Month: April 2026

VeraData and Avalon Consulting Join Forces, Expanding the VeraData System for Nonprofit Fundraising Growth

Posted on by Brooke Sconyers

The merger unites Avalon’s deep strategic fundraising expertise with VeraData’s Donor Science™, Creative Science, and Media Science — delivering an integrated, full-service omnichannel solution built on relationships and results.

CAPE CORAL, FL, April 30, 2026 – VeraData Holdings (“VeraData”), the originator of Donor Science™, and Avalon Consulting, a woman-owned nonprofit fundraising agency known for delivering high-performing direct response and multichannel programs since 1997, today announced a merger that brings together proven strategic expertise and advanced data science under one enterprise. The partnership further expands VeraData’s ability to serve nonprofits as a single, integrated enterprise — deepening its fundraising strategy, creative, and channel execution capabilities alongside Faircom New York and Teal Media, and combining them with VeraData’s AI, machine learning, and behavioral data expertise.

For Avalon, the partnership deepens the data and analytics capabilities clients have increasingly requested — without disrupting the experienced strategy, creative, and execution work the agency is known for. For VeraData, Avalon adds a respected, client-centered agency with a track record of rigorous testing, trusted partnerships, and award-winning programs that reflect the same commitment to nonprofit performance that drives the VeraData Group.

Avalon joins VeraData as a partner agency alongside Faircom New York and Teal Media. Together, the VeraData Group delivers a connected system for predictable fundraising growth:

Donor Science™ (truth): what donor behavior tells us

Creative Science (meaning): messages and experiences that earn trust and move people

Media Science (delivery): channel roles, sequencing, and disciplined optimization

For nonprofit leaders, that means fewer handoffs, tighter feedback loops, and faster learning that translates into stronger performance — from acquisition to retention to mid-level and beyond. Strategy, creative, analytics, and optimization now operate as one team, accountable to one plan.

“Our team has always believed fundraising works best when insight, creativity, and execution stay connected — and that the strongest client relationships are built on consistency, not just capability. Joining VeraData lets us bring that approach into a larger enterprise and give clients access to deeper data intelligence without sacrificing the strategy and relationships they rely on. We’re not changing who we are; we’re expanding what we can do together.” — Allison Porter, President, Avalon Consulting

“Avalon brings exactly the strategic rigor and client-first culture that strengthens what we’ve built with Faircom New York and Teal Media. Nonprofits deserve fewer disconnected tactics and more integrated, accountable partnerships. Together, across Donor Science, Creative Science, and Media Science, we’re building an omnichannel fundraising enterprise that is more integrated, more measurable, and more effective.” — Michael Peterman, CEO and Founder, VeraData

The combined enterprise strengthens VeraData’s capacity across core fundraising disciplines while preserving what clients of both organizations value most: strategy and decisions shaped by deep nonprofit fundraising experience, rigorous testing, and creative that respects the donor relationship. VeraData will continue to invest in the tools and talent that improve decision-making, including advanced modeling, segmentation, forecasting, and optimization practices built specifically for nonprofit fundraising realities.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About VeraData

VeraData is the originator of Donor Science™, pioneering the use of AI, machine learning, and behavioral data to help nonprofits acquire more donors and generate more revenue. VeraData blends Donor Science, Creative Science, and Media Science through its partner agencies Teal Media (creative and digital storytelling), Faircom New York, and Avalon Consulting (integrated fundraising strategy and donor communications). With capabilities spanning predictive analytics, creative strategy, direct mail production, digital capabilities, and data-driven optimization, VeraData equips mission-driven organizations to turn insights into impact and achieve stronger fundraising results. For more information, visit VeraData.com.

About Avalon Consulting

Since 1997, Avalon Consulting has partnered with nonprofits and campaigns, together raising millions of dollars to achieve their visions. The agency has helped small organizations grow and leading organizations reach new heights, earning awards for groundbreaking work along the way. From the beginning, Avalon has been a unique agency: woman-owned and focused on fundraising — qualities that drive its relationship-based approach to nonprofit marketing. For more information, visit avalonconsulting.net.

Media Contact:
Joey Mechelle Farqué, Head of Content, jfarque@veradata.com

Source: PRNewswire-PRWeb

Michael Peterman of VeraData named Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Florida Finalist By EY US

Posted on by Joey Farque

 EY US celebrates ambitious entrepreneurs shaping the future of business.

