Wining and Dining Donors
We've all heard the studies that claim a glass of wine with dinner is good for your health. As it turns out, injecting a little bit of wine into your organization's special events can be quite good for your fundraising health as well.
At least, that was the case for the Chesapeake Rotary Club and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego in 2010. Both organizations held wine festival fundraisers to bring in considerable donations, and create excitement and buzz for their causes last year.
Continuing our four-part series on successful fundraising campaigns from the past year, this month FundRaising Success highlights the Chesapeake Rotary Club's Chesapeake Wine Festival and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego's Rhythm & Vine Festival.
— Joe Boland, senior editor
Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival
By 2009, the Chesapeake Rotary Club had just about had its fill of its annual spaghetti dinner.
"Each year for the past 20 years, we had done a spaghetti dinner at a local high school," says Roland Davis, secretary of the Chesapeake Rotary Club. "The spaghetti dinner wasn't making any money except for the $90 worth of tickets each notary member had to buy. So it wasn't a popular fundraiser, and we were looking for another idea."
Davis' nephew Scott Danner, who is also in the Chesapeake Rotary Club, told his uncle that "he loves going to wine festivals, they seem to be very popular, big crowds … why don't we look at doing that?"
That prompted Davis to start looking online at wine festivals, and he saw there were other rotary clubs doing them and raising $50,000 to $80,000 or more, "which was tremendously more than the spaghetti dinner," Davis says.
Davis and Danner presented the idea to the club and got the go-ahead. Davis was named chairman of the inaugural Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival in 2010. He went on a quest to secure the location, date, sponsorships and attendance for the event with the goal to raise as much money as possible for the rotary club that would then go to seven or eight charities, the main recipient being the Sidney M. Oman Cancer Center at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.
That strategy involved a multichannel direct-marketing approach that included word-of-mouth, face-to-face solicitation, business cards, posters, e-mail, social media, DRTV, advertising and even a direct-mail piece. All the physical creative — the posters and business cards — was done in-house using Microsoft Publisher. Davis did use Constant Contact's event management software for the e-mail communications.
Objectives
The goals of the campaign were to inject new life into the club's fundraising event and raise as much money for charity as possible. This being the first time embarking on an event of this kind, there was no specific monetary goal, but Davis and the Chesapeake Rotary Club certainly hoped to bring in far and away more funds than the spaghetti dinner ever did.
To get the word out, the media strategy was to not depend too heavily on one channel. That's why this campaign featured a variety of channels. The fact that there were two distinct demographics played a role in that strategy as well. One demographic was the 21- to 35-year-old crowd that likes the social aspects of a wine festival. Then there was the 50-plus group that likes the upscale aspect of such events, and also likes to give to charity.
With two distinct target audiences, the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival made a specific effort to cater to each demographic. Half of the festival featured local wineries to appeal more to the younger event-goers, and the other half featured an international wine village aimed at the more sophisticated 50-and-older crowd.
On every piece of communications to the audience, the goal was to drive recipients to the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival website to purchase tickets for the event. And to spur sales, there was a $5 discount offered when the tickets were ordered online instead of purchased at the gate.
Creative
The creative in this campaign was designed to go out across several mediums. From the start, Davis knew he needed a website. The first step was figuring out what to name it. ChesapeakeWineFestival.com was already taken by a wine festival in Maryland. So he scooped up three domain names — one main site, and other URLs to put on street signs and TV broadcasts. Thus ChesapeakeVaWineFestival.com, the main site, was born, along with ChesapeakeVirginiaWineFestival.com for use in broadcasts and ChesWine.com for street signs.
The interactive website included the logo for the wine festival, a description of the event, merchandise for sale, the sponsors, a place to purchase tickets, as well as prompts to join the festival on Facebook and to join the e-mail newsletter list. Beyond the homepage, the site included more information on the wineries, international village, charities, sponsors, seminars, tickets, private chalets, reserved tables, vendors, volunteers and more information on other pages.
Further, the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival created a Facebook page that updated friends on things like what wineries and sponsors might be there, and asked if they were interested in the event, etc. And there were advertisements on local cable television stations, in the local newspaper and in a local publisher's coupon magazine.
