An Integrated Year-End Appeal Worth Emulating
	Posted by Guest Blogger at Oct 10, 2013 07:01 AM CDT

This article was written by guest blogger Brock Warner. Brock is a fundraiser for War Child Canada & US, as well as a TEDx speaker on philanthropy, a blogger, and volunteer with the AFP Greater Toronto Area chapter.

A helping hand can give a big boost to your results. Such is the case for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) team, and their 2012 year-end $100,000 matching gift campaign for cancer research.

Through pioneering research, Fred Hutch physicians and scientists have forged breakthroughs in nearly every field of cancer research. This world-renowned nonprofit research organization is working to advance the progress of cancer research to eliminate cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death. Fred Hutch is dedicated to promoting the importance of scientific research as a matter of life and death for those diagnosed with this terrible disease.

As part of their year-end fundraising strategy, Fred Hutch launches a matching gift campaign each December. Internally, Keri Balmer, senior manager of annual giving, made a case to her digital team to launch an integrated campaign that would utilize all available channels to make the most out of this fundraising ask. To help make it possible, Grizzard Communications Group was enlisted for support.

There were two great opportunities at hand – first, the opportunity to leverage the $100,000 matching gift. The second, to gain momentum from a recently launched awareness campaign to help promote online fundraising opportunities. Keri thought the campaign could generate much more revenue than in years prior.

Realizing this was an untapped opportunity to maximize the Fred Hutch matching gift offer, Grizzard developed a strategy to include a push online. A three-part digital plan was developed to integrate with the direct mail effort and the recent awareness campaign. The digital components included:

• A five-stage email strategy that focused on the matching gift opportunity and created urgency to give before year-end.
• A banner ad was added to the Fred Hutch home page.
• A light-box (pop-up) that activated as soon as the home page loaded.

So, was it worth it? The campaign results are impressive enough to speak for themselves:

• Light box: $90,949
• Banner: $60,385
• Email: $20,675
• Direct Mail: $207,810
• TOTAL: $379,819

The integrated campaign was an overwhelming success for Fred Hutch at year-end, securing their $100,000 matching gift and ending the year on a very high note. Congratulations to everyone at Fred Hutch.

So, have you started planning your year-end ask yet?