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Lustgarten Foundation Lustgarten Foundation Saves Time and Enhances Supporter Engagement with Blackbaud® NetCommunity
The Lustgarten Foundation is the nation’s largest private supporter of pancreatic cancer research. Founded in 1998, The Lustgarten Foundation was named after Cablevision® executive Marc Lustgarten, who died from the disease. The Foundation is dedicated to advancing the scientific and medical research related to pancreatic cancer, the nation’s fourth leading cause of cancer deaths. The Lustgarten Foundation concentrates on stimulating the scientific community to conduct the research necessary to find early detection methods, better treatments, and a cure. Toward this end, the Foundation sponsors an annual scientific conference and supports promising pancreatic cancer research. It also provides patients and caregivers with up-to-date information, including a comprehensive website.
The Challenge:
- The Lustgarten Foundation was using an online event fundraising tool that did not effectively integrate with its database, The Raiser’s Edge®.
- The inability to effectively transfer data from its online event fundraising system into The Raiser’s Edge became too painful and time-consuming for the organization.
- The organization had an old website that was complicated and difficult to manage and update.
The Solution:
- The Foundation selected Blackbaud NetCommunity because it seamlessly integrates with The Raiser’s Edge to give the organization a more complete view of its constituents and ensure that it has the best data available.
- Eliminating the need to manage software upgrades or patches, The Lustgarten Foundation selected Blackbaud OnDemand Services to host both Blackbaud NetCommunity and The Raiser’s Edge.
- After discovering how easy the product is to use, the Foundation began to move its entire website to Blackbaud NetCommunity and even used Blackbaud consulting services to redesign the site.
The Results:
- Implemented Constituent-Driven Fundraising: With the capabilities enabled by Blackbaud NetCommunity, the Foundation established a section on its website called “Community Connections,” where supporters can set up their own personal web pages. Since its launch a year ago, Community Connections participants have raised more than $185,000 online without any assistance from the Foundation.
- Enabled Viral Marketing and Social Networking: It is so easy to set up web pages with Blackbaud NetCommunity that approximately 70 supporters have set up their own web pages to support the Foundation in the Community Connections section.
- Enabled Greater Event Success By Increasing Volume of Online Donations: The 2009 New York Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk raised $1.1 million, with online donations comprising more than 64 percent of gifts and totaling more than $645,000.
- To date in 2009, the Foundation has seen 60 percent of its total donation amount from its 14 walks come in online, comprising approximately 71 percent of all transactions.
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