered online and each sent an average of 22 emails.

Arthritis Foundation