The ad in the coupon-clipper magazine looked a lot like an online banner ad. The logo (wine glass and the text) was on the left side, with the date and location of the festival printed underneath — Saturday, Oct. 30 | City Park. Next to that read, "To Benefit the Cancer Center of Chesapeake Regional Medical Center & Chesapeake Rotary Charities."
Below was the promotion, "Advance Tickets $30, Entrance Gate $35 (if available)," which provided physical retail ticket locations, as well as the calls to action: "Go to website for all locations" and "Purchase Tickets Online at www.ChesWine.com."
The ad in the local section of the newspaper was very similar in creative, but much larger. The top read, "Wine, Music, Food & Fun." Below that was the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival logo, slightly altered from the clipper ad, with similar copy describing the beneficiaries of the event. Additionally, there was a badge near the logo that stood out. It read, "SAVE 30% Purchase Your Ticket Online by August 31st." Then in a box below the logo was the text, "You can be part of the Cure!" again with a call to action to buy tickets online followed by the URL. At the bottom was a "Find us on Facebook" badge, as well as a phone number, fax number and e-mail address to contact — one of the rare touchpoints that offered that.
Variations of that ad were also distributed and displayed throughout the community as posters, though none of the posters provided phone, fax or e-mail details. The call to action was to drive people to the Web to purchase tickets.
Davis also sent out a press information sheet with the event descriptions to media outlets, which ran TV spots, and one direct mailer that went out to local businesses for sponsorship opportunities. However, that was the only direct-mail piece in the campaign.
But the most interesting piece of creative was the business cards Davis printed up.
"The thing we did do — and I heard of this from somebody else — we made up business cards," Davis says. "We printed up business cards and gave them to all the members of the club and all over the place. The business cards became one of the best direct pieces we had because people would just hand them out [around town]."
The business cards had the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival logo on the front above a box that drove people to the website: "TICKETS ON SALE NOW at www.ChesapeakeVaWineFestival.com." On the back, there were more details — beneficiaries, time, date, location — highlighted by bullet points of wine, food, music by Lewis McGehee and seminars. At the bottom was another call to action to purchase tickets with the website, e-mail, phone number and Facebook page listed.
After the event, video and testimonials were sent out as well via e-mail and posted on the website to enhance the experience.
Campaign Strategy & Deployment
Developing a strategy for the wine festival was a little more intensive than your typical fundraising event simply because the Chesapeake Rotary Club had never done anything quite like this before. Says Davis: "There were a lot of factors that we knew would be pivotal in this. No. 1, there's a large city park. We had to make sure the city park didn't have conflicting events because we knew we would need the whole park.
"The second thing was in the state of Virginia, wineries have wine festivals every weekend from probably April through November. We wanted to be sure we could find a weekend that would be free so the major wineries, the ones that people would really want there, would be there. For some reason Oct. 30 was an open Saturday for the park and the wineries.
"From that point on it was, 'OK, we need to secure the wineries,' because you can't have a wine festival if you don't have wineries."
That was just the prep work before any direct-marketing communications could really get underway. By April, Davis and his volunteer staff were in full promotion mode, but they began much earlier.
From the middle of March on, e-mails went out to anyone who purchased tickets through Constant Contact's software, and updates were sent at least twice a month. Approximately every other day, Davis posted updates to Facebook — everything from wineries that were going to be there to sponsors and more. In late April/early May a mailer went out to about 500 local businesses asking for sponsorships, offering private chalets, etc.
Six weeks before the festival, the newspaper ads began to run. About a month out, a local radio station became the media sponsor and started doing promotions on the air.
And about 30 days before, the Chesapeake Virginia Wine Festival spent about $3,000 on TV spots that ran on the Weather Channel and other cable networks.
"We didn't have a specific station that was sponsoring because we didn't necessarily want that. We wanted the broadest coverage possible," Davis says.
Results
Though there was uncertainty embarking on a brand-new event, by the middle of April the festival had about 2,000 fans on Facebook. "We used that number with sponsors to say if we have this kind of interest this quickly, we're certainly going to see a good acceptance to the festival. That's where the sponsors had a belief that this could work," Davis says.
