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:

  1. 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. 

  2. Create videos and/or reels to be shared via email and social

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.