ANNUAL GIVING CAMPAIGN
ORGANIZATION
KEY COMPETENCIES
Scratch Foundation
PLATFORMS
Web, Email, Social Media, FB Ads
COLLABORATORS
Valerie Inniss (Communications Specialist), Annie Whitehouse (Communications Content Manager), Rupa Shah (Director of Philanthropy), Jessica Mathelier (Development Associate), Russell Stone (Digital Media Specialist), Gabriella Campus (Brand Designer)
ROLE
I led cross-team brainstorming for content and copy development for our annual, year-end giving campaign. I created copy for all relevant content marketing materials, including: emails, social media posts, FB Ads, and webpages. I also collaborated closely with our Digital Media Specialist and Brand Designer to create specially branded design and video collateral to amplify fundraising results.
Copywriting, Email Marketing, Paid Ads, Owned Media
RESULTS
30% average increase in engagement on all campaign related owned media.
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3M+ in revenue generated.
CHALLENGE
According to the audit and analyses I conducted on past marketing and communications collateral, our Annual Giving campaigns actually underperformed on average by 30-50% across marketing channels. Based on my findings, I discovered that our owned media touchpoints leading to our year-end campaign were not consist enough in frequency, nor did the giving campaign have a distinct visual brand identity to set it apart from our other content. The posts were also getting lost in the fray of Giving Tuesday asks from other nonprofits and mission-oriented groups.
Duplicate content
A lack of foresight and advanced planning resulted in limited content collateral to work with. The significant reduction in engagement in the second post is indicative of the effects of collateral redundancy.
Indistinct branding
We'd used these hero images across a number of social posts. There was no visual distinction between our other posts and our giving ask.
PROCESS
Audit of past annual giving campaigns to identify key pain points and challenges in past year's campaigns; created a deck and gave a presentation on findings to a cross-functional team consisting of the heads of MarComms and Philanthropy; led brainstorming sessions to identify core verticals and create segmented campaign plans for respective marketing platforms; developed editorial calendar and copy for social platforms and digital ads, email newsletters sent via Mailchimp, and webpage hosted on Scratch Foundation's site
SOLUTION
Gather key insights and prepare campaign assets well in advance of launch to make sure we had time to iterate multiple pieces of design and copy collateral. Embed the campaign within a greater brand narrative by aligning with mission and values and identifying key stakeholders that are also trusted brand leaders.
Leverage thought leaders
Incorporate the voice of our company's thought leaders who are also trusted faces of our brand.
Mission alignment
Refer to company values and mission to build a strong connection to participant purpose and impact by donating.
Implement campaign-specific iconography
Develop visually distinct brand elements to distinguish the nature of the post/campaign
TAKEAWAYS
Don't chase trends: although trends like Giving Tuesday seem easy to leverage, unless the campaign retains the voice and aligns with brand values, it can actually end up losing its value and impact in an environment were consumers are inundated with general fundraising asks at the end of the year.
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Leverage data insights: to inform what kind of messaging is effective on which platform and to optimize what time to send out communications to core verticals. Through my findings, I actually observed that engagement on previous posts increased the week prior and post-Giving Tuesday. We leveraged these insights to time release of relevant marcomms collateral and messaging.
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Cadence is key: a strong digital media presence requires building up an established cadence so audiences can anticipate when and how often they might receive communications. Thus, pre-planning is critical to help make sure individual campaigns fold neatly into the established cadence and brand identity consumers are already used to receiving from the brand/organization.