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Customer Story

Community Rowing Inc. increased its DAF gifts by +20% one week after adding Chariot

Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI) is an organization that really lives up to its name - fostering a supportive and welcoming community in the Boston area for anyone to grow through the sport of rowing. They bring the magic of rowing to over 5,000 people a year and rely upon the extended community they’ve built over the past 35+ years in operation to make it all possible.
When I saw that there was an ability for people to automatically donate support from their DAF in real time for our Giving Day, I just thought ‘wow that is awesome.'
"
- Caitlin Lupton, Database Management & Gift Processing at CRI

Before Chariot

Difficulty identifying and contacting DAF donors
Limited, manual record keeping processess
No solicitation of DAF donations directly on website

After Chariot

Steward DAF donors with key contact information
Seamless, automatic DAF donation management
Solicit DAF donations at every donor touchpoint
Challenges

Fewer donations and manual processess

One of the primary ways CRI funds their work is through their Annual Giving Day, which thrives on real time momentum, quick donation experiences, and goal tracking. To date, CRI has not been able to capitalize on the billions of dollars sitting in DAFs due to the complicated and time-intensive process plaguing donor advised funds.

Even when CRI does manage to get their hands on a coveted DAF donation, their staff has to spend time and resources on manual record keeping, follow up, and reconciliation.
After just one week of using Chariot, CRI increased the number of DAF gifts by an impressive 20% and boosted DAF contributions by 8% compared to the previous year.
"
The result

Fundraising success, positive donor feedback, and operational improvements

Despite a decline in overall giving this year, with the help of Chariot, CRI managed to increase the number of DAF gifts by an impressive 20% and boosted DAF contributions by 8% compared to the previous year.

Donors even took note, with one DAF donor making a point of telling Caitlin how quick & seamless the integrated DAF donation process was compared to what they’re used to.
 
Additionally, the process required for staff to manage DAF gifts was night and day when using Chariot. Just a few of the operational benefits that Caitlin noted were that Chariot:
 
  • Removed the need to manually add DAF donations as offline gifts on the fundraising page
  • Eliminated time spent jumping through hoops on different DAF portals
  • Prevented extensive follow up to confirm donor information & gift details (beneficiary program, email address, etc.)
  • Greatly simplified reconciling reports
  • Streamlined audit review with controllers

“I’m just so excited I found Chariot before our Giving Day. It was super helpful and it was so nice not having to worry about all the extra stuff on such a busy important day.”

Caitlin Lupton

Community Rowing Inc.

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