Elmbrook Education Foundation

Supporting Educational Excellence

$K
Raised with GiveSmart
Award-Winning Fundraising and Donor Management Platform
%
Event Sellouts

GiveSmart offers us a great opportunity to build relationships, and if you look at where we are now compared to then [pre-2020], ...the money, especially for the EEF events that we bring in, we're selling out every event ... I think a lot of it has to do with GiveSmart bridging those donor relationships. 

- Beth D., Executive Director at the Elmbrook Educational Foundation

Challenge

Back in 2014, The Elmbrook Education Foundation (EEF) needed to find a better value for their event fundraising management solution. They felt like they had been overpaying for their previous platform, which also included superfluous features and services irrelevant to their needs.  

The foundation evaluated a few different options, concluding that they could take full advantage of GiveSmart’s platform, and it offered the best value. The team was happy to save money and streamline their use of one platform that could do more.  

Solution

The EEF almost immediately experienced how easy it was for their staff and volunteers to use and navigate GiveSmart. And because of this, their small staff could dedicate the limited event time to stewarding donors, rather than stuck troubleshooting behind a laptop. From the beginning, they have found the full functionality of the GiveSmart platform easy to use for their team, volunteers, and supporters.  

Their team continues to be empowered to expand their use of the platform, leaning into their creativity to find new ways to engage their support network and solicit donations. 

Elmbrook Education Foundation Event
Elmbrook Education Foundation Event
Elmbrook Education Foundation Event
Case Study - Elmbrook Education Foundation_Header_1140x6905

Impact

The EEF has been a happy GiveSmart customer for many years. They’ve worked hard to achieve fundraising growth, had consistent event sell-outs, and found high donor satisfaction.  

At the onset of the pandemic, the EEF was prepared and set up for success. They were able to quickly expand online fundraising and offer the needed support and an online fundraising platform for their nine schools and three booster organizations, without scrambling to find and learn other technology. Since GiveSmart offers unlimited admins in the system, as well as the ability to host unlimited fundraisers under one contract and vendor, the EEF had nearly all of the tools they needed to best support their mission. 

As GiveSmart has expanded its features, now offering more robust peer-to-peer fundraising and highly customizable forms, EEF is fully set up to best support its students and staff and expand even more.   

Over the years, EEF’s long-standing use of GiveSmart combined with its ease of use for volunteers and donors has resulted in EEF’s staff and Board of Directors feeling confident that they had chosen the right solution all those years ago. 

About the Elmbrook Education Foundation 

The EEF is a nonprofit organization that has provided scholarships and grants to Wisconsin-based Elmbrook students and schools for over 60 years. Founded in 1958 by parents and community partners as a scholarship fund, the EEF has since awarded $1,500,000 in scholarships to Elmbrook students.  

In 1999, EEF’s mission expanded to include innovative teacher grants for projects that would benefit all students, and it raises money to support and strengthen outstanding learning ideas that improve the overall educational quality of its public schools. The Elmbrook Education Foundation has since given $500,000 in grants to Elmbrook educators and schools.  

The EEF accomplishes its mission by partnering with parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and businesses throughout the year. 

About GiveSmart

GiveSmart is a fundraising and donor management system that enables organizations to accelerate fundraising through configurable, mobile-friendly campaigns, peer-to-peer giving, auction and event management, simple tracking, and secure payment processing.  

Our mission is to help nonprofits and organizations reach their fundraising goals while creating an engaging, exciting, and easy giving experience for their donors. All. Year. Round.