The Virtuous Difference
- 40% increase in year-over-year giving for annual Giving Days campaign
- 833% increase in auction engagement for those who couldn’t attend the event
- 600 hours a year saved by automating donor insights and outreach
Top Challenges Washington International School Needed to Address:
- Break down data silos so the team can better understand each donor and what motivates them to give
- Move away from an outdated CRM that was hard to use and lacked integration between systems
- Free up hours spent on data entry to focus on building meaningful donor relationships
Data Silos and Outdated Systems That Took Hours Away From Strategic Fundraising
At Washington International School (WIS), fundraising supports a globally minded, inquiry-driven education that empowers students to lead with purpose. But for years, the development team was held back by outdated systems that made it hard to truly know its donors or use that information in strategic ways.
Its legacy donor management CRM was split between two disconnected views, creating frustrating data silos that limited visibility and made even basic tasks harder than they needed to be. At the same time, much of the team’s work relied on spreadsheets to track parent participation, pull reports, and update records. The result? An error-prone process that ate up hours each week and left little time to engage with donors.
“One of the largest priorities that we were looking for in a CRM solution was one that would work for us and not against us. This isn’t just about managing our donors. It was a system that would make our lives easier and free us up to do actual fundraising instead of managing spreadsheets.” — Walker Konkle, Director of the Annual Fund, Washington International School
To really get to know its donors and make smarter decisions, WIS needed a better way to consolidate its data, reduce manual work, and unlock donor insights the team could actually act on.
Responsive Fundraising With Everything in One Place
Each fall, WIS launches Giving Days, a school-wide campaign that invites parents, alumni, staff, and the broader community to support the annual fund. Now with Virtuous, the team can manage every part of the campaign without having to switch between systems. From building segmented lists and scheduling emails to automating thank-you messages, the team spends less time on logistics and more time on donor stewardship.
Equipped with the right tools, WIS can finally lead with a responsive fundraising strategy. The team listens to donors, makes personal connections, and adapts outreach based on real-time behavior and preferences. This is now possible because the team has a clear view of email activity, donation history, and campaign engagement all in one place. With everything organized and accessible, the school moves faster and fundraises with confidence.
“I love the data. I love being able to see how different people react to digital fundraising. Virtuous makes that possible because everything is in one place. You log on to a donor record, and everything is there before you even have to scroll. You can see if someone opened an email, if they clicked on it, if they responded, if they donated. In a world where we are so limited with our time, that is so helpful in making us effective.” — Walker Konkle, Director of the Annual Fund, Washington International School
And because all campaign tools and donor insights live in the same system, the team can easily tailor donation pages and emails to reflect each supporter’s relationship with the school. Whether reaching out to parents, alumni, or staff, WIS is able to deliver a more personal and relevant experience for every member of the community.
“Virtuous doesn’t just welcome feedback—they act on it. The platform is constantly rolling out new features and improvements, and the team has been consistently responsive to any questions or concerns. It’s refreshing to work with a company that actually values the customer experience.” — Gerad Teague, Associate Director of Advancement, Washington International School
Data-Driven Decision-Making That Led to Greater Giving and Higher Auction Engagement
With the consolidation of data and a unified donor management system, WIS raised 40% more during Giving Days. This has been its most successful campaign to date. The team no longer had to waste valuable hours double-checking spreadsheets or chasing down updates. Instead, the school could focus its energy on meaningful work like following up directly, responding to donor behavior in real time, and adjusting outreach to match what donors were actually engaging with.
Because WIS can see the full picture of each donor’s journey, the team can confidently suggest the next best step, whether it’s a thank-you call, a tailored ask, or a simple check-in. The shift saves the team 600 hours a year, which is the equivalent of 75 full workdays. With that time back, the team is building stronger donor relationships and seeing better results well beyond Giving Days.
“Our previous CRM often felt like a glorified Rolodex, the primary purpose of which was to populate a constellation of spreadsheets where most of the real work happened. Now, we can rely on Virtuous to handle many of those manual tasks, from tracking donor participation to syncing contact notes to managing robust email marketing.” — Gerad Teague, Associate Director of Advancement, Washington International School
Seeing an opportunity to expand participation in its annual auction, a key community fundraiser, WIS used smarter segmentation to reach families who couldn’t attend in person. Its previous system didn’t allow for this kind of targeted outreach, so those supporters were often left out. This time, the tailored approach led to more than 8x growth in off-site engagement.
“That increase in auction campaign donors just means this all is attributed to cleaner data, faster communication, and a lot less manual work our team has to do across the board.” — Walker Konkle, Director of the Annual Fund, Washington International School
Building on that growth, the WIS team now uses automated prompts to prioritize follow-up and identify lapsed donors, thanks to the tools in Virtuous. The development team describes it as having another full-time fundraiser on its team, giving them more time to strengthen connections and engage donors with greater care and intention.
“If a team is still using an outdated system… you’re wasting your team’s time and energy and the goodwill that you have from the donors, you’re just you’re staying stuck… There are so many options out there, and Virtuous has been just such a great one. We have never looked back.” — Walker Konkle, Director of the Annual Fund, Washington International School
Ready to finally make sense of your data and deliver more responsive donor experiences like Washington International School? Schedule a demo with Virtuous and see how your team can save time, grow giving, and build stronger relationships.
