Inter-Faith Community Services iPURL^SM Case Study

Description:
Inter-Faith Community Services (IFCS) provides basic human services and enrichment programs to low-income individuals and families. During fall, IFCS runs three major service programs: one to provide underprivledge children with back to school clothing and supplies, one a Thanksgiving food drive and then an Adopt-a-Family program in which members of the community come to the aid of individual families by providing food, hygiene products, clothing and gifts. 

The struggling economy put a strain on IFCS during 2009. Aid requests had risen 25% by mid-summer, while donations had decreased by over 40%. IFCS needed to find a way to boost its donations, as well as increase its contact database to meet the growing needs of the community.

Solution:
DMX Direct offered its marketing expertise to develop a funding campaign that combined traditional direct mail methods with advanced email marketing techniques. The DMX campaign  took advantage of its proprietary iPURL^SM and eReferral^SM programs to strengthen and expand public  desire to help those less fortunate and provide IFCS with a cleaner contact database, while increasing the contact records within that database. To accomplish this, DMX employed a three-pronged campaign:

• Email and Direct Outreach

Supporters who had donated to IFCS programs in the past were contacted through email, or mail if the contact’s existing data did not include an email address. Personalized variable data printing was used to create letters addressed to those contacts. Both letter and email recipients were invited to visit their own personalized web form, or iPURL^SM.

• iPURL^SM Technology

When the contacts visited their iPURL^SM page – either by clicking a hyperlink in the email, or accessing the URL printed within the letter – each was provided with an in depth description of the program and offered the opportunity to update their contact information, elect how they wanted to contribute to the program (drop off items at the IFCS office, immediately donate via paypal account, etc), or provide additional comments as they saw fit.  This accomplished five primary objectives:

• Cleaned the IFCS contact database by enabling supporters to directly update their information
• Took advantage of email marketing, which had never been utilized by IFCS
• Spread word of the program on a 1:1 basis, which has been shown to improve response rates
• Recorded donation elections for individual contact records so that personal tendencies and preferences of supporters could be tracked
• Lead generation software tied with the iPURL^SM program immediately sent email notification to IFCS staff members when a supporter had requested to make a donation


• eReferral^SM Marketing

Within a week of the first email blast/mailing, a second round was sent to each contact asking them to visit another iPURL^SM.  This personalized URL requested that the supporter refer up to four people whom they believed would be interested in the program.  After a supporter provided a first name, last name, and email address, an email was automatically generated and delivered to each referral’s inbox.  The email text was personalized to each referral and signed by the referring supporter, creating a level of comfort and familiarity for the referral through implied endorsement.  An iPURL^SM was automatically generated for each referred individual and a link to it was provided in the referral email so that the new contact could start the process from the beginning, as if they had been part of the initial contact list.  Just as with the initial contact list, the referral was given an opportunity to provide their own contact information, thereby expanding the IFCS contact database for further communication regarding future programs.

Conclusion:
IFCS Executives reported dramatically increased support as a result of the enhanced marketing efforts and noted substantial improvement in its contact database.  Overall, at a time when IFCS was anticipating a serious decrease in its ability to support those in need, it actually exceeded program goals and significantly increased its contact database.

When speaking about DMX Direct, IFCS Executive Director Sandra Blythe Perry said, “They have propelled our fundraising efforts to the next level with this technology.  In fact, nearly 75% percent of our donations can be attributed to the iPURL^SM campaign." 

Ultimately, it is certain the initiation and expansion of electronic communications, as well as the cleansing of its existing data will allow the charity to significantly reduce the costs of its direct contact campaigns.  The iPURL^SM system allows IFCS to redirect a significant portion of its administrative costs as supporters are now able to update and correct their own contact information as well as make donations directly to IFCS’s PayPal account through a link on their personalized URL.

IFCS’s Maria Pearson of said, “The technology that DMX Direct incorporated into our fundraising efforts not only provides a great way for us to reach out to the community, but also gives our contributors a simple and effective way to donate and aid us in finding others who want to lend a hand.  In a time of economic need, DMX Direct’s expertise and desire to help has improved our fundraising results and donation levels while advancing our organization’s public visibility and helping to keep our administrative costs low.”