Friends of IMUMA

Friends of IMUMA Uses Blackbaud Now™ to Raise Awareness for its Cause on the Web, Receive Online Donations, and Promote Fundraising Events

Friends of IMUMA is a U.S.-based website dedicated to supporting IMUMA, a center for orphans and vulnerable children in the village of Bagamoyo on Tanzania's east coast.  The Friends of IMUMA website is dedicated to improving the lives of these children by ensuring that IMUMA is able to provide a safe and loving environment.

The Challenge:
IMUMA was established in 2006 as an organization dedicated to helping orphans in Tanzania. Because the organization was located overseas, establishing a web presence and raising awareness online was extremely important. In the beginning, the organization achieved this with a simple website; however, the organization didn’t actively update the website, promote it, or use it as a fundraising tool. When Jamie Cann became involved with IMUMA, his first objective was to truly take the organization’s mission to the next level, especially online. He began looking for a website solution that would be easy to use, allow for simple updates, enable the organization to accept donations, and keep a record of all online transactions.

The Solution:
When Jamie heard about BlackbaudNow in March of 2009, he visited the website and discovered that the solution was just what the organization needed. By April, Jamie had created Friends of IMUMA, a website dedicated to promoting the IMUMA cause and raising money and awareness for the organization. The website was live in time to promote an upcoming fundraising event.

The Results:
After building the Friends of IMUMA website using Blackbaud Now, Jamie sent out an evite to friends and families letting them know of about the cause and an upcoming fundraiser that would be held in New York City in May. Within a short time, Friends of IMUMA received 30 donations, and more than 30 people registered for the fundraiser, which raised $2,800. Because the organization needs only $10 to feed a single Tanzanian child for a month, this fundraiser was a huge success and exceeded the organization’s expectation.