The Virtuous Difference
- Respond to donations within 24 hours using automated alerts
- Increased donor retention through timely, personalized donor follow-ups
- Broke down data silos, giving fundraisers and ops teams shared access to real-time insights
Top Challenges The Farmlink Project Needed to Address:
- Understand why donors were giving and how they were engaging in order to build stronger, more personal relationships
- Eliminate manual processes for updating contact records and donor tags that slowed down a small team
- Unify fundraising and operations teams around a shared system to improve collaboration and revenue forecasting
Automation Helping Staff Spend Less Time on Admin, More Time With Donors
As The Farmlink Project grew from a student-led initiative into a national nonprofit, its commitment to feeding people in need and reducing food waste remained front and center. But behind the scenes, the team was juggling the demands of a growing donor base with limited time and resources. Managing donor data manually and relying on volunteers for essential stewardship meant that important follow-ups often fell through the cracks.
That’s where automation stepped in.
But fundraising automation is doing more than just checking boxes for Farmlink, it’s a driving force behind stronger donor relationships. When someone makes a gift, they receive a personalized thank-you within 24 hours. This simple but powerful gesture has become a hallmark of Farmlink’s stewardship approach, making donors feel seen, valued, and more likely to give again.
“It may not be an industry standard to be able to do those 24-hour thank-yous because I think it’s a huge load on the nonprofit, but by diverting the effort to managing and tracking who needs to be thanked at what time, and actually putting that towards stewarding those relationships, we’re able to do that.” — Risa Fox, Development Operation Manager, The Farmlink Project
Behind the scenes, automation handles what used to be tedious admin tasks: updating donor tags, tracking engagement history, and triggering follow-up reminders. By removing those manual steps, Farmlink’s staff is freed up to spend more time actually connecting with donors.
The Farmlink team prioritizes outreach based on giving level, using data captured in Virtuous to ensure every supporter receives the right thank-you experience. A $5 donor might get a quick call from a volunteer, while a major contributor receives a personal message from Farmlink’s CEO.
Making Smarter Data-Driven Decisions Across the Entire Team
Before having the right systems in place, Farmlink had trouble understanding where gifts were coming from or why supporters were giving. Without a clear picture of engagement, it was tough to build consistent, personalized relationships.
Basic tasks like updating contact records, tagging donors, and grouping supporters by giving level were all done by hand. It was time-consuming, prone to error, and pulled staff away from more strategic fundraising work.
Even as the organization matured and brought on full-time staff, donor data remained siloed and departments were still working from separate tools and workflows. Fundraising and operations teams were working toward the same mission, but without a shared system, it was difficult to coordinate efforts or forecast giving with any accuracy.
Now, Farmlink puts data to work across the entire organization with responsive tools from Virtuous. Fundraisers receive real-time alerts when a gift comes in, allowing them to follow up with a timely, personal thank-you. Meanwhile, donor group tags update automatically based on behavior or giving level without staff needing to go into the system and do it themselves.
For example, if someone gives at a major donor level, Virtuous automatically assigns them to the appropriate group with no spreadsheet cleanup required. That time saved means more attention can be devoted to relationship-building.
“We’ve seen [automated reminders] have really increased our repeat gifts, and we’ve heard from donors that why they give to Farmlink is because we call them immediately and they feel like they’re really important to our organization.” — Risa Fox, Development Operation Manager, The Farmlink Project
How Personalized Messaging Led to Long-Term Giving
In its early days, Farmlink’s outreach was passionate but inconsistent. Without a reliable way to track donor engagement, thank-you calls sometimes didn’t happen until months after the initial gift. Even though the intent was there, the manual processes and volunteer-led efforts made it difficult to inspire donors to keep giving.
Instead of leaning on occasional follow-ups or one-size-fits-all messaging, Farmlink now uses real-time insights to tailor outreach based on how donors engage. With a centralized database and powerful query tools from Virtuous, the team can immediately see why someone is giving, what communications they’re responding to, and how to deepen that connection over time.
“By using Virtuous, Farmlink is able to have a really clear understanding of who our donors are and why they’re responding to our message. We’re able to pivot that messaging whenever we see that people are giving for a different reason and respond really well to that donor audience. While it is a tool to house a lot of data, we’ve been able to really see the impact of that on our personal relationships with donors.” — Risa Fox, Development Operations Manager, The Farmlink Project
To support those relationships at scale, Farmlink’s team relies on the Gift Ask Pipeline. Fundraisers use it to visualize donor journeys, track outreach progress, and prioritize who to connect with each day. The operations team uses the same tool to forecast revenue and evaluate which engagement strategies are delivering results.
This shared view cuts down on confusion, strengthens collaboration, and helps both fundraising and operations teams stay on track with shared goals.
“We found that we can eliminate a lot of the back-and-forth team communication by just having access to the same information. While we may be looking at that information for different reasons or extrapolating different conclusions from it, ultimately, we have access to the same thing, and that allows us to work really well together.” — Risa Fox, Development Operation Manager, The Farmlink Project
Ready to learn how Virtuous can help your team collaborate, engage donors meaningfully, and grow support? Schedule a demo today.
