How Hopecam boosted fundraising campaign performance and streamlined client operations 

Background

Hopecam connects children with cancer to their classrooms and communities to reduce the loneliness of treatment. Tech entrepreneur Len Forkas founded the organization upon learning his 9-year-old son Matt had been diagnosed with leukemia. After successfully arranging for a remote electronic connection that enabled Matt to see his third-grade classmates, Len started Hopecam to uplift the spirits of thousands of children with cancer across the U.S.  

Hopecam has used Bonterra Apricot for its operational needs for over 15 years. Prior to that, the team was facing several challenges with its program database. After nearly two decades of leveraging a patchwork of volunteer-built systems, the team was struggling to efficiently manage client information.   In 2023, similar challenges plagued their donor database. Data fields were disorganized, leading to internal confusion and stunted donor outreach campaign performance. The team needed the right technology to expand their reach, simplify their fundraising, and better serve the families who rely on them. 

Challenges

As Hopecam scaled its program nationally, its internal systems lagged. The team had been relying on a donor database originally developed by a rotating group of volunteers.  

“Our system was inherited and cobbled together,” shared Brett Fox, Director of Operations and Philanthropy at Hopecam. “It was messy and inefficient, and we didn’t have the resources to fix it.” 

When launching new fundraising initiatives, the team lacked real-time visibility into donor data and campaign performance, which made it difficult to assess the effectiveness of their efforts. On the program side, child intake processes were manual and time-consuming, requiring significant follow-up just to collect the necessary information.  

Hopecam needed a unified, user-friendly system to support its dual mission of fundraising and service delivery. But, like many small nonprofits, the team wasn’t in a position to take on a large upfront investment.

Solutions

Smart Technology to Scale with Heart  

With the support of a Jumpstart grant from the Robins Foundation, Hopecam adopted Bonterra’s Network for Good and Apricot solutions. 

Bonterra’s Network for Good enabled Hopecam to launch its most ambitious fundraising initiative to date—Elevate Hope, a $1M campaign built around Len’s attempt to summit Mount Everest at age 65. Using NFG’s email marketing tools, donor tracking, and reporting dashboards, Brett sent weekly updates that included blog links, video shoutouts from the mountain, and personal stories from children in the program. These touchpoints drove donor engagement and kept sponsors connected throughout the journey. 

Bonterra’s Apricot helped the team overhaul its program intake process. By creating customized forms, Hopecam eliminated unnecessary back-and-forth with families and made it easy for parents and caregivers to submit applications. This not only streamlined operations but also improved the overall experience for new program participants. 

Outcomes

By using Bonterra Network for Good, Brett made Elevate Hope a massive success, totaling over $500,000 in donations from individual contributors and sponsorships within three months of the campaign’s launch.

Using Network for Good, Brett could track email viewership and click-through rates with ease. By monitoring email opens on a weekly basis, she was able to segment her audiences and share fresh content with the recipients who had read the messages from the previous weeks. She was assisted by a dedicated Bonterra Fundraising coach, who demonstrated how to efficiently use Network for Good’s email campaign features and reporting capabilities to drive results.  

“It’s like nothing I would have expected,” said Brett. “The number of individual donors shocked me and it’s really because of Network for Good.” 

Brett and the Hopecam team also partnered with a Bonterra Advanced Support Consultant to optimize their Apricot database and boost their platform knowledge through a comprehensive feature set walkthrough. 

While Brett initially found making the investment for a donor management vendor daunting, she ultimately felt confident turning to the brand she had grown to trust after over a decade of usage.  

“We had been using Apricot for so long, and we knew that there were solutions to our donor management system that were out there. So, it made sense — we already trusted Bonterra for this part of our job. Why not trust them for the donor management part too?” said Brett.  

“It has made my job so much easier. The amount of time I save each week is invaluable.” 

By reclaiming hours previously spent on manual tasks, the Hopecam team was able to focus on what matters most: cultivating donor relationships, sharing meaningful stories, and growing their program’s reach.