National FFA Foundation: average gift up 33%

The National FFA Foundation raises the resources behind agricultural education, supporting FFA’s work with more than 500,000 student members. Serving donors, volunteers, and a membership that size takes technology that works together. For years, it did not.

The challenge: 14 systems that did not talk

Before StratusLIVE 365, the Foundation ran on fourteen separate platforms for gift processing and tracking, marketing solicitations, and membership management. None of them integrated, so the data lived in silos. The team couldn’t properly serve the people who power the mission.

The solution: one integrated platform on Microsoft Dynamics 365

The Foundation had already chosen Microsoft Dynamics as its core technology, which let StratusLIVE build a constituent engagement and management platform on top of what the team already knew. StratusLIVE 365 brought donor engagement and CRM into one place, with Microsoft Office integration, an Outlook plugin, and access across devices. Staff folded it into day-to-day work because it fit the tools they already used.

The results: a record-setting fundraising year

One year in, 2019 became the Foundation’s best fundraising year on record:

• Average gift amount up 33%.
• Total fundraising contributions up 18%.
• Fourteen disconnected systems replaced by one integrated platform.
• A development team building its own reports and dashboards from real, reliable data.

That growth fueled the Foundation’s work supporting agricultural education and the next generation of leaders it serves.