Harding University Galvanizes Alumni Generosity with Multichannel Donation Campaign
University smashes its donation goal, raising over $85,400 in 24 hours from hundreds of donors.
Background
Located in Arkansas, USA, Harding University (HU) is a private Christian, liberal arts university that offers undergraduate degrees and graduate programs at the masters, specialist and doctoral levels. @horton, an Arkansas-based graphic design, marketing, and print service provider, partnered with Harding University in 2015 and again in 2016 for their Gather to Give campaign to increase exposure and reach with a fully personalized, multichannel campaign.
The Harding Advancement team created the Gather to Give brand, including logo and supporting assets, inside the #GivingTuesday brand. #GivingTuesday is a global movement that harnesses the power of social media to encourage people around the world to bring about change in their communities by donating money to various causes. Harding University’s objective was to communicate that donations collected on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 during HU’s Gather to Give campaign would be used for need-based scholarships.
Challenge
Following 2015’s successful Gather to Give campaign, the goal in 2016 was to surpass the previous year’s results by reaching at least $75,000 in gifts. This was to be done by increasing engagement using personalized, relevant communications throughout the length of the multichannel campaign.
The participation goal was at least 250 unique donors, which would include current students as well as alumni. Harding University furnished @horton with a list of roughly 37,000 contacts and their mailing addresses to be used in the campaign. The same list also included from 0 to 4 different email addresses per recipient which translated into roughly 52,000 unique email addresses. An email list was produced and filtered using a known list of prior bounces and undeliverable emails.
Challenge
Following 2015’s successful Gather to Give campaign, the goal in 2016 was to surpass the previous year’s results by reaching at least $75,000 in gifts. This was to be done by increasing engagement using personalized, relevant communications throughout the length of the multichannel campaign.
The participation goal was at least 250 unique donors, which would include current students as well as alumni. Harding University furnished @horton with a list of roughly 37,000 contacts and their mailing addresses to be used in the campaign. The same list also included from 0 to 4 different email addresses per recipient which translated into roughly 52,000 unique email addresses. An email list was produced and filtered using a known list of prior bounces and undeliverable emails.
Solution
@horton used XMPie PersonalEffect TransMedia and Circle to create the multichannel campaign, which included print and digital media touchpoints. Print collateral was produced on a Xerox Versant 80.
Channels employed during the course of the Gather to Give campaign included the following:
- “Early Bird” Direct Mail Postcard
- Personalized Emails
- Personalized Landing Pages (PURLs) for HU students and alumni
- Generic Landing Pages (GURLs) for non-HU alumni and Friends of HU
- Personalized Payment Pages using Authorize.NET to deposit funds directly to a managed HU account
- Personalized “Thank You” Pages with social sharing and refer-a-friend options
- Social media ads and links to GURLs
- Video produced by Kidron Cannon, featuring a student benefitting from the scholarship program
- Live data analytics and reporting via a Leader Board on the landing page
"With the XMPie cross media toolbox, we have a huge range of creative and technical freedom. When my clients ask for something out of the ordinary, I can say, ‘Yes.’ Then I call my propeller heads and they help to make it happen." Brad Horton, Owner, @horton
Several email blasts were sent over the course of the campaign: a “Save the Date” email; a day-before reminder email; and a series of blasts throughout the day of Giving Tuesday. A final “thank you” email was also sent the day after. About 10,000 postcards were mailed to the recipients for whom Harding University did not have email addresses, with a focus on those who had donated in the past. The campaign website featured four pages: a pre-campaign splash page, a landing page, a donation page, and a “thank you” page that encouraged leads to refer others through email and social media. @horton used historical data on a recipient’s previous contributions to create suggested donation brackets for personalized payment pages. A new “Social Club Challenge” was instituted to encourage students and alumni affiliated with campus social clubs to donate.
The social clubs were incentivized with cash prizes for those with the greatest donation totals. A Leader Board on the landing page displayed live results of donations, including the social club affinity donation breakdowns. This drove engagement and gave feedback to donors on the overall goal and also on the level of donations for each affinity group, providing an incentive through competition between social clubs. @horton utilized XMPie’s Circle software to manage the campaign across all stages of development. Circle features an intuitive user interface for the interactive diagramming and visualization of all campaign phases, from conceptualization and campaign creation through to execution and monitoring of results.
Results
Total donations raised: $85,465 from 264 donors plus 19 social clubs that included hundreds of enrolled students.
The campaign was multi-faceted with a number of measurable metrics, for example:
- Print: 10,000 personalized postcards mailed to those without email addresses.
- Email: 34,996 unique emails delivered. Based on individual responses, several personalized emails were triggered or scheduled with an average open rate of 15%.
- Web: 392 PURL visits; 162 Facebook links clicked; 15 Twitter links clicked; 88 Instagram links clicked.
- Donors: Number of people donating in 2016 increased by 11% as compared to 2015.
Results
Total donations raised: $85,465 from 264 donors plus 19 social clubs that included hundreds of enrolled students.
The campaign was multi-faceted with a number of measurable metrics, for example:
- Print: 10,000 personalized postcards mailed to those without email addresses.
- Email: 34,996 unique emails delivered. Based on individual responses, several personalized emails were triggered or scheduled with an average open rate of 15%.
- Web: 392 PURL visits; 162 Facebook links clicked; 15 Twitter links clicked; 88 Instagram links clicked.
- Donors: Number of people donating in 2016 increased by 11% as compared to 2015.
Critical Success Factors
- Circle enabled @horton to design, communicate and refine the campaign touchpoints with HU prior to writing any code.
- Real-time updates on donation totals so far accrued helped to increase donor interest and excitement in achieving their goal.
- Sending the relevant follow-up email only to those who had not yet participated was critical in proper nurturing of the targeted audience.
- Using historical data to create recommended donation sums for personalized payment pages improved response rates.
Lessons Learned
- Leveraging social media as an entry point for new donors strengthened engagement.
- Print as a component in the multichannel campaign helped reach an audience that could not be reached through other means.
- Video was a useful vehicle in creating awareness on the importance of donating.
- Involving social clubs in the challenge helped engage the student body as well as alumni who wished to donate in honor of their affinity groups.
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