How The Creekside School streamlined fundraising and supporter communications by replacing four tools with Donorbox CRM

Introduction

The Creekside School provides best-in-class schooling for students with moderate-to-severe autism in San Jose, California. Their mission is to holistically enhance quality of life for individuals with profound autism and their families through empowerment, community engagement, and partnerships.

What started as an informal program in a home basement for two young boys in 2006 has since grown to 6 classrooms on a six-acre campus serving 30 students ages 5 through 22. Students typically have significant communication challenges and sensory issues, and they follow tailored learning programs in an effort to earn their high school certificates. A fully integrated suite of therapies—including speech, music, occupational, art, and mental health services—is woven directly into each student's classroom experience.

Guided by the simple, profound philosophy that ‘anyone can learn once we learn how to teach them,’ The Creekside School serves students from grade school through adulthood with a rare, whole-family approach that recognizes the impact autism has not only on parents, but on an entire support system.

A patchwork of platforms

With a development team of two, The Creekside School needed a fundraising platform that worked as hard as they did. Instead, their data lived across multiple disconnected tools, and keeping them in sync was a job in itself.

• Fragmented data, manual work: Having four separate platforms – for donations, CRM, events, and email marketing – made it time-consuming to consolidate donor data, ensure its accuracy, and get a real-time view of fundraising efforts.
• Communication challenges: Because their CRM and email marketing platforms weren't integrated, new donors weren't automatically added to email distribution lists, slowing down stewardship.
• Too much complexity: Legacy CRMs like Salesforce and Blackbaud were overwhelming, requiring extensive customization and specialized staff that a small team on a limited budget didn't have.

One platform for everything

The Creekside School signed up for Donorbox Premium in 2024, drawn to the potential of an all-in-one platform that could grow with them. From general appeals and peer-to-peer Giving Tuesday campaigns, to event ticketing, sponsorships, and in-person cashless gifts, they run their fundraising through Donorbox – with everything seamlessly captured and managed in one place.

When Donorbox CRM launched, the organization was among the first adopters. By replacing four legacy tools with a single platform, the manual workarounds were gone. Now, when someone donates or buys a ticket, their information flows straight into the CRM.

• User-friendliness: Donorbox CRM felt "just right" for a nonprofit of their size, intuitive enough for new users and external consultants to use immediately without extensive training or specialized hires.
• Consolidation and cost savings: Replacing multiple tools – including Bonterra and Constant Contact – with one comprehensive tool saved both time and money.
• Simple migration: When migrating their data from different systems, Donorbox's merge functionality made it manageable for a single person to clean up records as they were imported.
• AI-powered reporting: Using AI assistant Jay·AI and built-in reports, the team can instantly pull key analytics for board meetings and internal analysis.

Connecting with supporters, without the hassle

Switching to Donorbox's native Email Marketing tool closed the gap between giving and communication. It became much easier for the team to build email campaigns that keep supporters informed, engaged, and inspired to give.

In 2026, The Creekside School will host their second annual Better Together fundraiser, a talent showcase for Creekside students and a community celebration to raise funds for the school’s mission. In their promotion of this event, they tailored messages to specific groups using lists. Last year's attendees received a personal thank-you with early ticket access, while supporters who hadn't previously attended got a separate introduction to the event. Two messages, two audiences, yet a streamlined workflow.

• Targeted messaging: Donorbox Email Marketing made it easy to create targeted campaigns that kept supporters informed and engaged.
• Streamlined workflow: Using lists, the team could easily segment supporters and send personalized messages.
• Improved results: The second annual Better Together fundraiser was a success, raising over $100,000 for the school's mission.Segmentation makes it easy to send the right message to the right people at the right time. For Kristina’s team, that’s usually their broad supporter base, but sometimes includes students’ families.
• Consistent outreach: Quarterly newsletters keep their broader community informed on school news, program updates, and upcoming events, keeping The Creekside School top of mind.

The Future

Creekside hopes to grow to serve more students and will soon open an Adult Day Program for individuals aged 23 and up. The existing campus has the potential to accommodate up to 10 classrooms and 60 students, and the Creekside team is steadfast in maintaining the same exceptional level of individualized support that defines the school as they grow.

As a founding member of a consortium hosting a Master's Degree in Education Teacher Residency Program, The Creekside School is also helping to build a broader pipeline of qualified special education teachers with autism training, addressing a shortage felt across the country.

Donorbox's mission-driven team is there to help every step of the way. As a Premium customer, The Creekside School partners with an Enterprise Customer Success Manager who helps them get the most out of the platform, so they can raise more to provide individualized education to students significantly impacted by autism.

Features Used

• Donorbox CRM
• Email Marketing
• Jay·AI
• Donorbox Events
• Campaigns
• Recurring Giving
• Stock & Crypto
• Peer-to-Peer Campaigns
• Donorbox Live™ Kiosk