The Challenge
One day, 2,021 gifts. To hit its goal for the 6th Annual Day of Giving, the University of Hartford needed to find new and creative ways to engage donors and urge them to support an undeniably great cause.
The Solution
Building on previous years’ successes, the university smartly targeted its donors who gave during last year’s day of giving. Hartford looked to this group to both encourage them to give again, but also to deepen engagement and promote more organically through social media shares.
Working with Magellan Promotions, the university developed a comprehensive, integrated marketing and promotional solution–sticker postcards. Taking full advantage of both sides of the postcard canvas, Hartford combined strong branded iconography for stickers, presented with important dates and details, and incentives woven into both stickers and messaging.
- The sticker postcard is a simple, affordable, and (obviously) easy to mail solution. Strong university logos and mascot stickers spark immediate pride and interest in the postcard, making it stand out in the mailbox.
- The postcard front clearly announces the day of giving and date, encouraging recipients to flip the piece to find out more.
- Giving donors a variety of styles and sizes for stickers gives them more ways and places to use stickers and share their participation. The day of giving is clearly the most important, and stickers help bring that energy to life.
- The back of the card reinforces the simple, straightforward messaging and shares more info about upcoming giving day activities and opportunities.
Part promotional item, part save-the-date, part info piece and part marketing piece, the sticker postcard enabled the University of Hartford to reach and engage its donors in a meaningful, fun, and comprehensive way.
The Outcome
Through the process of designing and creating the sticker postcard, the University of Hartford team’s enthusiasm grew, and the role of sticker postcards expanded.
“Because we loved the product and saw the potential for effectiveness, we expanded the final mailing segments,” said Erin Pollard, University of Hartford’s Director of Annual Giving.
And, in addition to doing a broader mailing, the UHart team discovered another way to spread the sticker postcards’ reach.
“An unexpected, important use was handing out the postcards at on-campus events. It was an easy way to catch the attention of someone passing by, and give them a mechanism to get to the giving website using the QR code,” Pollard added.
Great decisions across the board. With sticker postcards in the mix, the University of Hartford’s 6th Annual Day of Giving was a record-breaking initiative, blowing past dollars raised in the previous year, and exceeding its goal for donors engaged.
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2,204 donors
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$410,417 given
