African Bible Colleges (ABC) is on a mission to help train tomorrow’s leaders of Africa
Founded in 1976, by Dr. and Mrs. John Chinchen, ABC now has campuses in 3 countries and nearly 800 graduates. They raise approximately $3.5 million USD each year and their graduates serve in a wide spectrum of ministries and leadership positions around the world. Rather than focusing on fundraising for the entire organization, ABC discovered donors love connecting with the individual stories of their students. DonorSee not only helps them to tell these stories, but with a single vibrant page, DonorSee allows ABC to find new donors, to share updates with their existing network, and to convert one-off donors into monthly donors.
The challenge:
Increase the number of monthly donors
Prior to using DonorSee, ABC struggled to grow its monthly donor base. Their donor base is aging and they were slowly losing monthly donors as students graduated and sponsorships ended. They reached out to DonorSee to host their Student Sponsorships program. In the first month of use, DonorSee helped them attract over 137 new monthly donors.
The Solution:
Student sponsorships using our Sponsorship feature
Each student with financial needs at ABC was invited to create a video about their aspirations and goals. Each student’s appeal was reviewed by the ABC team and uploaded to DonorSee as a video or photo based project.
The normal ABC sponsorship is a recurring donation of $37/month per student but donors can sponsor as many students as they want and for as much as they want. Multiple donors can also contribute to a student’s need - or make one-off contributions.
The individual projects and videos from students means that the personal connection with donors is second to none. DonorSee’s smart retention and engagement technology shows these projects to donors when they’d be most inclined to donate. Other smart tools tactfully help convert once-off donors to monthly donors.
As well as appearing on ABC’s profile, their projects are also shown on DonorSee’s global feed which gets thousands of visitors a day.
The result:
168% increase in monthly donors using DonorSee's Rise
One ABC representative said that prior to joining DonorSee, “Donors were upset they were not kept up-to-date or were never notified when their student graduated.” DonorSee’s sponsorship feature allowed donors to feel more involved and connected to the students they were supporting, leading to significant increases in giving.
DonorSee also helped ABC connect with new donors through non-sponsorship projects. These one-off projects on DonorSee have helped ABC reach close to a thousand new donors in 2022 alone - many who have then gone on to give regularly.
“African Bible Colleges has been immensely grateful for the wonderful support received through DonorSee over the years. Without DonorSee a vast majority of ABC students would not have had the opportunity to graduate from university. DonorSee has and is playing a vital role.
Annabelle Chinchen, ABC.
Summary
ABC was able to turn a shrinking donor pool into a growing list of monthly donors through DonorSee. The powerful donor experience combined with DonorSee’s smart engagement features helped ABC see a 168% increase in monthly donors.
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