St. Michael’s Abbey
Expanding recurring giving through smarter systemsThe Mission
St. Michael’s Abbey is a community of Norbertine priests and seminarians living in Southern California dedicated to a life of prayer, education, and spiritual outreach. With roots in centuries-old monastic traditions, the Abbey also operates a thriving summer camp, a prayer request ministry, and a growing digital presence to connect with thousands of supporters around the globe. The Abbey’s mission is to meet people where they are in their spiritual lives - and that means evolving how they communicate, fundraise, and manage relationships in the digital age.
The Challenge
When St. Michael’s Abbey first approached Idealist Consulting, their digital infrastructure was disjointed and outgrown. The Abbey was attempting to manage development operations on an outdated WordPress site layered with makeshift forms feeding into Google Sheets, and using an early Salesforce implementation that hadn’t been adapted for the practical needs of advancement. With inconsistent data, duplicate records, and minimal integration across platforms, even basic fundraising and donor tracking proved cumbersome.
Their fundraising team was eager to pivot from manual, paper-heavy systems to a digital-first strategy but lacked the resources and technical support to realize that vision.
The Solution
Idealist Consulting partnered closely with St. Michael’s Abbey over several years to untangle and modernize their development and engagement systems. Key initiatives included:
Rebuilding from the Ground Up
Idealist first cleaned and organized the Abbey’s Salesforce instance to support more strategic data collection and daily functionality. This early phase focused on clarity, usability, and long-term planning, turning Salesforce into a reliable foundation.
Launching the Abbot Circle
The launch and expansion of the Abbot Circle, a recurring giving program, marked a turning point. Idealist implemented Donorbox to support an integrated, user-friendly donor experience. All donation forms across multiple websites now default to monthly giving, while still allowing for one-time gifts, dramatically streamlining the donor journey.
Moving to Digital Engagement
St. Michael’s transitioned from print-heavy communication to a primarily digital model using Pardot (now Marketing Cloud Account Engagement). Idealist built automations, scoring models, and email campaigns that enabled the Abbey to meet supporters in real-time with tailored messaging based on interest and behavior.
Streamlining Summer Camp Operations
Idealist introduced Jotform to revolutionize the Abbey’s summer camp registration process, digitizing everything from medical forms to waivers. What once required managing thousands of printed pages is now a seamless digital workflow, reducing errors and saving staff countless hours.
Innovative Data Strategy
From prayer requests to bookstore orders, Idealist helped the Abbey strategically separate data pipelines, ensuring relevant information gets where it’s needed, without cluttering Salesforce. In Pardot, activity scoring by category (e.g., Sacred Music, Spirituality) enables segmentation and targeted outreach.
The Result
The transformation was nothing short of extraordinary. The Abbey has seen immense growth across fundraising, operations, and engagement:
- Recurring Giving Growth: In FY 24–25, 828 new donors joined the Abbot Circle, increasing monthly donors from 1,400 to over 2,300 - a 64% growth in just one year.
- Recurring Revenue: The Abbot Circle now brings in over $100,000/month in recurring donations, accounting for the majority of the Abbey’s fundraising revenue.
- Digital-first Engagement: The Abbey now sends tailored email campaigns, tracks donor behavior, and segments audiences by interest areas, all in-house.
- Operational Efficiency: Their entire summer camp registration, spanning over 500 campers annually, is now fully digital, with conditionally adaptive forms that route data intelligently to Google Sheets, Salesforce, and Stripe.
- Improved User Experience: Donors can now manage their own recurring contributions, and site visitors engage with beautifully designed, content-rich web pages that reflect the Abbey’s mission and culture.
St. Michael’s Abbey refers to their relationship with Idealist Consulting not as transactional, but as a true partnership. With consistent collaboration, Idealist has helped the Abbey build systems that not only meet today’s needs but also evolve alongside the mission.
“Every year we wonder, do we still need Idealist? And every year we launch something new - and realize we do,” said one Abbey team member. “Having someone who understands both our mission and how to translate that into tech makes all the difference. It’s like having a teammate, not just a consultant.”
Having someone who understands your individual mission and ultimately the end goal you want to get to—that’s helped tremendously.