When it was all said and done, 7,800 people attended the wine festival, and $150,000 was raised for charity, with the majority of donations coming via online ticket purchases. Of that money raised, $100,000 went to the cancer center, and the other $50,000 went to the remaining charities that the rotary club supports.
Davis attributes the success to a creative, new idea that was tied in to a charity that people really want to support. He also said it helped that there were no booths inside for sponsors to hawk their wares or services. It was a relaxing, great experience with no hassles.
Considering the success of the campaign, the Chesapeake Rotary Club is already promoting the 2011 event and plans to grow it in the future. This year, postcards will be distributed about the event to add another touchpoint, and Davis says the club is expecting between 10,000 and 12,000 people for this year's event.
"We're not going to raise prices. We're just going to try to raise as much money for charity as we can, and then maybe one day it will be a two-day event," Davis says. "We just think it's a good community event for a good cause."
And if the first year is any indication, it looks to be a future winner as well. •
Rhythm & Vine Festival
A couple years ago, senior management and the board of directors at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego saw that one of the organization's annual auctions, which had been going on for almost 30 years, was beginning to decline. So the organization began to explore a new event that could serve two purposes, Event Coordinator Shannon Frick says: Bring in the same amount of net profit (or more) and attract younger donors.
"A widespread issue among nonprofits is that our base of constant donors has remained the same and there are many challenges in attracting a younger audience to support your cause," Frick says. "So now we need to reach out to the younger crowd. We thought a music, wine and food festival could help us do just that."
As a result, the Rhythm & Vine festival was born and launched in 2009. The event was a success, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego hoped it would grow in 2010. So this past year, Rhythm & Vine became a multichannel campaign to attract more sponsors and ticket purchasers. The main marketing efforts concentrated on direct mail, social media (Twitter and Facebook), e-mail, print ads, and e-philanthropy on the Rhythm & Vine and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego websites.
The organization collaborated with Fast Forward Ventures and FINE magazine to execute the campaign. Fast Forward provided direction on beneficial and effective campaign tools, as well as human resources, to help carry out suggested tasks, Frick says. FINE assisted by designing all the marketing collateral — both digital and hard copy — for the event.
While Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego has done many events in the past, what made Rhythm & Vine so unique was it was the first time the organization marketed to individuals who had never been involved on any level with the organization.
Objectives
The two main goals of Rhythm & Vine were to raise as much money for the clubs as possible and attract a younger demographic of potential and future donors. Coinciding with that was to bring more awareness to Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego and the work it does for the youth of the San Diego community. That helped shape the marketing strategy for 2010.
The organization wanted to branch out beyond its current donors and attract prospects. That meant using new lists to send out direct mail, e-mail and social-media communications. In addition to contacting its own donors, it mailed and e-mailed to Fast Forward's large consumer database, as well as put inserts and ads in magazines such as San Diego Magazine, 944 Magazine and FINE. Also, to help engage younger donors, it contacted local young alumni associations for universities such as San Diego State University, the University of San Diego and the University of California at San Diego.
The goal there was to primarily engage the 30- to 50-year-old demographic and spread brand awareness beyond Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego's existing constituency.
Creative
In an effort to maximize the staff's and volunteers' time, all the direct-marketing creative was fairly similar — there were no versioned pieces sent out to specific demographics. However, the images and feel in the creative — music notes, a young vocalist in the background of a wine glass — were relaxed, artistic and fun.
The single direct-mail piece was a full-color, double-sided 5-inch-by-7-inch glossy postcard, which was designed by FINE. The front of the postcard had the musical note logo of the young singer with the text "Music & Entertainment" on top. The Rhythm & Vine logo stood out, with the date — Saturday April 17, 2010 — and three bullet points about the event:
- 60 World-Class Wineries, Spirits & Breweries
- 35 Restaurants and Gourmet Food Purveyors
- Live musical Performances
On the reverse was an image of some children wearing Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego T-shirts and a note to "Please Join Us on Saturday April 17th." A short note followed describing the festival, highlighting at the end that "All event proceeds benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego."
