Boy Scouts of America

Boy Scouts of America Unify Online Giving Experience

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is one of the nation’s largest and most prominent values-based youth development organizations. The BSA provides a program for young people that builds character, trains them in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and develops personal fitness.

For nearly a century, the BSA has helped build the future leaders of this country by combining educational activities and lifelong values with fun. The Boy Scouts of America believes — and, through nearly a century of experience, knows — that helping youth is a key to building a more conscientious, responsible, and productive society.

The Challenge:

• Provide more than 300 Boy Scouts Councils, each with vast differences in technical acumen, the ability to fundraise locally.
• Alleviate the fear that the national organization will cannibalize donations meant for local councils.
• Extend the BSA branding to a micro-community, creating synergy with all other Boy Scout web efforts.

The Solution:

• The Blackbaud Sphere Enterprise system provides BSA with a web-based solution to easily create donation, memorial, and tribute forms while spreading the word to every council. A zip code look-up tool is used to drive individuals to the fundraising applications developed for each council.
• The email tools in Sphere Enterprise enable the organization to send customized emails to members, donors, and constituents.
• Using Sphere Enterprise Merchant Services, donations made to each council are paid directly to that council.

The Results:

• Increased Online Giving: Online giving increased by 52 percent in 2008, following an increase of 115 percent in 2007, and 78 percent in 2006.
• Better Communication with Constituency: Almost 4.5 million emails have been sent to the scoutingfriends.org constituency.
  Improved Search Engine Optimization: Google® search for “Donate to
• Boy Scouts” ranks this Sphere site #1 — higher than the main BSA site.