Case Study: Norfolk Botanical Garden achieves touchless admissions and higher attendance with Blackbaud Altru

With technology, Norfolk Botanical Garden provides safe escape for growing fan base

Norfolk Botanical Garden, a 175-acre nonprofit attraction with 15 miles of pathways and the largest botanical garden in Virginia, needed a way to stay open and serve visitors safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge was to reduce onsite contact and gate backups while maintaining access for the community that turned to the garden as a much‑needed outdoor respite.

Using Blackbaud Altru’s cloud-based ticketing, fundraising, and membership tools, the garden quickly launched advance online ticketing and touchless entry—reconfiguring special-event ticketing for daily use. Within six weeks 70% of tickets were bought online, May visitation rose to more than 41,000 (a 27% year‑over‑year increase), backups at the gate nearly disappeared, and staff gained data-driven opportunities to grow memberships and move toward touchless payments and electronic renewals.

Norfolk Botanical Garden

Peter Schmidt

Chief Financial Officer