Acquisitions and Social Advocacy Positions
Bloomerang, Kindful and Qgiv support progressive causes, including LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive choice, and DEI initiatives. Christian, Pro-Life businesses should understand where their money is going when using the services of companies like these.
Bloomerang has significantly expanded its nonprofit technology footprint through strategic acquisitions of both Kindful and Qgiv, creating what it calls the “sector’s first giving platform.” This comprehensive donor management and fundraising solution serves 23,000 nonprofit organizations and processes approximately $1 billion in donations. Beyond their business growth, these companies have taken public positions supporting LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, reflecting their organizational values and target markets within the nonprofit sector.
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Bloomerang’s Acquisition Strategy and Business Growth
Bloomerang, an Indianapolis-based donor and volunteer relationship management platform, has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy to create a comprehensive solution for nonprofit organizations. In January 2024, Bloomerang acquired Qgiv, a Lakeland, Florida-based fundraising technology company. This followed their January 2021 acquisition of Kindful, another nonprofit software platform.
The acquisition of Qgiv brings together two significant players in the nonprofit technology space. The combined entity now serves 23,000 nonprofit customers, employs approximately 500 people, and processes an estimated $1 billion in donation volume annually. Todd Baylis, Qgiv’s co-founder and CEO, has assumed the role of Bloomerang’s chief fundraising officer, while Qgiv maintains its headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.
According to Dennis Fois, Bloomerang’s CEO, the acquisition was driven by customer needs rather than financial interests: “The teams wanted to do it and not financiers,” emphasizing that successful integrations must “look at the customer experience and understand what customers want”. Fois compared their goal to achieving “Apple-like simplicity” in their combined platform.
The integration of Qgiv’s fundraising capabilities with Bloomerang’s donor management system aims to create a unified platform that helps nonprofits throughout the entire donor journey. Bloomerang and Qgiv had a long-standing integration before the acquisition, providing a foundation for a smoother transition.
Kindful’s Place in the Bloomerang Ecosystem
Kindful joined the Bloomerang family in January 2021, marking Bloomerang’s first major acquisition. Kindful was known for its best-in-class third-party application integrations and online fundraising tools. As part of the acquisition, Kindful Founder & CEO Jeremy L. Bolls became Bloomerang’s chief payments officer.
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The Kindful acquisition appears to have been driven by complementary strengths. While Bloomerang specialized in donor management and relationship building, Kindful offered robust online donation capabilities, real-time integrations, and reporting tools. Payment processing was a key factor in the deal, as Kindful had a proprietary payment processing system that could be integrated with Bloomerang’s donor management systems.
At the time of acquisition, Bloomerang indicated that the Kindful brand would remain intact, at least in the “short-term”. The combined company brought together 200 employees, with approximately 70 coming from Kindful.
According to Kindful’s own announcement, the acquisition enabled them to “provide a broader set of tools to all the nonprofits we serve”. The combination of Kindful’s strengths in online giving and real-time analytics with Bloomerang’s donor engagement insights created a more comprehensive platform for nonprofit organizations.
Social Positions: LGBTQ+, Abortion Rights, and Gender Identity
Both Bloomerang and Qgiv have publicly expressed support for social causes that could be categorized as progressive or liberal-leaning, particularly regarding LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive justice.
LGBTQ+ Support and Pride Month
Qgiv actively promotes Pride Month on their platform, providing educational content about its history, origins in the Stonewall riots, and suggestions for supporting LGBTQ+ organizations. Their blog post about Pride Month encourages readers to “learn about the origins of Pride Month, how you can take part in celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, and what nonprofits you can support”.
Qgiv describes Pride Month as “a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ communities around the world” and highlights several LGBTQ+ nonprofits that people can support, including NEPA Rainbow Alliance, QC Pride, Inc., allgo, Madison PrideFest, and Prism Health North Texas.
Bloomerang has similarly expressed support for LGBTQ+ organizations. According to Pro-Life Payments (a payment processor with an explicitly pro-life mission), Bloomerang states on their website that they “understand the unique fundraising challenges of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual or Ally, Pansexual (LGBTQIA+) organizations”. The same source claims Bloomerang has promoted Pride Month celebrations, stating “In honor of #PrideMonth2023, we wanted to highlight how Affirmations Community Center uses Bloomerang Volunteer”.
Reproductive Rights
Bloomerang has reportedly worked with organizations advocating for reproductive rights. According to both Pro-Life Payments and a direct quote from a Bloomerang webinar, the company has collaborated with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice on an abortion advocacy campaign called “Yo Te Apoyo”. In the webinar “Building Your Nonprofit’s Engagement Engine,” Bloomerang reportedly described this campaign as an example of “owned media” and explained that it included “a call to action where people could go to the website and talk about why they supported their loved ones who were considering having an abortion”.
Criticism from Pro-Life Organizations
These positions have drawn criticism from Pro-Life Payments, which describes itself as “the for-profit arm of the pro-life movement”. This organization has published blog posts criticizing both Qgiv and Bloomerang for their support of LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive choice. They characterize Qgiv as promoting “societal liberalism including LGBTQ+ lifestyles and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)” and claim Bloomerang supports abortion and LGBTQ+ causes.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
Both Bloomerang and Qgiv have embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in their corporate values and content marketing.
Bloomerang maintains a webpage dedicated to “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Nonprofit Sector” where they state they are “committed to amplifying the voices of people of color, the disabled, and LGBTQ professionals working in the nonprofit sector”.
Qgiv has published multiple resources on implementing DEI practices in nonprofit organizations. Their blog includes articles such as “3 Ways to Activate DEI in Your Nonprofit Organization” and “Make Room for People of Color! Changing the Racial Composition and Culture of Your Board”. These resources provide practical guidance for nonprofits looking to incorporate DEI principles into their operations.
In an article about making nonprofit boards more inclusive, Qgiv published content stating, “No one can force board members to engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. It has to be voluntary. This means they must be ready to do some self-reflection to address personal biases and their contributions to institutional and structural racism”. The article acknowledges that DEI work “will be uncomfortable for some” but encourages organizations to persist, noting that implementing DEI practices could require “significant time and a financial investment” of “$10k-$20k”.
Conclusion: Business Strategy Aligned with Social Positioning
Bloomerang’s acquisitions of Kindful and Qgiv represent a strategic consolidation within the nonprofit technology sector, creating a comprehensive platform that combines donor management, volunteer coordination, and fundraising capabilities. This business strategy appears aligned with their social positioning as supporters of progressive causes, including LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive choice, and DEI initiatives.
The company’s stance on these issues reflects broader trends in the nonprofit technology sector, where many organizations embrace social justice causes. While this positioning has attracted criticism from organizations with opposing views, particularly on abortion rights, it likely resonates with many of their nonprofit customers who share similar values.
As Bloomerang continues to integrate these acquisitions and leverage their recent investment from Warburg Pincus, they appear positioned to maintain both their business growth and their advocacy for social causes that align with their organizational values.