White Stork expands its frontline impact with scalable Digital Fundraising Support from Bonterra

Overview

With growing public support and increased media attention, the organization faced a new challenge: scaling its fundraising infrastructure in a way that matched the demand for frontline support. Operating with a lean team and limited systems, White Stork needed a technology solution that would help them engage a wider base of donors, streamline operations, and create a more sustainable revenue model without losing the personal, mission-driven ethos at the heart of its work. 

Challenges 

As White Stork gained national visibility for its impact in Ukraine, the organization’s internal systems struggled to keep pace. Fundraising relied almost entirely on high-net-worth donors from personal networks, with limited digital infrastructure in place to support broader campaigns or recurring giving. 

“Our early support came from trusted relationships,” said William McNulty, Co-Founder and Head of Mission at White Stork. “We had no digital marketing strategy , no way of tracking where new donations were coming from, and no system to help us grow.” 

Without a dedicated CRM or performance tracking tools, the team lacked visibility into which campaigns were effective. Manual follow-up made it difficult to convert one-time donors into recurring supporters, and there was no sustainable way to handle spikes in volume during moments of public attention. 

To continue scaling their mission and respond to urgent needs on the ground, White Stork needed a unified digital platform that could grow with them without slowing down their momentum.

Solutions 

Leveraging Technology to Meet Urgent Needs 

With guidance from strategic partner Apax, White Stork implemented Bonterra’s EveryAction fundraising and engagement platform to transform its donor operations and support rapid growth. The platform gave the team the tools they needed to track performance, deepen donor engagement, and build scalable, recurring support. 

EveryAction became the backbone of the organization’s digital fundraising strategy. Using the platform’s customizable UTM tracking and reporting capabilities, the team could finally attribute donors to specific campaigns, ads, and email efforts, giving them the insight to double down on the channels and assets that worked and understand the potential lifetime value of their supporters.   

The team also built a “shopping-style” donation experience that allowed supporters to directly fund trauma kits, view their impact, and send messages to soldiers on the frontlines. They connected that front-end user experience to EveryAction’s deep toolkit and subsequently launched automated, multichannel campaigns that invited one-time contributors to become recurring donors, in turn creating a steady revenue stream. 

EveryAction’s flexibility and automation capabilities allowed the lean team to shift focus from manual donor management to life-saving operations on the ground, without missing a beat.

Outcomes

By implementing Bonterra’s EveryAction platform, White Stork dramatically improved the efficiency, visibility, and scale of its fundraising. In the months following a high-profile Oval Office meeting that drew mass public attention, the organization processed $990,000 in donations, a 131.6% year-over-year increase compared to the same period the previous year. 

“EveryAction dug in to help us scale our mission when we needed it most,” said William. “We finally had structure, insight, and stability without sacrificing speed.” 

The EveryAction platform allowed the team to connect to external data sources across marketing channels and attribute each donation to specific sources, campaigns, or ads. The automated follow-up campaigns helped the team secure recurring donation commitments from over 950 contributors. These efforts generated over $200,000 in monthly recurring donations, creating consistent revenue to fund White Stork’s critical field operations.  

With time saved on manual tracking and follow-ups, the team focused on expanding its impact, distributing trauma kits, evacuating civilians, and deploying anti-drone jamming technology in high-risk zones. 

“If we had this system in place at the start of the war, I believe we could have raised $30 to $50 million in the first few weeks,” said William.