Before Dynamic Catholic trusted a vendor with its fundraising, the team put every option to the test using people they already knew. Only one came back with the accuracy they were looking for.
Who
Founded in 2009, the Dynamic Catholic Institute exists to re-energize the Catholic Church in America through resources that help people learn more about their faith. The organization is known for its Parish Book Program, which puts books into parishes for a dollar a copy so they can reach more people, mostly around Christmas and Easter.
The Challenge
Dynamic Catholic relies entirely on fundraising to support its books, videos, journals, and guides. At that scale, the team needed more than donor data. They needed research they could trust to help them make better fundraising decisions.
Before committing to a vendor, they wanted proof that the data would hold up against what they already knew about their donors.
Why EverTrue
So they put the vendors to the test. Dynamic Catholic sent a batch of sample records, including board members and members of their own team whose financial and philanthropic profiles they knew well, to DonorSearch by EverTrue and several competing vendors.
DonorSearch CORE came back with the most accurate results.
“You’re not just purchasing a product. You’re actually choosing a partner to help you in your fundraising journey.” — Dynamic Catholic Institute
That accuracy gave the team what they needed to move forward. The platform also made it easy to batch records in just a few clicks, while responsive support helped the team get questions answered quickly, typically within 24 hours.
The Results
With DonorSearch CORE’s data behind their prospecting, Dynamic Catholic raised $25 million in a large-scale campaign to fund Catholic Moments, a program of short films made free for everyone who wanted them. That result gave the team confidence heading into their next campaign, Holy Moments, where they’re relying on DonorSearch again.
“We sent a batch of sample records, which included some people we knew very well, to DonorSearch and some other vendors, and what came back was that DonorSearch had the most accurate results.” — Dynamic Catholic Institute
Beyond the campaign dollars, the team has leaned on DonorSearch’s library of nonprofit resources and webinars to bring newer staff up to speed. As Dynamic Catholic put it, choosing DonorSearch as a partner was, in the end, pretty much a no-brainer.
That’s the difference between a vendor and a partner: one sells you data, the other helps you turn it into action. Dynamic Catholic didn’t just get a screening tool, they got a partner invested in seeing their mission succeed.