Meals on Wheels San Francisco: ‘Deliver Hope’ Giving Tuesday appeal
- Exhibited by
- Clay Buck
- Added
- July 01, 2021
- Medium of Communication
- Postcard
- Target Audience
- All donors
- Type of Charity
- Social services
- Country of Origin
- USA
- Date of first appearance
- December 1st, 2020
SOFII’s view
Lautman, Maska, Neill and Company created bright, simple, effective postcards as a way of folding Giving Tuesday into the fundraising strategies of the organisations they worked with. This example, from Meals on Wheels San Francisco shows that the direct mail postcards were engaging, included a fun sticker, and tapped into a broader cultural moment the USA was experiencing in 2020. These clever cards were perfectly timed between the election and the pandemic – and let’s be honest, who doesn’t get a kick out of wearing a sticker?
Summary / objectives
Meals on Wheels San Francisco wanted to come up with a new way to tap into the spirit of Giving Tuesday.
Creator / originator
Lautman, Maska, Neill and Company / Meals on Wheels San Francisco
Background
Giving Tuesday 2020 was an opportunity for many organisations to rethink their fundraising strategies – it was, after all, in the middle of a global pandemic. Working with agency Lautman, Maska, Neill and Company, Meals on Wheels San Francisco decided to incorporate Giving Tuesday into their wider strategy.
Special characteristics
We generally think of Giving Tuesday as a digital or online phenomenon, but this campaign featured a direct mail postcard, so it took Giving Tuesday and made it part of the organisation’s direct mail plan.
Merits
The postcard stands out by not being a direct mail letter. It’s bold and bright with a great picture and a very short and simple message. On the back, there’s a quick call to action in a personalised message. The donor is given three immediate calls for action for what they can do on Giving Tuesday: they can donate, they can wear a sticker celebrating their donation (and everyone loves a sticker, I know I do) and they can share the news of their donation on social media. It’s simple, straightforward and the donor is given a visceral idea of what they can do to support the cause.
Other relevant information
This postcard came along at a very important time in the United States, between a Thanksgiving mailing in November and the year-end appeal. The timing of the sticker was significant as it coincided more or less with the Presidential election and therefore evoked the iconic ‘I voted’ stickers Americans are so familiar with.
Results
We don’t have the numbers for this exact campaign, and Meals on Wheels San Francisco wasn’t the only organisation Lautman, Maska, Neill and Company worked for to use this strategy, but the Giving Tuesday numbers themselves were remarkable: US$2.75 billion raised in the USA, a 25 per cent increase from 2019.
You can watch Clay’s presentation at IWITOT here:
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