Between 2018 and 2019, The Foundation saw a 24% YoY decrease during the online year-end fundraising campaign while most nonprofits saw an increase in the same time frame. The Foundation needed to fully articulate the great lengths that the hospital can go with philanthropic support to bring care and comfort to children facing complex illnesses as well as new challenges due to the pandemic.

The Foundation sent a total of 7 unique messages during the year-end period in 2019, beginning on Giving Tuesday and ending on 12/31. These sends brought in a total of $90,239 across audiences, with Giving Tuesday and 12/31 sends working overtime, bringing in more than half of these returns, at $48,327 between them.

Which leads to the question: How could we distribute more emails to ensure we are capitalizing on the most philanthropic days? And, not-so-tangentially: How can we surgically apply limited match funds to ensure we can use this potent tactic to its highest potential on important days?

Messaging Strategy

Our campaign centered around four cornerstone messaging themes:

The Problem: COVID-19 has presented new challenges for the hospital’s work; combatting the dangerous effects of the disease in medically fragile children and pregnant women. The pandemic is far from over, and the Foundation needs its donors to press through this extraordinary moment and be there for children and their families.

The Solution: The Foundation’s mission is nothing short of serving every single child in their communities with the best medical care modern science has to offer — and their team is on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, making good on this vision. A gift would support these tireless workers in their extraordinary efforts and embrace their mission of health, healing, and care for patient families.

Why now: COVID-19 has placed new demands, and new challenges on their shared work to bring joy and health to children and families facing the most trying times of their life. Stanford scientists have launched dozens of research projects that have become beacons of information in the global response to COVID-19.

Donor as Hero: Together, we can combat COVID-19 and set the stage to prevent future health crises, but only if our community of donors stand at our side both to advance medical science and bring joy to the medically fragile children we serve, ensuring that even as they mount the fights of their young lives, they can still be kids.

Integration with the “Main” Website

Shifting Paid Media Channels

LPFCH initially asked Media Cause to run Facebook ads using already produced video content. However, due to the Facebook political advertising ban and inconsistent review process to deem content non-political, LPFCH’s paid Facebook ads were delayed to the point that we decided to shift their Paid Media Budget to Paid Search Advertising. Typically, this is a channel where we see strong intent to give. LPFCH was no different. We saw $7.55 in donations for every $1 spent on Paid Search.

This ultimately provided LPFCH with an understanding of how donors use digital channels and engage with an organization in so many different ways. Imagine this scenario: a lapsed donor receives an email asking to renew the donor’s support, doesn’t open the email, opens instagram, sees a compelling video featuring a compelling story about  bringing joy to children during this critical moment, and goes to Google Search and types, “stanford children’s hospital” and clicks through on the Search Ad to make a gift.

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