Case Study: Westmont College achieves 250% fundraising growth and record $83M campaign with Salesforce for Nonprofits

Innovating for Advancement Success in the New Economy

Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college in Santa Barbara, faced severe advancement challenges after a 1998 wildfire causing over $30 million in damage and the later withdrawal of a $75 million pledge, all amid shrinking budgets and more demanding donors. The advancement team relied on disparate manual processes while IT was tied up supporting legacy systems, leaving the college unprepared to scale fundraising efforts.

In 2009 Westmont implemented Salesforce CRM, freeing IT to focus on innovation and launching a donor management solution and new campaign within 95 days. Gift officers now capture notes with online forms, use real-time reports and dashboards across laptops, tablets and phones, and benefit from SIS integration; as a result, fundraising rose 250% in three years, the initial campaign brought in over $83 million (a record for the college), and a subsequent campaign has raised more than $53 million in just over two years.

Westmont College