Catching up with Dan Fenton from Pope Francis Preparatory School

We caught up with Dan Fenton, Director of Development at Pope Francis Preparatory School in Springfield, MA to learn more about their recent Tuition Raffle.

Q: What campaign did you run with BMS?

The Cardinal Tuition Raffle. We were fortunate enough to receive a donation from an alumni equivalent to one year of tuition. Given this, we chose to develop a raffle for a chance of free tuition for this academic year. We sold tickets for $100 each to our current families. The BMS platform made it easy for families to buy tickets online and gave them access to updates daily. Behind the scenes, BMS tracked our progress and provided us with clean data that made it easy to report data into Raiser’s Edge.

Q: Tell us about a success from this campaign!

We’re proud of how much we raised in total! The tuition raffle was a success from both a fundraising aspect and as a great back-to-school community building opportunity.

Q: What is a challenge you faced while running this campaign? How did you conquer it?

This was our first campaign with BMS, so our biggest challenge was learning the admin side of the platform. After just a few days, our office had a better understanding of the platform and were able to come up with an efficient reconciliation process with our business office.

Q: Which BMS feature really helped you the most with this campaign?

CSV Export. As a development office this is your lifeline. The data is clear and provides everything needed for recording purposes.

Q: What is one takeaway tip for other schools running a similar campaign?

When using a new platform, run a small specialty campaign on the platform before starting your Annual Fund on it. This will give the development and business office a better understanding of the product and all it can do.