MIAMI, April 21, 2026 – Michael Peterman, founder and CEO of VeraData Holdings (“VeraData”), has today been named a finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Florida Award by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US). Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most ground-breaking companies, revolutionizing industries and uplifting communities. The program honors entrepreneurs whose innovations drive economic growth and help shape the future of business.

An independent panel of judges selected Peterman among 35 finalists based on their entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, company growth and lasting impact in building long-term value.

“Being named a finalist for Entrepreneur Of The Year is an incredible honor, not just for me, but for the entire VeraData team,” said Michael Peterman, founder and CEO of VeraData. “We built this company on the belief that data science, done right, can transform the way nonprofits connect with donors and sustain their missions. This recognition reflects what’s possible when you combine deep expertise with a genuine commitment to the sector, and I’m grateful to every client, partner, and team member who’s been part of that journey.”

Entrepreneur Of The Year honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory, and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

This year’s Florida finalists represent many industries, including technology, consumer products, manufacturing, finance and more. Michael has spent 20 years actually building in this space, not just talking about it. He’s the first founder in the nonprofit data and fundraising services sector to earn this recognition.

Regional award winners will be announced on June 12 during a special celebration in Miami and will become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world. The winners will then be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®,  where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives and investors converge to shape the future of business.

About VeraData

VeraData is the originator of Donor Science™, pioneering the use of AI, machine learning, and behavioral data to help nonprofits acquire more donors and generate more revenue. VeraData blends Donor Science, Creative Science, and Media Science through its partner agencies Teal Media (creative and digital storytelling) and Faircom New York (integrated fundraising strategy and donor communications). With capabilities spanning predictive analytics, creative strategy, direct mail production, and data-driven optimization, VeraData equips mission-driven organizations to turn insights into impact and achieve stronger fundraising results. For more information, visit VeraData.com.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 80 countries and territories globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year® competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY

EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.

Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow. 

EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories.

All in to shape the future with confidence. 

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh USA, SAP, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In Florida, sponsors also include ADP and Selective Insight– regional Silver sponsors.

Media Contact:
Joey Mechelle Farqué, Head of Content, jfarque@veradata.com

The Mother Sauces of Fundraising Data

Posted on by Joey Farque

By Tom Hutchison, VeraData

French cooking runs on six mother sauces. Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomato, Hollandaise, and Mayonnaise. Every other sauce in the canon is derived from one of these. Fundraising data works the same way. A chef who understands the five can improvise endlessly. A chef who doesn’t is just following recipes.

There are really only a handful of source types that power every donor acquisition campaign in the nonprofit sector. The names get dressed up differently depending on who’s selling them, but the ingredients are the ingredients. Here’s what’s actually in the pot.

Béchamel: The Co-Op. Nonprofits contribute donor information into a shared pool. The operator models the combined data and delivers ranked names most likely to respond to your appeal. Co-ops are the workhorse of nonprofit acquisition — good volume, lower CPMs than list rentals, and modeling that gets smarter as more organizations participate. The limitation is that most co-ops still run on RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value), which tells you what a donor did but not why they did it.

Velouté: The List Broker. A broker connects you with individual donor or consumer lists for one-time rental. Good brokers know the market cold — which lists are hot, which owners negotiate, which audiences fit your profile. The trade-off is that each rented list gives you one data point. You know Jane Doe gives to the National Wildlife Federation. You don’t know much else unless you pay to append it.

Espagnole: The List Exchange. You share your donor list with another organization, they share theirs with you, usually at minimal cost. The appeal is relevance — you’re getting proven donors from adjacent causes. The trap is the illusion of freshness. The same names circulate across the sector year after year, and most organizations hold back their best donors. You think you’re getting new names. Often you’re just swapping familiar ones.

Tomato: Compiled Data. Census records, property filings, vehicle registrations, consumer surveys — compiled databases profile virtually every household in the country. The scale is enormous. The blind spot is that compiled data has no giving behavior. It can tell you a household earns $150,000 and has an interest in wildlife. It can’t tell you that person gave $50 to three animal welfare organizations last December. That behavioral signal is the difference between a name and a donor.

