Nonprofit Donor Platform Case Study

Client Overview

Horizon Give Foundation

Horizon Give Foundation has built a donor base of more than 220,000 people over its history, but that history was part of the problem: donor records were split across an aging CRM, assorted spreadsheets maintained by different staff over the years, and a separate online donation tool that had never been properly connected back to anything else. A single donor's giving history might be scattered ac...

Industry

Nonprofit / Charitable Foundation

Business Size

National nonprofit, 220,000+ donors

Location

Washington, D.C., USA · Software development in the USA

Business Model

Nonprofit / Charitable Foundation

Project Duration

7 months

Existing Challenges

Donor records were split across an aging CRM, various spreadsheets, and a separate online donation tool that didn't sync data back.
Recurring monthly donations had a high silent failure rate (expired cards, etc.) with no automated way to recover them.
Compiling donor and impact reports for grant applications and board meetings took the development team days each time.
There was no way to segment donors for targeted outreach beyond a few broad, manually maintained mailing lists.
Major donor relationship history was tracked informally, often just in an individual staff member's email and memory.

The Challenge

What We Were Up Against

Horizon Give Foundation has built a donor base of more than 220,000 people over its history, but that history was part of the problem: donor records were split across an aging CRM, assorted spreadsheets maintained by different staff over the years, and a separate online donation tool that had never been properly connected back to anything else. A single donor's giving history might be scattered across all three, with no one system showing the complete picture.

Recurring monthly donations — the backbone of any sustainable nonprofit's revenue — had a quietly high silent failure rate. Expired cards and other routine payment failures caused donations to simply stop, with no automated process to reach out and recover them; a donor who wanted to keep giving might simply fall off without anyone noticing until someone happened to run a report.

Compiling donor and impact reports for grant applications and board meetings took the development team days each time, since the data lived in three places and had to be reconciled manually. There was no way to segment donors for targeted outreach beyond a few broad, manually maintained mailing lists, and major donor relationship history — the kind of detail that actually matters for cultivating a significant gift — was tracked informally, often living only in one staff member's inbox and memory.

Our Solution

How We Built It

Consolidating three disconnected data sources into one unified donor CRM was the necessary first step, and also the riskiest — donor giving history is not something a nonprofit can afford to get wrong or lose during a migration. We ran a careful, staged consolidation, reconciling records across all three legacy sources and manually resolving conflicts (like the same donor appearing under slightly different names or addresses) before considering the migration complete.

With clean, unified data in place, we built automated recurring-donation recovery: when a card fails, the system automatically retries on a sensible schedule and, if needed, reaches out to the donor with a simple, low-friction way to update their payment method — recovering donations that used to just quietly stop with nobody noticing.

Reporting automation meant grant and board reports that used to take the development team days now generate in minutes, pulling directly from the unified donor and donation data rather than requiring manual reconciliation across systems. Donor segmentation tools let the team build targeted outreach campaigns based on actual giving behavior and history, rather than the same broad mailing list going to everyone regardless of relevance.

For major donor relationships specifically, we built a relationship-tracking module that captures interaction history, giving patterns, and relevant notes in one place — replacing the "it's in someone's inbox" system with something the whole development team can actually see and act on, which matters a great deal when a key staff member eventually moves on.

Key Modules Delivered

Unified Donor CRM

One donor record consolidating history from 3 previously disconnected systems.

Recurring Donation Recovery Engine

Automated retry and donor outreach when a recurring payment fails.

Automated Impact & Grant Reporting

Self-service reports for grant applications and board meetings, generated in minutes.

Donor Segmentation & Campaign Tools

Targeted outreach based on real giving behavior and history.

Major Donor Relationship Tracking

Interaction history and notes for significant donor relationships, visible to the whole team.

Online Donation Portal

A modern, mobile-friendly donation flow feeding directly into the unified CRM.

Goals & Objectives

What Success Looked Like

Unify Donor Records

Consolidate three disconnected data sources into one donor CRM.

Recover Lapsed Recurring Donations

Automatically retry and recover recurring donations that silently fail.

Automate Reporting

Generate grant and board reports in minutes instead of days.

Enable Targeted Outreach

Segment donors by real giving behavior for more relevant campaigns.

Features Developed

What We Built

Unified Donor CRM

One consolidated record for every donor across all channels.

