No Kid Hungry Wins Blackbaud 2014 Impact Award for #SaveSummer Integrated Marketing Campaign
	Posted by Guest Blogger at Dec 11, 2014 07:00 AM CST

This article was written by guest author Wendy Marinaccio Husman, Senior Account Executive at Donordigital, the online fundraising, marketing and advertising company and a member of the IMAB.

Recently, No Kid Hungry won a Blackbaud 2014 Impact Award for nonprofits for Best Multi-Channel Marketing for their Summer Meals campaign — which Mal Warwick | Donordigital had the honor to work on. No Kid Hungry’s campaign is a great example of success thanks to integrated fundraising, marketing and advocacy, and our agency was well prepared to help due to our expertise across marketing channels.

The Summer Meals Integrated Marketing Campaign

No Kid Hungry’s annual Summer Meals campaign spreads awareness about childhood hunger, helps connect kids with food, and raises needed funds during summer months when kids are more likely to be hungry. 

No Kid Hungry launched its integrated campaign to #SaveSummer for kids in mid-May, with the goal of raising $100,000 by July 30, 2014. The campaign included: 

• a series of 13 email messages
• one direct mail package
• a mobile phone texting campaign
• numerous social media posts
• a coordinated web presence
• a lightbox asking single gift donors to “make it monthly”
• a video

No Kid Hungry took advantage of several opportunities to make this program a huge success. The Arby’s Foundation has been a crucial partner in No Kid Hungry’s work over the years and provided matching funds up to $100,000 to encourage increased donations. In addition, national spokesperson Jeff Bridges has helped No Kid Hungry raise funds, build relationships, and increase awareness of the need for, and the existence of, free summer meals for children.

The Results

The fundraising aspect of the campaign was a huge success. This year, the organization surpassed its matching gift goal by over 50% and acquired over 800 new donors. The monthly donor upsell lightbox was one of Mal Warwick | Donordigital’s proudest accomplishments, helping to enroll more than 150 new monthly donors as members of “The Hunger Core.”

The marketing and advocacy aspects of the campaign were a success, too. Many families donʼt know that free meals are available to kids and teens at thousands of sites nationwide — in fact, only 3 million children are participating in these programs.

To help increase this number, No Kid Hungry created an SMS program where people can text FOOD to 877-877 to find summer meals sites near them. They also created an Action Center where people are directed to a variety of ways they can take action based on their zip code, both online and in-person, to promote awareness of and support for summer meals. Specific calls to get involved were promoted through email and social media.

Thanks to these efforts, over 40,000 letters were sent to Congress asking members to visit a summer meals site, and almost 50,000 individuals used the mobile texting service to locate a summer meals site (a 100% increase over prior year).