Southern Prep Academy: Transforming School Fundraising and Donor Management with ChalkBooks

Summary

Jenifer and Becca lead the fundraising efforts at Southern Prep Academy. Before ChalkBooks, their school used eTapestry, a legacy donor management platform, for many years. Despite having just renewed a three-year contract with eTapestry  in 2024, Becca's team made the strategic decision to switch to ChalkBooks after discovering its school-specific capabilities through an industry webinar.

"Using ChalkBooks has significantly boosted our productivity with its intuitive and easy-to-use interface. Our favorite feature is the gratitude tracker, which keeps our team engaged and motivated. Plus, the ChalkBooks team is incredibly hands-on and quick to respond, making the experience even better!"

Challenges

Before switching to ChalkBooks,  Southern Prep was faced with several challenges which  impacted their fundraising effectiveness:

• No visibility across team members for who was supposed to thank whom and where that task was
• Lack of donor acknowledgment tracking system
• Missed opportunities for timely donor follow-up
• Poor donor experience lacking modern giving options like Google Pay and Apple Pay
• Unresponsive vendor support that hindered problem resolution

"With our previous system, you could write notes, but we couldn't all see everybody else's work. Now we can see if a donor gave two weeks ago and someone still hasn't called them."

Switching Away from Blackbaud & eTapestry

In switching from eTapestry to ChalkBooks, Becca acknowledged her biggest concern was maintaining accurate records during the data migration process. When Southern Prep initially sought to retrieve their data, they were asked to pay a fee.  With the help of ChalkBooks’ customer support team, Southern Prep was able to retrieve their data free of charge.

Why ChalkBooks

 "Being able to track and actually know when and if a donor was called or emailed or had a letter written has been very helpful in making sure that we actually thank our donors in a timely manner."

Despite being locked into a multi-year contract with eTapestry, the school recognized ChalkBooks' superior value proposition and made the switch because ChalkBooks provides:

1. Enhanced Team Accountability: ChalkBooks provides complete transparency across the fundraising team, driving better performance.
2. Streamlined Donor Stewardship: The platform enables comprehensive tracking of all donor touchpoints, leading to improved relationship management.
3. A Superior Donor Experience: More engaging, visually appealing interfaces drive better donor engagement compared to legacy systems.
4. A Responsive Customer Success Team: The accessibility and responsiveness of the ChalkBooks team drives continuous value realization.

The ChalkBooks Difference

Since implementing ChalkBooks, Southern Prep experienced several improvements. The team uses the platform daily as part of their regular workflow and reports there is now more consistency with donor communications. 

Team members are more accountable for following up with donors and managing donor relationships has become simpler. Additionally, fundraising pages look more professional and appealing to donors

ChalkBooks has become an essential part of Southern Prep  fundraising operations, helping the school build stronger relationships with their donors.

Looking Forward

ChalkBooks has significantly improved the approach to  fundraising at Southern Prep:

1. More Professional Fundraising: Donors have a better experience when giving
2. Better Teamwork: Greater visibility into team workflows
3. Stronger Donor Relationships: Team is more organized with their thank-you process
4. Simplified Processes: The platform is intuitive enough for daily use
5. True Partnership: Southern Prep feels supported by the ChalkBooks team

 "Knowing that we're able to reach out to the team for anything that we need and then it is looked at is helpful. That was something that we did not have with our previous system - you can't get in contact with anybody over there."

For Southern Prep, making the switch to ChalkBooks was easy. The platform understands the unique needs of K-12 private educational institutions and was able to deliver on driving better fundraising outcomes.