Case Study: Emilio Nares Foundation achieves major online fundraising growth and doubles new donors with Classy

A Big Impact Solution for Small Nonprofits

Emilio Nares Foundation (ENF) is a small San Diego–based nonprofit (four staff) that provides transportation (Ride with Emilio) and comfort products for children with cancer. Facing $200,000 in annual program costs across three counties, the team was hampered by an outdated online payment processor and manual event registration that limited fundraising reach and donor acquisition.

ENF partnered with Classy to launch modern online giving, peer-to-peer campaigns, and integrated event pages (plus CRM integration with Salesforce). As a result, online fundraising growth climbed—reaching an 80% increase by 2015—Harvest for Hope generated $30K in ticket sales and $40K in sponsorships, online donor acquisition doubled, and total donations rose to about $1.96M with 4,149 gifts, making fundraising more scalable and improving donor retention.

Emilio Nares Foundation

Heidi Cramer

Development Director