Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center ditched Bloomerang’s expensive monthly subscription. Now it saves hundreds with Zeffy.

Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center (TSCAC) is a nonprofit based in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. For a town of just over 7,500 people, they are a significant presence. The Center incubates artists and deepens community ties through events, clubs, and artist sponsorships.

TSCAC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a welcoming and inclusive space for artists of all kinds, including painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, dancers, writers, poets, filmmakers, designers, and creators of all disciplines to perform, exhibit, and share their innovative and inspiring works. Our mission is to foster artistic expression, connect communities, and celebrate creativity in all its forms.

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Background

The South is littered with old church buildings whose congregations have moved to larger or newer buildings. In Ponchatoula, philanthropist Harry Gabriel had his eye on an old Lutheran church that had already been turned into a private residence. It was 2020, and Harry spent much of the pandemic dreaming of turning the church into a creative arts center for his beloved hometown. But his family encouraged Harry to dream even bigger. 

Behind the Lutheran church, which was built in 1901, was a Presbyterian church that was built in 1893. After coordinating with the Presbyterian congregation, which had moved to a more modern building nearby, Harry bought both buildings. Then, he had them moved.  

For more than 100 years, the buildings had stood back to back, turning their congregations away from each other. But that set up didn’t fit Harry’s vision of an inclusive, generative community space, so he orchestrated the lifting and turning of each building. 

Today, the antique steeples face each other across a plaza built for art openings and community gatherings. The broad double doors open toward each other, welcoming artists of all kinds and eager audiences to homegrown exhibitions and installations. With the buildings reoriented, Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center became a brand new community hub, while preserving the town’s history. It’s a promise that towns can grow, change, and move forward without losing track of their roots. 

Today, Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center hosts all kinds of gatherings for the artists and the artistically curious residents of Ponchatoula. One night, a crew of fiber artists takes over to chat and knit, crochet, or weave. Another, visual artists line up their latest works for a workshop-style critique night. There are events and meetups for swing dancers, yogis, and kids just embarking on their artistic journeys. 

Together, these groups are building exactly the kind of space Harry dreamed of during the dark days of COVID-19 and laying the foundation for a more beautiful, inclusive future for the next generations in Ponchatoula. These were always his neighbors and friends. They just needed the space to flourish. Harry’s legacy gives them the space they needed to come together to grow as artists and people.

The team at Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center works hard to lower barriers to access to art. That means keeping as many events as possible free or deeply subsidized. 

They tried using Bloomerang to manage donations and track contributors, but Executive Director Leyla Hekmatdoost says the software was simply too much for their small team. 

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“We were paying exorbitant fees for complicated software that had more features than we need,” Leyla says. 

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Bloomerang plans start at $125 every month, and they go higher depending on which features an organization needs. Every fundraiser or event is considered an “add-on” feature, so Leyla was constantly having to scale up the basic services. 

Navigating that expensive subscription can be tough, too, as Leyla and her team found out firsthand. The site was complex and difficult to customize, and it was impossible to get in touch with customer support when Leyla did need assistance with some fiddly setting or missing feature. 

Bloomerang cost Leyla and TSCAC both time and money, so it wasn’t long before Leyla began considering other options. 

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“TSCAC is a small non-profit organization, in a little Louisiana town, so every single dollar goes towards keeping us open and able to offer so many free community events,” she says. “When a portion of every generous donation goes towards another company, we feel it.”

Leyla’s nonprofit network is large, so it didn’t take long for her to find other options. In fact, she serves on the board of another Louisiana nonprofit, Queer Northshore, who used Zeffy for zero-fee fundraising. 

The executive director at Queer Northshore told Leyla that they were using Zeffy “because of the clean interface, ease of use, and how cost effective it is for [their] nonprofit.” That was enough for Leyla. She was ready to leave behind Bloomerang, since it was, in her words, “expensive and clunky” and try something new.

Zeffy provided exactly the free, agile donation system she was looking for. If you’ve faced similar frustrations with Bloomerang, check out our full comparison page here.

With Zeffy, Leyla and the Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center are free from any monthly membership fees. Fundraisers and donation pages aren’t add-ons. They’re the core of the zero-fee service Zeffy offers. Without those monthly Bloomerang fees, TSCAC has hundreds more to spend on artists and community engagement every month. 

But Leyla loves Zeffy for both “the fact that we keep 100% of our donations and the software itself.” TSCAC regularly uses Zeffy’s zero-fee ticketing feature, in addition to the constant donation forms, and Leyla is relieved by how easy it is to keep everything running on Zeffy. 

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“With the previous software, I needed an add-on app to create events or fundraisers,” she says. “I appreciate that with Zeffy, I can have everything in one place. I collect donations, membership dues, and special event ticket sales all in one place!”

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Taken together, Zeffy’s zero-fee fundraising, integrated campaign features, ease of use, and robust customer support have made it a win in Leyla’s book. Today, Leyla has more time to fundraise, and that means TSCAC has more margin to support more artists and bring new people into the community. 

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“Zeffy has made all of my fundraising efforts easier and helped us raise more money than any method we have ever used before!” Leyla says.