Human Services
Founded in 1984, Science Olympiad is the premier team STEM competition in the nation, providing standards-based challenges to 6,000 teams at 425 tournaments in all 50 states. Since its founding, the organization has relied on membership dues, sponsorships, grants, and sales of educational products.
After the passing of their founder, Dr. Gerald J. Putz, in 2020, the organization started a foundation to honor him. This gave them a way to give back to their community—but it also meant they needed a nonprofit platform to help them run it.
Faced with multiple sources of data—including spreadsheets, old records, email lists, and file folders—Jenny Kopach, CEO of Science Olympiad, described their process of trying to find basic information like email addresses or phone numbers as a “wild goose chase.” She knew that her team needed something to help them organize all of their contacts and data, and she also knew that they would need something that met their exact needs.
Science Olympiad relies on a membership model, which means they don’t spend a ton of time asking people for donations. So while they wanted a CRM platform that had fundraising capacity, they were more focused on finding a solution that would organize all of their member records and contacts in one place—and give them a way to connect and engage with them all.
The best fit for their needs was Neon CRM.
A Connected Communication Strategy
The way that Science Olympiad uses Neon CRM goes way beyond just sending emails. The platform is a tool that enables connection, engagement and growth. that helps their team perform many jobs.
Building An Engaged Community
With Neon CRM, they made a key shift to take back control of national messaging, which was previously being shared by state chapters.
They started by growing their contact list. In the beginning, their first email list import contained about 140 contacts. Then, they started making their annual rules release free and downloadable on their website, and invited people to opt in to receive more email communications. This simple action has allowed them to build a massive, engaged contact list that is now more than 30,000 contacts long.
This large, national list allows them to make sure that messaging, branding, cadences, and timelines are coming directly from the national office, which gives them consistency and control.
Monitoring Engagement
They’re also “obsessed” with metrics like click-through rates and open rates on emails that show them exactly who is and isn’t listening.
Today, one of the most highly anticipated pieces of content is the annual rules release. In 2022, their October newsletter—which highlighted the rules release—ended up being the most engaging email sent by any Neon CRM client that year!.
You can read more about it in The Nonprofit Email Report: Data-Backed Insights for Better Engagement.
Identifying Gaps
By tracking email opens and forwarded emails among state leaders, the national office identified a clear connection between email opens and broader engagement.
Members in highly engaged states were clearly opening emails and reading instructions, while members in lower engaged states were not.
This finding allowed them to diagnose the problem and troubleshoot how to make sure that members in all 50 states were opening emails and (ultimately) becoming highly engaged.
Proving Impact to Sponsors
For Science Olympiad, they also use the platform’s reporting tools to quantify their digital engagement. Their funding is membership and sponsor-based, so every click, impression, and email open helps demonstrate their reach and how people are engaging with their content.
“I love the campaign stats… it’s just amazing. The reporting gives us a lot of support for what we’re trying to do. It also helps us tremendously with our sponsors because it’s not just website views anymore. We’re really able to quantify our marketing outreach.”
–Jenny Kopach, CEO of Science Olympiad
Automating Data Clean Up
Their team also finds a huge value in email automations within Neon CRM. The system automatically opts out contacts after three bounces, which is especially helpful for an organization like Science Olympiad that works directly with schools. This keeps their email list healthy.
“A technical thing that I appreciate is the way the system automatically opts you out after three bad sends. Since we have so many school email addresses, which may or may not allow sends from an outside organization, it helps keep our data like bounce rates cleaner.”
–Mary-Margaret Koch, Program Manager, Alumni Coordinator, Science Olympiad
Connecting With Their Mission
The pandemic proved to be a pivotal way for Science Olympiad to grow their database, especially after their 2020 National Tournament was canceled. It forced them to increase their digital communications and offer valuable content through webinars and newsletters instead of relying on in-person events. This led to more people opting into their newsletters.
Mary-Margaret Koch, Program Manager & Alumni Coordinator for Science Olympiad, pays close attention to their community’s needs so she can create valuable newsletter content. Koch also makes sure there is a good mix of graphics as those drive more clicks and better engagement.
A Foundation for the Future
The staff at Science Olympiad is small with about 6-8 full- and part-time professionals and many contractors, so they’ve also found Neon CRM to be a crucial partner in other facets of their work too like building powerful relationships with volunteers and growing donations through event management and fundraising.
Kopach knows that Neon One has prepared them for Science Olympiad’s future. As the team ramps up fundraising campaigns for their foundation, manages their volunteer base base, and continues to engage thousands of contacts around the country, they’ll grow with confidence knowing their CRM will support them every step of the way.
See Neon CRM’s Email Tools in Action
Science Olympiad uses Neon CRM’s email tools to grow their audience and send newsletters, updates, and other communications. You can, too! Check out this self-guided tour of our email builder and learn just how easy it is to create and send engaging emails with Neon CRM.
