The Virtuous Responsive Awards were created to spotlight the incredible ways nonprofits are transforming generosity, through automation, innovation, storytelling, and responsive donor engagement.
These awards are an opportunity to celebrate your organization’s impact, recognize your team’s hard work, and inspire the larger Virtuous community with your success.
The 2026 Responsive Awards are now open to all nonprofit fundraisers—not just Virtuous customers! And yes, you can apply for more than one!
This award recognizes a nonprofit using artificial intelligence to grow giving and deepen donor engagement — and Rosie’s House didn’t just adopt AI, they adopted the right mindset around it.
Rather than asking only “what can AI do?” they started with “what does our mission need?” — and built from there.
Rosie’s House used AI to support their annual fund from start to finish: stress testing campaign concepts, maintaining a consistent voice, and analyzing results to sharpen their approach over time. The impact speaks for itself — their annual giving campaign grew 50% over two years, average gift size increased by 25%, and recurring donors jumped 68%.
But perhaps most importantly, Rosie’s House built something harder to measure: a culture of curiosity. One that embraces new tools while never losing the human judgment at the heart of great fundraising.
This award celebrates organizations designing thoughtful, human-centered giving experiences that inspire lasting generosity.
Moravian University submitted one of the most detailed and intentional applications we received — built around a pair of interconnected automated journeys that prove relationship-first stewardship outperforms accelerated solicitation. Their approach orchestrates voices across multiple departments, and their donor retention numbers prove it’s working.
Watch the video to see why Moravian University took home the award.
This award highlights the most compelling narratives we’ve seen — stories that share tangible impact, inspire donors, and drive both giving and lasting loyalty.
This year’s winner does all of that and more. Watch and see why Atlas Free took home the award.
This award honors a creative, multi-channel fundraising campaign that demonstrates real responsiveness to donor behavior and mission needs.
Both Hands Foundation caught our attention with a campaign as innovative in its model as it is in its execution. Watch the video to see why they took home the award.
This award spotlights a young nonprofit leader — under 35 — showing exceptional growth and potential in responsiveness, innovation, and donor engagement.
This year’s winner does exactly that. Watch the video to see why Sarah Hickman at Solo Parent took home the award.
Responsive fundraising is built on a simple but powerful idea: every donor deserves to feel known, valued, and connected to the mission they support. Delivering on that at scale requires the right tools, the right strategy, and the right heart behind both. Montclair State University has done exactly that.
By using AI tools to bring genuine personalization to every stage of the donor journey, their team delivered more than 8,600 personalized touchpoints — combining best-in-class donor journeys with tailored content at the individual level. The right message, to the right person, at the right moment.
Montclair State University has shown that when technology is used well, it doesn’t compete with the human touch — it amplifies it.
This award recognizes a customer achieving outstanding impact through innovative, automated, and responsive workflows in Virtuous — and Fleece & Thank You has built something worth celebrating.
Their team constructed an extensive library of automation workflows spanning nearly every stage of the donor journey — from welcome series and retention campaigns to milestone moments and internal data management. Each workflow is thoughtful, intentional, and built with the donor experience in mind.
What sets Fleece & Thank You apart is the care they bring to segmentation. Rather than broadcasting one message to everyone, they map each donor’s experience and build workflows that meet people where they are — delivering the right message to the right person at the right moment.
The result is a fundraising operation that is more responsive, more personal, and more scalable — because of the systems they’ve taken the time to build right.
This award recognizes a customer who doesn’t just use the platform — they help shape it.
What sets Joshua Massey at One For Israel apart is the quality of the feedback he brings. Consistently balanced, specific, and actionable, his input calls out what’s working, why it matters, and what needs improvement — always with an eye toward the downstream impact on real workflows.
Much of his feedback has centered on the Query Tool and Smart Filter, and it has come through in every interaction as a true partner, not just a user.
What’s most notable is his posture. Joshua approaches every interaction as a collaborator who genuinely believes Virtuous is worth investing in — and because of that, he’s helped make it a better platform for every organization that uses it.
This award recognizes exceptional online giving results — and Agape International Missions earns it by using Virtuous Raise not just as a donation button, but as a full donor experience engine.
Agape International Missions exists to rescue and heal survivors of sex trafficking and strike at the roots of exploitation globally. Over two decades, their donors have helped fund more than 180 raids, 600 trafficker arrests, and assistance for over 2,000 survivors.
Their giving page leads with donor confidence, puts impact front and center, and makes recurring giving a priority through a branded monthly donor community called Pulse. The result: a recurring capture rate 2.8 times higher than the Virtuous customer average.
Behind the scenes, 31 active automation workflows, 31 lead forms, and 18 Smart Gift Arrays are actively tuning ask amounts for conversion. The impact is measurable — $2.3 million in year-over-year online giving growth, on top of over $9 million in total donor contributions.
