Case Study: Tennessee Baptist Children's Homes achieves dramatic online fundraising growth with Blackbaud Luminate Online

Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes - Customer Case Study

Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes, a 125-year-old nonprofit providing residential and foster care across Tennessee, faced a weak online presence when its new director of development took over in 2014. The organization relied on a community foundation for online gifts (which charged high fees) and had a small three-person development team with limited technical experience, so expanding cost-effective online fundraising was a major challenge.

They implemented Luminate Online with integration to Raiser’s Edge and enrolled in the Go! training program to build staff skills and focus on fundraising rather than administrative tasks. By prioritizing usable email acquisition, their address file grew from 800 to 5,000 contacts in a year; online revenue rose from $23,000 before the program to $97,000 (250 transactions) the first year and $127,000 (400 transactions) the next, with the platform paying for itself within six months.

Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes

Todd Pendergrass

Director of Development