Tracking transformations: How Angels Over Cliffs is expanding hope and housing

Overview

The duo began forming an online community and support system after creating a simple Facebook page for their cause. Their firsthand experience with homelessness became the foundation of the organization. Built on trust, compassion, and deep community ties, Angels Over Cliffs is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit offering wraparound support services for unhoused individuals and families in the city of Corona. 

Their work provides housing assistance, emergency motel stays, counseling, education, and essential needs like food and clothing. These programs are designed to guide people out of homelessness and into long-term stability through community support and faith in the transformative nature of God. 

Challenge

In its early years, Angels Over Cliffs operated with virtually no infrastructure. Paper records, spiral notebooks, and handwritten letters served as the backbone of their donor acknowledgment and management processes. While Cliff and Angela had professional backgrounds in advertising, they had no prior experience with digital tools such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software or the Microsoft Office Suite. 

The organization’s rapid online growth created new pressure. Social media outreach and in-person word-of-mouth began to generate significant interest and donations, but managing donor follow-up, program coordination, and data tracking became overwhelming. Their paper-based, makeshift systems were time-consuming and error-prone, making it nearly impossible to provide consistent communication and transparency to funders.

“I didn’t even know what a CRM was,” said Cliff. “I didn’t know what Excel or Word were. With our business that we had for 17 years, we were still running on folder files and paper and spiral and whatnot. So all this was new to us.” 

As Angels Over Cliffs looked ahead to hosting more fundraising events and pursuing grants, the need for structure and scalable systems became unavoidable. They needed a way to organize donor records, automate manual tasks, and track donor activity – all without losing the personal touch that made their approach unique.

Solutions

The Angels Over Cliffs team recognized that improving their infrastructure was critical to sustaining and scaling their impact.

Bonterra EveryAction provided a flexible and intuitive platform to support their fundraising and donor engagement needs. With features such as donation tracking, email segmentation and tailoring capabilities, online auctions, and event ticketing, the platform provided Cliff and Angela with the functionality needed to shift from manual processes to a centralized digital system. 

EveryAction enabled Cliff and Angela to streamline donor communications, track recurring gifts, launch mass email campaigns, and prepare for their first major gala. Donors could now be segmented by donation volume, allowing them to develop tailored messaging for the various levels of giving. This has set up the foundation for automated email sequences, which they plan to roll out in the near future. 

Fundraising data became easier to manage, meaning Cliff and Angela could begin accurately tracking donations for the first time in the organization’s history. They were also able leverage key payment integrations like PayPal and Venmo to enhance the donor experience and simplify payment processing. 

Bonterra Success Services proved essential in making this transition a success. Cliff and Angela emphasized how critical the monthly coaching sessions and hands-on support were in helping them understand and implement the system. For an organization that had previously operated with no formal digital infrastructure, having a dedicated point of contact provided both confidence and direction.

Bonterra’s Advanced Support Consultants enabled Cliff and Angela to navigate complex features, reduce time spent on administrative tasks, and execute fundraising events with minimal hiccups. During the lead-up to their first gala, the support team offered event-specific guidance, helping configure the platform for live auctions and the corresponding mobile donation stations. This dedicated support freed up valuable time for Angels over Cliffs to focus on their mission of supporting those in need.

Outcomes

Since implementing EveryAction, Angels Over Cliffs has seen a dramatic increase in donor engagement and organizational efficiency. In 2024, the organization generated over $45,000 in donations from online giving campaigns and saw total donors increase threefold from the previous year. 

Cliff noted how timely follow-up communication and thank-you messages were instrumental to the increase in new donors, as well as the reduction of donor attrition. Most notably, the organization’s enhanced responsiveness has resulted in a significant increase in recurring donors, with the organization securing 74% of 2024’s total number of recurring commitments through the first six months of 2025. The team achieved this success by leveraging EveryAction to acknowledge donors quickly, personally, and at scale.

EveryAction provided the duo with the means to accurately track and provide financial transparency updates for the first time. These metrics are now instrumental aspects of their grant writing and community sponsorship sourcing processes. Their digital infrastructure allows them to report impact clearly, which strengthens donor trust and aligns with their core values of transparency and integrity.

Their Success Services experience not only eliminated barriers to using new technology, it also empowered the team to expand what they believed was possible. Event planning for their gala and new monthly fundraisers has become more strategic and data-informed. Automation tools and reporting capabilities are implemented in phases, with support sessions tailored to each campaign’s unique needs. 

Looking ahead, Cliff and Angela plan to launch a credit repair initiative, expand transitional housing support, and build a sustainable donor pipeline. With the infrastructure now in place, they are prepared to help more families with the depth and dignity their mission demands.