From the Nominator

We wanted to know what our alumni and donors were interested in specifically. So we used a free sticker as a reward for filling out a simple survey. Kansas State University Foundation aimed to enhance donor records by launching a data-driven campaign. With a focus on capturing donor interests and motivations, a social media strategy was devised. The campaign offered a sticker featuring the mascot, Willie the Wildcat, to incentivize donors to share their information. This initiative served a dual purpose: gathering missing donor details and verifying existing information. We asked for the following information: name, email, address, areas of fundraising interest, and donor motivations.   The design of the sticker was meticulously crafted to appeal to a broad audience. Printed on vinyl and weatherproof material, the stickers were versatile, suitable for application on various surfaces, such as water vessels, laptops, and automobiles. To amplify the campaign's reach, still graphics and an animated video featuring the sticker graphic were created for social media platforms. A list of 91,000 donors from our customer relationship management system was compiled and uploaded as a customer list into Meta. Targeted Facebook ads were then deployed to reach donors on the curated list. The campaign was so successful that it required additional sticker orders midway through its duration. Upon the ad campaign's conclusion, valuable information from 2,086 donors was acquired. The next step involved affixing the stickers to a buck slip, printing, and mailing them in standard-sized envelopes. This meticulous process ensured successful distribution to the engaged donors.

From the Judges

This was an easy replicable and inexpensive initiative to gather valuable data on donors and lost contacts. We were impressed with their communication plan and rollout. They really leveraged social media to improve their donor engagement for future years.