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From disconnected tools to an integrated strategy
St. John’s Prep, a private, coeducational Catholic school in Queens, New York, recently transitioned from Raiser’s Edge to a fully integrated CRM and community platform with ToucanTech. With more than 20,000 alumni and a growing advancement program, the school needed a streamlined system to power both fundraising and alumni engagement.
The new platform brought together alumni data, event registrations, email communications, donations, and content sharing in one place-creating a more seamless experience for staff and constituents alike.
The challenge: juggling multiple tools and outdated processes
Before switching platforms, St. John’s Prep was running advancement efforts through a combination of legacy software and manual workflows. Key issues included:
- No central location for alumni to interact with the school or one another
- Disconnected data between fundraising and communications tools
- Limited ability to track engagement in a meaningful way
- A static system that didn’t evolve with the school’s community goals
The team knew that continuing with siloed systems would make it harder to build lasting relationships with alumni or grow donor participation.
Choosing ToucanTech: one system for fundraising and community
After evaluating several vendors, the team selected ToucanTech for its all-in-one functionality and hands-on customer service. Unlike other platforms that relied on third-party integrations, ToucanTech offered a single environment for advancement work-eliminating the risk of incomplete or inconsistent data.
“When I found out that ToucanTech could handle the fundraising work on the same platform as the community engagement, I was sold. I appreciated that it's an all-in-one tool, rather than a platform that purports to integrate with many different vendors or systems. Often with those, the data doesn't actually integrate.”
“The ToucanTech platform has allowed us a much greater level of freedom to contact our members and to allow them to keep in touch with each other. We continue to develop our use of the many ToucanTech functions and encourage even more membership contributions to our site.”
The ability to manage everything-from alumni directories to event registrations, communications, and giving-within one platform was a critical factor in the decision.
A smooth, detail-driven migration
Data migration can be a major barrier for advancement teams. But in this case, it was a strength. Working closely with ToucanTech’s onboarding specialists, the school successfully migrated over 27,400 donations into their new system, including:
- 26,819 one-off donations
- 249 recurring gifts
- 273 non-monetary contributions
“Data migration was great-I can't believe I'm saying that! If you’ve ever been through a data migration, you know how arduous and expensive it can be. The ToucanTech team paid close attention to the minute details of our data and gave us thoughtful feedback on our database structure.”
This foundation gave the school confidence that their advancement operations were future-proof and built to scale.
Early results: more activity, more engagement
In just the first few weeks after launch, St. John’s Prep began seeing strong engagement through their new community site:
- $8,000+ in online payments processed shortly after go-live
- 260+ event registrations completed in the first month
- 45 online payments in a single week
- 700+ photos shared on the alumni portal
- 20+ user groups established, including alumni, faculty, trustees, and volunteers
The platform provided a hub where alumni could sign up for events, reconnect with classmates, browse photos, and make donations-all through a familiar, school-branded environment.
A vision for long-term alumni engagement
With the basics in place, the school’s advancement team began planning for the next phase: deepening alumni participation, offering career development resources, and growing their digital community.
“Our goal was to have more than 2,000 alumni on board in our first year. I know the more engaged they are online, the more likely they are to support events and fundraising.”
The unified nature of the platform meant that every email sent, event registration submitted, or donation made would contribute to a fuller picture of alumni involvement-fueling smarter decisions and stronger relationships.
Advice for other schools
“I was apprehensive to move from a system we had used for years, but it has already been worth the nerves and the work. An all-in-one will change how you think about your constituents and their engagement.”