This award honors a nonprofit that goes beyond basic reporting — using data as a genuine strategic tool. Conway Regional Health System is exactly that.
Despite being a small team, they’ve invested deeply and deliberately in the data infrastructure needed to understand their fundraising performance in real time. That means clear metrics for total giving, meaningful year-over-year comparisons, and explicit goals actively monitored through Virtuous Analytics dashboards.
What sets their approach apart is that it’s never just about the numbers — it’s about the decisions those numbers make possible. They completed an NCOA address update to ensure every contact record is accurate and actionable, connecting each investment directly back to their mission.
Conway Regional Health System is a model for what it looks like when a small-but-mighty team chooses to operate with the rigor and intentionality of a much larger organization.
This award recognizes organizations that go all-in on community investment — and Classroom Central earns it in every sense.
With just 14 full-time staff, Classroom Central depends on its community to keep the Free Store stocked, the Mobile Free Store rolling, and programs running across 227 schools in six Charlotte-area districts. Over the past twelve months, more than 4,100 individuals donated nearly 12,000 volunteer hours through Virtuous Volunteer — sorting supplies, staffing events, and making the mission possible week after week.
The need is real: more than 130,000 children in the region lack basic school supplies, and teachers spend an average of $500 out of pocket on classroom materials. Classroom Central’s volunteers help change that equation. Because of them, every $1 donated becomes $9 in distributed supplies — and in 22 years, they’ve put more than $110 million in free school supplies into the hands of students who need them most.
This award celebrates an individual fundraiser using data and technology to inspire greater generosity and deepen donor relationships.
Gerad Teague at Washington International School is exactly that kind of fundraiser. He’s built a connected ecosystem where event data, online giving, and matching gifts flow back into Virtuous to trigger timely, personal outreach — thinking constantly in real workflows that make relationships deeper without burning out his team.
What sets Gerad apart is that he doesn’t keep what he’s learned to himself. He’s here this week as a speaker, showing others how his nonprofit puts responsive fundraising into practice.
OneHope has been a Virtuous customer for over 10 years — and in that time, they haven’t just used the platform, they’ve mastered it. From automation workflows and email to SMS and digital campaigns, they’ve built responsive, multi-channel programs that meet donors where they are and keep them coming back.
The results speak for themselves: a 17.5% increase in year-over-year giving, 52% of donors making a second and third gift, and a remarkable 76% going on to give a fourth time.
That kind of loyalty doesn’t happen by accident. It’s what responsive fundraising looks like when you go all in.
In addition to self-nominated categories, Virtuous will recognize five additional winners based on platform data:
This award goes to the individual who has embraced responsive fundraising strategies, using data to personalize engagement and deepen donor relationships.
Awarded to the organization leading the way in responsive fundraising, using donor signals, automation, and data-driven engagement to create a more connected and generous supporter base.
Recognizing an organization that has successfully leveraged automation within Virtuous to drive efficiency, streamline donor interactions, and scale impact.
This award recognizes a dedicated Virtuous user who has played a pivotal role in shaping the platform through their valuable feedback. Their insights have helped refine features, improve user experience, and drive innovation, making Virtuous even more powerful for the entire nonprofit community.
This award honors the organization that has made the greatest impact through volunteer efforts, mobilizing people, strengthening communities, and advancing their mission through service.
Submissions close June 20, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST
Please select an award category to nominate your organization (you may apply for more than one category). You must be attending the User Summit in order to win any award. For each selected category, please submit the following:
Why this work matters to your mission and donor community.
Celebrating the nonprofit that has mastered automation to eliminate manual processes, increase efficiency, and free up more time for meaningful donor engagement.
Submission should include at least 3 items of the below:
Honoring an outstanding donor-facing campaign that demonstrated creativity, impact, and responsiveness—connecting with supporters in a meaningful and effective way.
Submission should include at least 3 items of the below:
Recognizing an organization that has used innovative reporting and data visualization to unlock insights, drive strategy, and enhance fundraising success.
Submission should include at least 3 items of the below:
Highlighting a beautifully designed and high-converting donation form that made giving seamless, inspiring generosity and increasing donor engagement.
Submission should include at least 3 items of the below:
Awarded to a nonprofit that created an engaging, well-crafted email campaign that broke through the noise, connected with supporters, and drove real results.
Submission should include at least 3 items of the below:
There is no entry fee to submit work for the Responsive Awards.
If you are applying for the Giving Experience award, then it needs to feature the Virtuous giving platform, however, if you are showing how Virtuous helped you be successful on another award, then it’s OK to have another donation platform.
Are you ready to be celebrated for your innovation, strategy, and impact? Winners will also receive a $500 donation to their organization!
Please select an award category to nominate your organization (you may apply for more than one category). Submit your entry by June 20, 2025.
