Case Study: From Mailboxes to Mobile: the Power of Integrated Year-End Fundraising
How St. Francis House increased Calendar Year End Giving by 182%
The Challenge
St. Francis House, a Boston-based homeless day shelter, offers vital resources—meals, clothing, and job training—to help guests rebuild their lives. In their first year partnering with DaVinci, St. Francis House faced limited digital outreach. To optimize calendar year-end giving with a tight budget, a strategic digital program was essential.
Our Strategy
Navigating a competitive nonprofit landscape, we needed an innovative, omni-channel approach to capture donor support. We maximized our digital budget at the calendar year-end, leveraging brand awareness campaigns on Meta to set the stage for success.
Campaign Overview
Our campaign interwove direct mail, email, text messages, and engaging digital ads, all unified through consistent messaging and visuals. A central feature was a $50,000 dollar-for-dollar match showcased across all mediums.
In direct mail, we tested emotionally driven copy featuring images of guests sharing meals, while leveraging the organization’s founding ties to the Catholic Church to connect with donors.
Timely ad placements included a Christmas Drive branding during the holidays, transitioning to a New Year’s focus post-Christmas. A comprehensive digital strategy included a 30-second video, a carousel ad, and multiple still ads that reinforced the campaign messages. Targeted emails and text messages, especially on the final day of the year, emphasized the match’s deadline. We refined the direct mail selects to improve net revenue. The digital campaigns were targeted to known audiences, Lookalikes, and Meta’s Advantage+ AI tool.
The Results
The coordinated multi-channel approach resulted in a remarkable 182% increase in online giving in December.
We reduced mail volume by 17%, focusing on high-impact segments, while achieving 13% more gross revenue and 20% more net revenue. The emotional copy outperformed expectations, and the video ads drove 90% of revenue from Meta.
The campaign’s success set the stage for future expansion, with plans for more email deployments and increased digital spending, alongside new strategies in display/native and paid search advertising.
Additionally, the campaign generated nearly $200,000 in general online giving, showcasing the effectiveness of a well-executed integrated fundraising strategy.