DARCC: Spring 2025 Campaign
Campaign Title: Radiance: The DARCC Impact Campaign
Duration: March 1 – May 1, 2025
The Radiance campaign illuminated DARCC’s mission in powerful new ways this spring. Rooted in the belief that survivors deserve healing, dignity, and support, the campaign transitioned from a March cultivation series into a community-wide celebration during April's Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM).
Through survivor stories, volunteer voices, and the Illuminate event, supporters were invited not just to witness DARCC’s impact, but to help sustain it.
Campaign Objective
This campaign sought to deepen understanding of DARCC’s trauma-informed counseling and advocacy services, inspire recurring donor support, and elevate brand visibility during SAAM. While not designed as a traditional fundraising campaign, it centered gratitude, education, and storytelling to move supporters toward sustained engagement.
Campaign Narrative
Jane found peace after years of trauma through DARCC’s counseling services.
Maria broke years of silence during SAAM and found a supportive community.
Taylor, a long-time hospital advocate volunteer, showed what it means to meet survivors with compassion.
Illuminate brought the community together through a breathtaking multimedia experience.
Specialized group therapy offerings and expanded services underscored DARCC’s commitment to innovation and inclusion.
Email Performance
Total Emails Sent: 15,719
Average Open Rate: 47.8%
Average Click Rate: 4.63%
Total Clicks: 984
Top Performing Week: Mar 30 – Apr 5 (11.3% click rate)
Bounce Rate Range: 2.6% – 4.4%
Unsubscribe Rate: ≤ 0.61%
Social Media Performance
DARCC’s email themes were reinforced across social channels. Performance of aligned posts is summarized below.
| Theme | Post Title | Date | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jane’s Story | When a DARCC advocate meets you... | Apr 27 | 125 |
| Monthly Giving | Together, we illuminated... | Apr 26 | 149 |
| Illuminate Countdown | Meet the artists behind Illuminate | Feb 28 | 85 |
| SAAM Story (Maria) | As SAAM comes to a close... | Apr 29 | 121 |
| Volunteer Feature | We’re proud to celebrate Kiana... | Apr 29 | 86 |
| Illuminate Recap | Together, we illuminated... | Apr 26 | 149 |
Top Performing Social Media Posts
Based on total engagement (reactions + comments + shares), here are the top five posts from the campaign period:
| Post Title | Date | Reach | Reactions | Shares | Total Clicks | Total Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illuminate was an unforgettable... | 03-29 | 357 | 29 | 3 | 81 | 33 |
| Yesterday, the City of Dallas... | 04-15 | 305 | 23 | 3 | 48 | 26 |
| Next Lunch and Learn coming... | 04-16 | 288 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 20 |
| Easy way to connect with... | 03-22 | 234 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
Key Insights
Survivor-centered storytelling drove the highest engagement across email and social.
April content aligned with SAAM generated stronger reach and interaction than early March posts.
Continue to strengthen visual CTAs and external links to continue to improve clickthrough rates
Low unsubscribe and bounce rates indicate a healthy, engaged list.
DARCC: EOY 2024 Campaign
Introduction:
Our Annual Giving service revolves around story-based, deadline-driven campaigns designed to engage supporters year-round. By emphasizing frequency, consistency, and personalization, we develop and execute four annual campaigns, creating tailored creative assets across digital and print media. Our commitment is to activate donor relationships, inspire broad audiences, and provide the strategic support needed to reinforce these relationships through personalized communication.
Campaign Objective
The primary objective of DARCC's End-of-Year Campaign was to leverage storytelling to highlight the innovation and expansion that define the DARCC Difference, showcasing how specialized, trauma-informed care changes lives. Through a multi-channel approach—including emails, social media, social ads, and direct mail—the campaign cultivated and engaged donors while driving meaningful support for DARCC’s mission. By segmenting messaging for key groups, such as Believers and major donors, the campaign acknowledged recurring donors’ vital contributions while inviting additional support. This strategy ensured a balance between cultivation and solicitation, deepening constituents’ connection to DARCC’s work and its transformative impact on survivors and the community.
Campaign Timeline
November 21st - December 10th: Cultivation Emails
December 3, December 16th - December 31st: Solicitation Emails
Campaign Story:
We shared the story of the DARCC Difference through a multi-channel campaign that highlighted the transformative impact of DARCC’s specialized, trauma-informed care. The campaign showcased real-life examples, such as Lara’s journey to self-awareness during her child’s trial and Griselda’s path to independence after surviving trafficking, illustrating how DARCC tailors care to meet each survivor’s unique needs. By emphasizing the role of DARCC’s highly trained clinical team, community partnerships, and comprehensive support services, the campaign underscored donor support's critical role in sustaining and expanding this life-changing work. Clear calls to action invited the community to help more survivors heal and thrive through the DARCC Difference.
Website traffic
Average Time on the EOY Page: 2 minutes, 31 seconds.
