How the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund transformed fundraising efficiency

Overview

The challenge

With approximately 500 Vietnam veterans passing away each day, the organization faces the strategic challenge of engaging next-generation supporters while maintaining its vital fundraising operations, which depend heavily on direct mail campaigns and digital donor engagement. Within the next 10 years, the VVMF team predicts that its core constituency will change drastically. As a result, the organization sought to improve its lead generation and program management processes to effectively resonate with the next generations of supporters: children and grandchildren of those who served.

VVMF’s fundraising processes were fragmented across multiple disconnected systems, creating significant inefficiencies. The organization relied on separate platforms for digital fundraising and direct mail donor management, with BlueState Digital handling online efforts while their main database operated independently.

The latter of the two systems offered a read-only experience, which failed to provide the VVMF team with a way to edit or correct data inputs. All direct mail donor touchpoints required manual Excel coordination, making list creation for portfolios and pipeline replenishment extremely time-consuming.

Another obstacle came in the form of poor data hygiene, as records and gifts were commonly duplicated in error.

The disconnect between digital and offline donor data also meant that strategic decision-making lacked comprehensive insights. Direct mail campaign selection—determining the right donors, appropriate ask amounts, and targeted messaging—required extensive manual work. Luz and her team were communicating with 500 donor contacts weekly while overseeing substantial direct mail operations. Over time, it became evident that the existing workflow was unsustainable for achieving their ambitious outreach goals.

To support their evolving mission and engage new donor demographics, VVMF needed an integrated solution that could unify its donor data, automate manual processes, and provide strategic insights for data-informed fundraising decisions.

The solution

Recognizing the need for comprehensive donor management capabilities, VVMF implemented Bonterra EveryAction to create a unified fundraising ecosystem. The platform seamlessly integrated their previously disconnected digital and offline donor operations, providing full access to critical donor relationship data across multiple views.

VVMF worked with Bonterra’s Success Services team throughout the database conversion process. Bonterra’s Advanced Support Consultants helped migrate over 1 million donor accounts, including 250,000 digital accounts.

EveryAction’s automated workflow capabilities transformed VVMF’s daily operations. The system now generates qualified donor lists overnight across various segments. Advanced segmentation tools enabled Luz to craft personalized bulk communications across email and phone calls that felt like one-to-one touchpoints while operating at scale. The automation of the segmentation helped VVMF scale fundraising while maintaining a tailored and on-brand approach to donor engagement.

“The personalization has been a huge benefit. It has extended my reach as a fundraiser and as a gift officer,” said Luz.

VVMF also saw key improvements made to their direct mail audience targeting processes through EveryAction. The platform’s comprehensive reporting features provided performance insights by RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) analysis and persona segments, removing the need for time-consuming manual analysis. The organization, which distributes over four million pieces of direct mail annually, can now precisely target recipients across all its direct mail campaigns with support from Bonterra’s Success Services team.

The EveryAction implementation also led to a key revelation regarding the organization’s online web traffic. Certain segments of online traffic that were previously categorized as “organic” visits were discovered to originate from direct mail campaigns, allowing Luz and her team to reduce costs through their retargeting strategy.

“Creating a strategy targeting our direct mail donors is a money saver for us. When these people visit our website, we can target them as online donors and remove them from direct mail campaigns, which are considerably more expensive than digital campaigns. Having the insights and the 360-degree view of our donors in EveryAction has been extremely valuable.”

Outcomes

Since implementing Bonterra EveryAction, VVMF has achieved remarkable improvements in both efficiency and fundraising performance. The platform enabled Luz to successfully cultivate and steward a portfolio of 2,000 preferred donors—an initiative that would have previously been limited to just prospecting.

“I know the time invested in my preferred donors will yield great results,” Luz noted.
The automated segmentation capabilities, donor trends scoring data, and integration options have revitalized a once-dated and reactive approach. Today, Luz can strategically deploy and iterate upon her campaigns with ease thanks to EveryAction’s proactive donor identification and pipeline development tools.

Digital fundraising performance saw significant gains, with average online gift amounts nearly doubling from $35 to $65, directly increasing donor lifetime values. The organization successfully doubled its number of active sustainers (recurring donors). EveryAction’s automated payment processing also eliminated tasks like tracking credit card expirations and renewal reminders, which Luz previously managed manually.

The introduction of EveryAction also unlocked new opportunities for the In Memory program, which grants the friends and families of veterans who returned from Vietnam the opportunity to memorialize their loved ones. With EveryAction, constituents of over 8,000 honorees were added to new, comprehensive communication workflows. This expansion enabled VVMF to craft and deliver unique, respectful, and engaging donor communications to family members that went beyond memorial ceremony reminders.

Looking ahead, VVMF plans to leverage EveryAction’s lead generation capabilities to expand its donor acquisition strategy. Luz also looks forward to her continued partnership with Bonterra’s Success Services team as they optimize EveryAction for future success.

“I find myself gaining insights from our conversations as we talk about initiatives that I am working on and things that are happening,” said Luz. “Knowing that I have a team I can meet with on a weekly basis that will help with support issues and provide immediate responses to questions is extremely valuable.”