The call to action encouraged recipients to visit www.rhythmand vine.org to purchase tickets and receive more information. A phone number was also provided.
The e-mails had a similar feel to the postcard, with subject lines varied depending on what was being highlighted about Rhythm & Vine. The e-mails were sent in HTML from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego, and they were created in-house by the organization or Fast Forward Ventures.
"In an effort to keep readership high and to limit the number of individuals opting out, we keep the length to a maximum of four short paragraphs," Frick says.
The e-mails also were loaded with links to purchase tickets and for information about the festival. Also included was news about Rhythm & Vine. The call to action, just like for the postcard, was to drive people to the website to purchase tickets.
Other creative included online banner ads — 120x240, 468x60 and 728x90 — that were posted online and shared via social media. Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego also made a poster that included much of the same information as the postcard, with an additional image from the inaugural Rhythm & Vine. In addition, ads were run in magazines like San Diego Magazine and 944. Those ads included the same design as the poster, as well as an advertorial in San Diego with a little more copy and information about the organization.
Video was incorporated online as well. Footage recorded by TaseofWineTV was used to create a short excerpt of the inaugural event, highlighting various high-end exhibitors, event sponsors, entertainment, etc.
Campaign Strategy & Deployment
Looking to build on the momentum from the first Rhythm & Vine in 2009, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego actually began to promote the 2010 festival before the new year. Four months prior to the April event, it began sending bimonthly e-mails. In all, eight e-mails were delivered to about 18,000 e-mail addresses.
The postcard rolled out to about 20,000 individuals six weeks before the event. And the whole time, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego used a cross-media strategy via social media to update followers and drive more people to the website.
"Our Facebook presence was used to not only direct our audience to our website, but to also alert when important dates were coming up, such as the launch of our online ticket sales, confirmation of event entertainment, etc.," Frick says.
Another thing the organization did to beef up attendance and increase funds was to offer discounts to specific target audiences.
"We realize that for your average non-fundraising wine and food festival, it's not going to be $75 a ticket," Frick says. "So we tried to encourage people in specific groups to purchase by offering various discount codes … " — the groups that received discount codes were mostly young alumni associations, wine clubs and select others who had not attended the inaugural event.
Results
The response to the campaign was outstanding. More than $14,500 was raised from the silent auction alone, and more than 1,400 people purchased tickets to the event, topping the mark set in 2009. Fifty wineries, breweries and spirit companies were featured, along with 30 gourmet food purveyors and three live musical acts.
The direct-mail postcards resulted in 177 individuals who had no previous involvement with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego purchasing tickets online, and more than 430 individuals purchased Rhythm & Vine tickets online overall. All others attended through sponsorship packages and various giveaway contests. Turns out that most of the revenue, 100 percent of sponsorships and a majority of online ticket sales came from individuals who would have contributed regardless of whether they had received direct mail from the organization or not, Frick admits.
"However, many of those individuals who had no previous tie to the organization found the event on a local online calendar listing," she adds.
Still, Frick attributes much of the success to the direct mailer in helping achieve all of the campaign's objectives. "The effects of the direct-mail piece extended into securing auction item donations, media sponsorships and a small amount of ticket sales, so ultimately, it brought in a large amount of revenue to the event," she says.
This is a campaign Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego absolutely plans to continue, but there is the challenge of encouraging potential attendees to pay a higher ticket price for the event. Ideally, discount codes could be phased out to raise even more revenue, but the organization knows that's not realistic after just two years of the event. In fact, in 2011 there is a two-for-$99 deal, and discounts will still be offered to select groups.
However, hopes are extremely high for Rhythm & Vine.
"We will definitely use this campaign and grow on it to make it more successful and effective," Frick says. "As we are trying to … attract individuals throughout California and, eventually, across the country, we are focusing more on digital, social media, as opposed to direct mail. The future of the event is likely to include pre-event gatherings to draw varying demographics to our main event, mobile marketing and online communities to encourage the shaping of our event to be steered by the feedback of our participants." FS
- Companies:
- Constant Contact
