Julia’s Butterfly Foundation

Julia “Butterfly” Marie Bommer was born with a rare kidney disease, cerebral palsy, and numerous other health issues that required many months of hospitalization, countless medical procedures, and around-the-clock care. Through the dedication and love of her parents, however, she was able to enjoy a good quality of life until her passing in 2006 at the tender age of six. Her mother, Maureen, followed later that same year. All through Julia’s short life, Maureen selflessly had dreamed of helping other families facing similar situations.

Maureen’s closest friends, Carol-Jeanette Jorgensen, Christine Rasnake, and Denise Mitchell vowed to fulfill that wish, and in 2006 founded the Julia M. Bommer Memorial Foundation, Inc. (now Julia’s Butterfly Foundation) with others close to the Bommer family. Since its inception, Julia’s Butterfly Foundation has helped terminally and chronically ill children get the help they need to improve their lives — often covering expenses for therapies and greatly needed assistance not reimbursed by medical insurance.

Some examples of the assistance they provide are: purchasing equipment to meet the specific needs of the child; providing wheelchairs, braces, ramps, and railings; paying for transportation, physical therapy; and providing assistance with uncovered medically-related expenses.

Highlights
•    Using Greater Giving’s online solutions eliminated the need for maintaining an office space for volunteer’s use when entering event data
•    Instead of taking weeks to reconcile after the 2008 event, the books were reconciled the next day.
•    The investment in Greater Giving Event Software and Professional Event Services was “the best money ever spent” by the foundation.

Challenge
Because Julia’s Butterfly Foundation was created by a group of friends, they operated with an all-volunteer staff — each with full-time jobs. For the first two years they managed their benefit manually, without event management software to organize the details.  Procured items were stored in 5 different homes. And there wasn’t a central office to do simple things like a mail merge for invitations, receipts, and thank-you letters — making the process time consuming and difficult.

These obstacles affected not only the event management, but the event itself. There was no way to process credit cards for the 160+ registrants prior to the night of the event.  Carol-Jeannette Jorgensen, foundation Vice President, explained, “we used to have to wait till the night of the event, and process all the registration credit cards through the Auctionpay terminals along with the auction items.” Also, it used to take us a week or more to reconcile the receivables after the event.” After 2 years of struggling, they actually considered canceling the event. “Running a ball with 10 volunteers is hard to manage. We were going to do a smaller fundraiser, but donor response was so overwhelming, we felt we had to continue.”

They just needed to find a better way.

Solution
Already a Greater Giving client, the foundation staff decided to add more Greater Giving solutions in steps. They had successfully used the Auctionpay terminals to capture credit card information at their event. After two years, they added Greater Giving Event Software to the mix. Using Event Software immediately streamlined all the auction activities: from creating and tracking packages to table assignments; printing the live auction catalog; tax receipts for check-out; and thank-you letters. No more confusing mail merges!

The next step was to invest in Greater Giving’s Online Payments product, which has enabled them to accept donations year-round, communicate with their supporters, and sell tickets and process payments for smaller events. Greater Giving’s Virtual Terminal feature enables Butterfly staff to accept online donations at any time of the year — increasing funds raised.

With many volunteers and staff working after hours from home, upgrading to the on-line version of the Event Software became essential. Being able to work remotely and still have access to the same database has helped the team to streamline their processes and divide up the workload.  They no longer require an office for volunteers to come to and enter event data — they now have a virtual office!  Jorgensen also appreciates the reporting ability of the tool. They can see how much they raised, track procurement levels, and evaluate the trends of auction items year to year. This gives them the edge on tying their items to their mission and developing their audience.

Tips from Julia’s Butterfly Foundation
•    Gear your auction items to the season of the year.
•    Focus on your mission when marketing your event.
•    Utilize event software reports to evaluate auction item trends.
•    Frequent Website updates will raise your organization’s visibility on Web search engines.

Results
For the 2008 Butterfly Ball, the foundation hired a Greater Giving professional event consultant to oversee registration and check-out the night of their event. This meant that the board was free to mingle with their guests, donors, sponsors and bidders — a crucial change. “They got to enjoy the event with their friends and got through the evening without a migraine!” Jorgensen laughed. And, instead of taking weeks to reconcile after the event, the books were reconciled the next day. Jorgensen stated that the investment in Greater Giving Event Software and Professional Event Services was “the best money ever spent” by the foundation.

The Butterfly Ball continues to be their main fundraiser, attracting between 160-200 guests each year, and raising up to $100K. The future plans for Julia’s Butterfly Foundation are to build on their mission and create empathy with current and new supporters using an online fundraising strategy. They are currently focusing on new ways to encourage year-round online giving, like establishing a newsletter and hosting a blog — both leading to their Website. “We will continue to work on streamlining our processes,” Jorgensen said. “We’re like Butterflies ourselves – ready to emerge to the next stage.”

As Julia’s mother Maureen knew, there is a need out there for this type of unique assistance, and Julia’s Butterfly Foundation is willing to grow to meet those needs.