Total Traffic (11/15 - 12/31)
Visits 2,957
EOY Page Traffic
Visits 168
5.7% visitors to DARCC website during campaign were visiting the EOY page
Total Button Clicks During Campaign
Clicks 410
Total Button Clicks on the EOY Page
Clicks 27
6.6% of people who clicked during the EOY campaign clicked somewhere on the EOY page
Giving Clicks
Clicks 27
100% of the people who clicked on the EOY page clicked on the giving button
Cultivation Emails/Social Posts:
These are emails and social posts that informed constituents about the initiative of A2A and introduced Maggie Shellene. These posts included a quiz and bio of Maggie.
Solicitation Emails/Social Posts:
These emails transitioned from storytelling to direct appeals for donations and included personal messages from the CEO, impact messages, and examples of how donations on North Texas Giving day ensure The DARCC Difference continues to impact the survivors of Dallas. We sent six solicitation emails in total, with one segmented email for believers in the afternoon on NTXGD.
Campaign Results:
Email Open Rates: The open rates for this campaign are consistently above the EOY 2023 average of 40%, ranging from 38.8% to 49.7%.
Email Click-Through Rates: The highest click rate was 10.2% for the email with one of the lower open rates (38%), likely due to the compelling story of Griselda* and clear impact DARCC made in her life.
Audience Growth: Overall, positive, steady growth in all platforms (1.89%), with email leading the way with most of that growth. There was also a bit more engagement on Instagram, which might indicate that the platform has strong engagement from your audience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
This was the first campaign with Sunshine. For future campaigns, because Sunshine is so active on DARCC’s social channel, plan how her other communications will contribute to or include messaging about the campaign.
Create videos and/or reels to be shared via email and social
Consider telling the story from a different perspective. We’ve used DARCC’s internal staff, and we have also tried to incorporate survivor stories/quotes. One thought might be to include testimonials from partners (maybe nurses, doctors, etc.) who see the impact that DARCC’s services provide to survivors.
Or - could we feature the Board Member (Nick) and talk about how he/his staff see the benefit of DARCC each day.
Since email was the most effective channel for growth, continue emphasizing email capture strategies (e.g., newsletter sign-ups, event follow-ups, gated content). Leverage the growing list to further engage subscribers and drive conversions around segmenting that list accordingly for future campaigns
Morning emails tended to have more engagement in this campaign so it might be worth doing some A/B testing to see if it’s a particular group of supporters or if generally there is more activity then.
DARCC: NTXGD 2024 Campaign
DARCC: NTXGD 2024 Campaign
Introduction:
Our Annual Giving service revolves around story-based, deadline-driven campaigns designed to engage supporters year-round. By emphasizing frequency, consistency, and personalization, we develop and execute four annual campaigns, creating tailored creative assets across digital and print media. Our commitment is to activate donor relationships, inspire broad audiences, and provide the strategic support needed to reinforce these relationships through personalized communication.
Campaign Objective
The primary objective of DARCC's North Texas Giving Day campaign was to harness the power of storytelling to inspire the community to take action. Through a multi-channel approach, the campaign highlighted DARCC’s critical educational initiatives, including programs like RA training workshops and Allies 2 Advocates (A2A). By showcasing these outreach efforts, especially on college campuses, the campaign deepened constituents’ connection to DARCC’s mission and emphasized the vital role the DARCC Difference plays in supporting survivors.
Campaign Timeline
August 19-September 18th: Cultivation Emails
September 1, September 19th: Solicitation Emails
Campaign Story:
We created a compelling narrative about DARCC’s impact on college campuses through the launch of the Allies 2 Advocates (A2A) initiative. The story detailed the urgent need to address sexual violence on campuses, the empowerment of students to lead change, and DARCC’s role in fostering safer, more inclusive college environments. The story highlighted DARCC’s ongoing RA training programs and encouraged donations to continue expanding these vital initiatives.
Website traffic
Average Time on NTXGD Page: 5 minutes, 12 seconds.
Total Traffic (8/19 - 9/20)
Visits 5,160
NTXGD Page Traffic
Visits 635
12.31% visitors to DARCC website during campaign were visiting the NTXGD page
Total Button Clicks During Campaign
Clicks 467
Total Button Clicks on NTXGD Page
Clicks 14
3.00% of people who clicked during NTXGD campaign clicked somewhere on NTXGD page
Giving Clicks
Clicks 13
92.8% of the people who clicked on the NTXGD page clicked on the giving button
Cultivation Emails/Social Posts:
These are emails and social posts that informed constituents about the initiative of A2A and introduced Maggie Shellene. These posts included a quiz and bio of Maggie.
Solicitation Emails/Social Posts:
These emails transitioned from storytelling to direct appeals for donations and included personal messages from the CEO, impact messages, and examples of how donations on North Texas Giving day ensure The DARCC Difference continues to impact the survivors of Dallas. We sent six solicitation emails in total, with one segmented email for believers in the afternoon on NTXGD.
