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Rosemont College Increases Fund Donations

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Increase alumni participation

• Increase dollars raised

Results

nnected with alumni and parents to grow

ited their Personalized URL in

umni and parents

s reply envelope t events

donation or kept level

el

rs were first time givers

Project: Rosemont College Increases Fund Donations Vertical Market: Education

Business Application: Direct Marketing/Direct Order - Fundraising

Business Objectives

Rosemont College is a private liberal arts college located in Philadelphia, PA with an enrollment of approximately 900 students. Rosemont College wanted to launch their new Rosemont Experience Fund, which is part of a five year comprehensive fundraising campaign. Goals for the initial campaign launch were:

• Introduce the Rosemont Experience Fund

• Build momentum for the comprehensive campaign

•

Rosemont College successfully cothe Rosemont Experience Fund.

• 29% of recipients (2,361 individuals) visresponse to either email or direct mail

• Over $1,700,000 was raised in donations from 1,123 al

• 24.4% of gifts were received via online donations • 56.7% of gifts were received via a busines• Remaining gifts were received a

• Average gift amount was $1,184.55

• Majority of donors either increased the amount of their it consistent with the previous year’s giving

• 29% of donors increased their gift si• 36% of donors gave at the same lev

ze

• 7% of dono

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ilized multiple points of contact (direct mail, email, o connect with and draw donations

lude

s prior

ed a

Direct mail and email were used to

ho had already connected with Rosemont ring the previous year’s campaign received

ged to visit their

n December 2009, a seccommunications was sexcept for those who hapurpose of this phase wcomprehensive campaithe Rosemont Experien

Campaign Architecture

t College utcial media) t

RosemonWeb, and so from alumni,

d four phases that unction with the .

parents, and friends of the College. The program inclasted from October 2009 - June 2010 and worked in conjcomprehensive campaign launched several month

Phase One In October 2009, Rosemont launched a “reconnect phase” that was aimed at engaging alumni who had previously not connected with the institution (see 2010 PODi Case Study “Rosemont College Reconnects with Young Alumni”). This phase highlighted current students who were benefiting from the Rosemont Experience Fund. The featured students varied basupon the data available on the recipients (major, extrcurricular, etc). The goal was to make an emotional connection between giving, and the benefits provided to students who held similar interests as theprospective donor.draw recipients to a Personalized URL where they could read about current students, complete an online survey about what they had been doing since graduation, connect with Rosemont’s Facebook page, and ultimately make a gift to the Rosemont Experience Fund.

Phase One email to previous donor

Alumni wCollege dua thank-you email. They were encouraPersonalized URL for more information on the Rosemont Experience Fund.

Phase Two I ond round of

ent to all alumni and parents, d donated in Phase One. The as to introduce the gn as well as draw support for ce Fund.

Personalized landing page

Rosemont College Increases Fund Donations

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he first step was an email explaining the Fund and

a s

RE

ted

the year. Three versions of this email with different subject lines and copy points w o th s nse rates were tracked to determine which segments responded to which copy points, and this information was used throughout the remainder of t ion rates. The m d responses to the three versions were as follows:

Subject Line/Message Open Rate Click-thru

Tencouraging recipients to visit their Personalized URL to make a donation. A solicitation letter withpre-populated Business Reply Envelope (BRE) wasent next. The text of the letter varied based upon donor history. Recipients were encouraged to either visit their Personalized URL or use the enclosed Bto make a donation. A series of emails were also sent which highlighthe benefit of making a tax deductible donation before the end of

ere sent at random t e prospect . The respo

he campaign to drive paessage themes an

rticipat

Phase Two solicitation letter

Theme Rate

Recession challenges 21.2% 6.5%

Not too late to make a tax deductible donation

18.9% 5.4%

Rosemont Experience Fund

19.0% 9.6%

After running this test, the recession-themed message was used for all follow-up emails to non-responders. Finally, as a goodwill gesture to all prospects, an interactive holiday e-card was sent from the President of Rosemont College.

Phase Two emails

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Phases Three and Four Phases Three and Four communications highlighted specific examples of how a donation to the Rosemont Experience Fund could benefit students. Phase Three was launched in March 2010, and Phase Four began in late May and wrapped up in early June. Similar to the previous phases, a combination of email and direct mail were used to reach prospects. Segments were created based upon the recipient’s involvement at the college and donor history. Highlighted donation examples varied based on this information. Two versions of the direct mail were used in these phases – a solicitation letter delivered in an envelope and a 4-color self-mailer. The self-mailer was sent to donors from the previous year and to young alumni. The letter was sent to older alumni based upon feedback from this audience that they preferred this format. Both versions gave instructions to visit a Personalized URL to make an online donation or to use the enclosed reply form to mail in a donation. The reply form was variable based upon past gift amounts and current contact information.

Phase Three and Four self-mailer format

Rosemont College Increases Fund Donations

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List

The list for this campaign consisted of alumni, parents, and friends of the College from Rosemont’s database. The list did not include major donors as these individuals were approached separately.

Creative and Outbound Pieces

The creative for the emails, direct mail, and landing pages focused on images of Rosemont College and its students. All the pieces also used the College’s school colors of burgundy, white, gray, and taupe. This cohesive look was developed to elicit an emotional response from the target audience.

Reasons for Success

Rosemont College had previously used a multi-channel cross-media campaign to drive great results. (See 2010 PODi case study “Rosemont College Reconnects with Young Alumni”) With the help of Pacesetter Enterprises, they repeated this winning formula. Best practices learned from this campaign are:

• Build a relationship before asking for money. The first phase of this campaign was focused on connecting with alumni and showing them how students with interests similar to their own benefitted from the Rosemont Experience Fund. Only after establishing this connection did the College ask for donations.

• Make it relevant. Throughout the campaign Rosemont strove to make communications meaningful for recipients. Profiled students had interests similar to those recipients had when they were on campus. Illustrations of what could be accomplished with donations to the Fund reflected the recipient’s giving level. All of these intentional connections helped to drive response and raise funds for Rosemont.

• Enable responses in multiple formats. Rosemont, which had not pushed online donations before, saw an increase in online giving through the use of Personalized URLs. However they did not promote online giving to the exclusion of traditional response formats. With each mailing they included a BRE, and this turned out to be the preferred donation format for Rosemont’s audience.

This campaign won an Honorable Mention in the Direct Marketing category for PODi’s 2011 Best Practices Awards.

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Client Rosemont College

www.rosemont.edu

Rosemont College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1921 and strongly rooted in Catholicism. Rosemont is located in Philadelphia, PA with an enrollment of approximately 900 students.

Print & Marketing Service Provider

Pacesetter Enterprises, Inc.

www.pacesetterglobal.com

Pacesetter is a full service marketing provider located in Allentown, PA. Pacesetter offers cross-channel communications and printing services to companies of all sizes as well as to the higher education industry.

Marketing Service Provider (Landing pages)

Digital Innovations Group

www.digcreative.com

DIG specializes in developing and executing individually relevant marketing and sales communication strategies. Trackable results, interactive communication and integration with the sales process are key components of all DIG solutions. DIG works to solve its clients' business challenges with innovative strategy, inspired and resourceful execution, and purposeful creativity.

Hardware Xerox DocuColor 240

Software Composition engine: Pageflex,

Personalized URLs: Easypurl.com

Email marketing: MyEmma

PPML Printed pieces were produced using PPML

Target Audience Alumni, parents, and friends of Rosemont College

Distribution 8,109 recipients

Date October 2009 – June 2010