Hollandaise: Fundraising Data. Hollandaise is the temperamental one — an emulsion that demands precision and falls apart without it. Fundraising data is a combination of data sources that provide more utility than those sources do by themselves. We use combinations of data to create our Wealth Index to identify people with the resources to make large gifts. We use transaction data to determine how people like to give. And we use response and opt out data to see when people have been engaged too much. These products are difficult for nonprofits to build because the data is unpredictable and volatile, much like a hollandaise. 

Mayonnaise: Digital Data. The only cold mother sauce, mayonnaise, is different. Much like digital data which cannot always be resolved to an individual. All of the other data sources come with name and address information which allows us to recognize each unique person. Digital data can often be tracked to a segment or a campaign, but the blend of data from digital and traditional channels creates a more complex saveur that improves the fundraising outcome.

Haute Cuisine: Donor Science. At VeraData, Donor Science is our framework for the interplay of data that comes together to create beneficial outcomes. Like French haute cuisine, it is based on well-known standards and practices. Chefs know what people like, just as our strategists know how people behave. Sauciers know how to make the mother sauces using fundamental ingredients, spices, and skill. Just as our analysts know how to predict donor behavior using data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

We help you find responsive, cost effective audiences using our Donor Vision co-op and our list brokerage and exchange services. We develop a deeper understanding of donor behaviors using our compiled data products. Using transaction data we create the analytics to select profitable audiences and suppress people who are habitually no-responsive. Finally digital data, helps us understand how people engage through each interaction. 

Most fundraisers have used all of these sources at some point. Fewer have stopped to think about what each one can and can’t tell you. The co-op knows behavior but not depth. The broker knows names but not context. The exchange knows relevance but recycles the same pool. Compiled data knows demographics but not generosity.

The mother sauces built French cuisine into a tradition worth studying. Knowing what’s in yours is how you start cooking with intention.

If your fundraising kitchen could use a better recipe, we know a few.

VeraData Names Omri Goldshtrom Senior Vice President of Product and Innovation

Posted on by Joey Farque

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former Indeed and ActivTrak product executive joins the Donor Science Company to lead AI-driven product strategy for the nonprofit sector.

FORT MYERS, FL (April 2, 2026) — VeraData, The Donor Science Company, today announced the appointment of Omri Goldshtrom as Senior Vice President of Product and Innovation. Goldshtrom brings 17 years of product leadership experience, including nearly a decade in workforce intelligence at Indeed and ActivTrak, where he built predictive platforms focused on agentic AI and predictive modeling.

In his new role, Goldshtrom will oversee VeraData’s product roadmap and innovation strategy, applying his background in predictive modeling and AI to the nonprofit fundraising sector. His hire signals VeraData’s continued investment in the technology and talent behind donor science.

With more than 2 million nonprofits in the United States and charitable giving accounting for roughly 3% of GDP, the sector represents a significant and growing market for data-driven fundraising solutions. VeraData works with hundreds of nonprofit organizations across veteran causes, humanitarian aid, animal welfare, child health, and more, helping them identify and engage donors through advanced analytics and predictive modeling.

“Omri spent nearly a decade at Indeed and ActivTrak building predictive platforms that serve millions of users, and bringing that product discipline to the nonprofit data space, where the stakes are missions, is a big deal for our clients and for us,” said Matt Kaiser, Chief Strategy Officer. “We couldn’t be more excited to have him leading product and innovation.”

As the originator of Donor Science, VeraData has led the integration of AI, machine learning, and predictive modeling into nonprofit fundraising, serving more than 400 organizations and supporting over $1 billion in annual giving. Goldshtrom’s hire reflects the company’s continued investment in the leadership and technology behind that mission.

“After spending my career focused on how people work and find work, I’m shifting to how people give,” said Goldshtrom. “VeraData supports an incredible roster of nonprofit clients, and by leveraging agentic AI and predictive modeling, we aren’t just finding donors. We’re helping missions scale.”

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About VeraData

VeraData is the originator of Donor Science™, pioneering the use of AI, machine learning, and behavioral data to help nonprofits acquire more donors and generate more revenue. VeraData blends Donor Science, Creative Science, and Media Science through its partner agencies Teal Media (creative and digital storytelling) and Faircom New York (integrated fundraising strategy and donor communications). With capabilities spanning predictive analytics, creative strategy, direct mail production, and data-driven optimization, VeraData equips mission-driven organizations to turn insights into impact and achieve stronger fundraising results. For more information, visit VeraData.com.

Media Contact: Joey Mechelle Farqué, Head of Content, jfarque@veradata.com