Campaign Results:
Email Open Rates: The highest open rate was 47.5% for the email with Amy’s video sent the night before North Texas Giving Day
Email Click-Through Rates: The highest click rate was 6% for the same email.
Audience Growth: The total audience growth during the campaign was .81%. The audience growth numbers do not include email growth because of changes made to DARCC's audience in MailChimp prior. We will put this back into the growth portion at the end of the EOY campaign.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Email with subject "Message from Amy Jones" in subject line had highest open rate -- we continually see that emails from Amy or that mention Amy in subject line perform well. We will continue to strategically use these.
Amy's video and Maggie's video both had high click rates (6% and 5.3%) -- Eliza is thinking of ways that we can incorporate videos moving forward, too.
"Stats You Need to Know" email with the quiz also had a high click rate (5.8%) -- shows that audiences were engaged. We can continue to find creative ways to drive engagement in emails.
Average open rate for 2024 emails as a whole is higher than the average open rate last year (44.8% vs. 42.2%)
Average click rate for 2024 emails as a whole is higher than average click rate for 2023 NTXGD emails, too (4.1% vs. 3.6%)
Unsubscribe rate is flat YOY.
Traffic ad performed much better than the traffic ad for SAAM; we'll continue to use an ad with a photo vs. a logo.
DARCC: Spring 2024 Campaign
DARCC: sexual assault awareness month 2024
Introduction:
Our Annual Giving service revolves around story-based, deadline-driven campaigns designed to engage supporters year-round. By emphasizing frequency, consistency, and personalization, we develop and execute four annual campaigns, creating tailored creative assets across digital and print media. Our commitment is to activate donor relationships, inspire broad audiences, and provide the strategic support needed to reinforce these relationships through personalized communication.
Campaign Objective
The primary objective of this campaign was to promote and honor Sexual Assault Awareness Month by engaging supporters, educating constituents about The DARCC Difference, and inspiring recurring donations to support DARCC’s mission of educating communities to prevent sexual violence and supporting survivors and their loved ones as they heal and thrive. A secondary objective was to thank existing Believers (recurring donors) and ask them to make an additional gift to support Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Campaign Timeline
March 18 - April 5: Growth social ads
March 25: Email 1 and Social Post 1 (Cultivation/Engagement)
April 1: Email 2 and Social Post 2 (Solicitation) - First day of SAAM
April 8: Email 3 and Social Post 3 (Cultivation/Engagement)
April 15: Email 4 and Social Post 4 (Solicitation)
April 22: Email 5 and Social Post 5 (Solicitation)
April 26: Community Breakfast and Email 5.1 (Solicitation)
April 30: Email 6 and Social Post 6 (Solicitation) - Last day of SAAM
Campaign Story:
A dedicated landing page featured a full explanation of The DARCC Difference, complete with photos and drop-down boxes for readers to learn more. The page included detailed program descriptions, a donation call-to-action, and an RSVP call-to-action for the Community Breakfast.
Cultivation Emails/Social Posts:
These are emails and social posts that tell the story of the DARCC Difference and are meant to draw engagement from the audience.
Solicitation Emails/Social Posts:
These emails transitioned from storytelling to direct appeals for donations and included personal messages from the CEO, impact messages, and examples of how donations ensure The DARCC Difference. We sent six solicitation emails in total, segmented into:
Believers: Current recurring donors were acknowledged for their ongoing support and asked to make an additional gift.
All Others: Recipients who were not current recurring donors were asked to sign up for a recurring gift or make a one-time gift in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Social Ad
A traffic ad ran throughout April, driving people to the campaign landing page. The ad was seen by 48,458 people and received 240 total engagements, with 216 clicks—an almost 1% click rate.
Campaign Results:
Email Open Rates: The highest open rate was 48.2% for the first email sent on March 28, 2024.
Email Click-Through Rates: The highest click rate was 6.5% for the same email.
Audience Growth: The total audience growth during the campaign was 1%.
Unsubscribe Rate: The unsubscribe rate for the campaign was 0.1%. DARCC’s average unsubscribe rate is 1.1%.
Eight people unsubscribed:
mick_faulkner@yahoo.com
mickey.mcguire@dallascounty.org
shibbs27@gmail.com
christopher.cmt@gmail.com
kathleeencwegener@gmail.com
vedika.agrawal.95@gmail.com
rash3nh@virginia.edu
tinagreen917@gmail.com
Recommendations:
Secure matching or challenge donors for future campaigns.
Continue using hyperlinked text and buttons for effective calls-to-action.
Utilize images of people in social ads to increase engagement.
Engage board members or volunteers in sending emails to personalize outreach.
Enhance storytelling to be more personal and relatable.
Introduce additional engagement tools like surveys and quizzes to gather donor insights and feedback.
Ensure timely copy approval for both stories and emails to incorporate more cultivation emails in future campaigns.