How Animal Harbor Grew Recurring Revenue by 162% with Nonprofit Automation
Animal Harbor’s partnership with Nonprofit Automation Agency led to 53% donor retention, $148 average gift size, and 64% open rates.
THE CHALLENGE
Managing donor data across disconnected systems
Before partnering with the Nonprofit Automation Agency, Animal Harbor relied on outdated and disconnected systems to manage donor engagement and fundraising.
With donor records split across DonorPerfect and Constant Contact, the team faced a constant uphill battle to send timely thank-yous, segment communications, or track campaign results.
Manual tasks stacked up. Reporting was time-consuming. And despite a passionate base of animal lovers, donor retention sat around 48% with limited growth in monthly giving.
What wasn’t working:
Donor data split between two disjointed systems
Heavy manual processes for thank-yous and stewardship
Limited segmentation and inconsistent communication
Flat donor retention and stagnant recurring revenue
No automated donor journeys
The staff was spending too much time on administrative work and not enough nurturing donor relationships.
To grow sustainably—and regain capacity—Animal Harbor needed clean data, connected systems, and automated donor journeys that would run behind the scenes while the team focused on caring for animals.
“A home run would look like a highly engaged community and more mission impact… and now we have the tools to make that happen.”
— Emily Holland, Executive Director, Animal Harbor
THE SOLUTION
Nonprofit automation and donor stewardship systems
Animal Harbor partnered with Nonprofit Automation Agency to modernize their systems and create reliable automated stewardship.
Step 1: Unify the tech stack
We started by consolidating Animal Harbor’s disconnected systems into a single, reliable infrastructure. Around 6,000 donor records were deduplicated and migrated from DonorPerfect into Bloomerang, and 1,800 email contacts moved from Constant Contact into Kit.
With one unified database, the team finally had cleaner data, smoother workflows, and zero double entry.
From there, we connected the tools they rely on every day—Bloomerang, Kit, Qgiv, Google, and Zapier—into a seamless automation ecosystem.
The result: fewer manual tasks, fewer missed follow-ups, and a system that supports the team instead of slowing them down.
Step 2: Convert more donors with conversion copywriting and smart donor email sequences
Open Rate
45% ▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧▧
64% ▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩
Average Gift
$55 ▧▧▧▧▧▧
$148▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩▩
Once we had the tech stack in place, we turned to messaging that powers donor engagement.
We wrote complete donor journeys—welcome series, thank-you sequences, re-engagement workflows, and evergreen storytelling—all designed to deepen relationships and increase giving. Each piece was written to sound human, warm, and mission-aligned, even though it runs automatically in the background.
Now, the automations handle the day-to-day stewardship, giving the team more time to focus on what matters most: caring for animals and nurturing long-term partnership with donors.
How do we write for ROI? Our approach to conversion copywriting →
RESULTS
From manual mayhem to a donor engine that runs itself
After migrating to a unified tech stack and launching automated donor journeys, Animal Harbor saw measurable growth across every key metric:
Donor Retention: 48% → 53%
Average Gift Size: $55 → $148
Email Open Rate: 45% → 64%
Recurring Revenue: +162%
Donor retention climbed from 48% to 53%—a meaningful shift for a small team that previously had no automated stewardship in place.
Average gift size nearly tripled, from $55 to $148, driven by welcome and thank-you sequences that build donor relationships from the first touchpoint.
Email open rates jumped from 45% to 64%—more than double the nonprofit industry average of around 28%—because the right message was finally reaching the right donor at the right time.
And recurring revenue → up 162%.
When your tech finally works with you—not against you—even a small animal shelter team can build a donor experience that scales.
Ready to build your donor engine?
Let’s partner up to create your done-for-you donor experience engine—built to help you retain more donors, reduce tech burden, and scale your impact sustainably.