Recurring Donation Recovery

Automated retry and outreach for failed recurring payments.

Automated Impact Reporting

Grant and board reports generated on demand.

Donor Segmentation

Targeted outreach based on real giving behavior.

Major Donor Tracking

Shared relationship history for significant donors.

Online Donation Portal

A modern, mobile-friendly giving experience.

Technology Stack

Built With the Right Tools

We selected every technology based on this project's real requirements: compliance obligations, scalability needs, and long-term maintainability. No trend-chasing, only battle-tested solutions.

Backend

Laravel MySQL

Frontend

Vue.js

Payments

Stripe (with automated dunning/retry)

Email & Outreach

Mailgun

Infrastructure

AWS

Development Process

How We Delivered It

Agile delivery with regular demos and continuous deployment. Full transparency at every stage.

Total Timeline

7 months

Started → Ongoing

1

01

Donor Data Consolidation Planning

Mapped donor records across all 3 legacy systems and planned a careful, staged consolidation.

2

02

Unified CRM Migration

Migrated and reconciled donor records, resolving duplicate and conflicting entries by hand where needed.

3

03

Recurring Donation Recovery Logic Build

Built automated retry and donor outreach for failed recurring payments.

4

04

Reporting Automation

Built self-service grant and board reporting pulling directly from the unified data.

5

05

Segmentation & Campaign Tools Rollout

Delivered donor segmentation tools for targeted outreach based on real giving behavior.

6

06

Staff Training

Trained the development team across the organization on the new unified system.

Security & Compliance

Built for the Strictest Standards

PCI-DSS Compliant Donations

All online donation processing meets PCI-DSS payment security standards.

Donor Data Privacy

Donor personal and giving data is encrypted and access-controlled.

Nonprofit Financial Reporting Alignment

Reporting outputs align with standard nonprofit financial and grant reporting requirements.

Results / KPIs

Measurable Impact

Numbers measured at 6 months post-launch, independently verified by the client's operations team.

+64%

Recurring Donation Recovery Rate

Days → Minutes

Reporting Time

+21%

Donor Retention Rate

+2.1x

Campaign Response Rate

Before vs. After

Before	After
Donor data split across 3 disconnected systems	One unified donor CRM
High silent recurring-donation failure rate	Automated recovery reclaiming most lapses
Days to compile reports for grants/board	Self-service reports in minutes
Broad, manually maintained mailing lists	Targeted, data-driven donor segmentation

"

We had donor history scattered across a CRM nobody fully trusted, spreadsheets only certain staff knew how to read, and an online donation tool that felt like its own island. Bringing all of that into one place, and then having failed recurring donations actually get recovered automatically instead of just disappearing, has meaningfully changed our fundraising capacity — not through some flashy new campaign, just through not losing donors we'd already earned.

NA

Nathaniel Cross

Director of Development, Horizon Give Foundation

★★★★★

Key Achievements

Why This Project Matters

Beyond the numbers: what this project changed day-to-day for Horizon Give Foundation and the people who rely on what we built.

Unified 220,000+ Donor Records

Consolidated three disconnected systems into one donor CRM with reconciled, accurate history.

Recovered the Majority of Lapsed Recurring Donations

Automated recovery reclaimed 64% more previously-lapsed recurring donations.

Reporting Time Cut from Days to Minutes

Grant and board reports that used to take days now generate on demand.

FAQ

Common Questions

Have more questions? Book a call with our team.

How did you migrate 220,000 donor records without losing giving history?

We ran a staged consolidation across all three legacy sources, manually reconciling duplicate or conflicting donor entries before considering any record fully migrated — giving history is too important to a nonprofit to risk on a one-shot migration.

How does recurring donation recovery work without annoying donors?

The system retries a failed payment automatically on a sensible schedule first, and only reaches out to the donor directly with a simple update-payment-method link if the automated retries don't resolve it.

How is donor data privacy protected?

Donor personal and financial data is encrypted at rest and in transit, with role-based access so only appropriate staff can view sensitive donor information.

Can reporting be customized for different grant requirements?

Yes — the reporting module supports custom report templates so different grants or board reporting formats can pull from the same underlying unified data.

Related Case Studies

Modernizing Donor Management and Fundraising for Horizon Give Foundation's 220,000 Donors