A $109k capital push run by a two-person development office.
Riverbend needed a new hall of paleontology and had a development director, a part-time grant writer, and a board that wanted weekly numbers. In Play became the department they couldn't hire.
What wasn't working
- • Major-gift conversations lived in one person's inbox and memory.
- • Membership renewals, event tickets, and capital pledges were tracked in separate systems.
- • The board asked for attribution the team had no way to produce.
What changed
- • Capital progress, membership revenue, and event income on one weekly board view
- • Attribution showing which channel produced each gift, down to the landing page
- • Year-end donor statements generated in bulk instead of one at a time
- • Development director spending her time on donors instead of on assembling reports
What In Play ran
Major-gift prospects moved through a real stage pipeline with owners, next actions, and ask amounts — visible to the director and the board chair, nobody else.
Multi-year commitments were recorded as pledges with scheduled payments, automatic reminders, and per-donor impact reports the museum can send without writing them.
Every membership renewal, exhibit ticket, and gift attached to a single supporter profile, so a lapsed member showing up at a gala was visible before the ask.
Donor data ownership, role-based access, receipting with EIN and signatory, and payment handling documented before the board asked — not after.
"The reporting alone gave us back a day a week. The pipeline gave us gifts we would have let go cold."