Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: An Ongoing Partnership
www.bbbs.org
Beaconfire partners with a number of its clients, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, in an agency-style relationship to conceive and execute their online marketing programs. We assign a dedicated team that works week in and week out across program needs ranging from email communications, campaigns and media outreach, site improvements, and special creative projects to integrated efforts with other mediums. Beaconfire's retainer-based services provide our clients with predictability around costs and a dependable, creative client team at their service.
The Challenge: It is well known that Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA), the oldest and largest youth mentoring organization in the United States, needs volunteers to carry out its mission. However, the organization also has major fundraising needs to create and support "Big" and "Little" matches. With no direct mail program, BBBSA looked solely to the Web to reach out to new volunteers and donors.
The Solution Beaconfire began work with BBBSA in the summer of 2004 to help promote its Centennial and later was retained on a monthly basis to serve as the organization's online marketing and fundraising partner. Sample projects include:
Fall Fundraising Campaign Beaconfire worked with BBBSA and a pro-bono agency to develop a personal fundraising appeal by the 2004 Big Brother of the Year, Leon, and his Little Brother, Tetoee. The campaign focused on their shared personal goal to raise money to "give back to an organization that has given us so much." Beaconfire developed the initial concept of a Big and Little running their own personal campaign to raise money for the Bigs in Schools program. We determined what elements would comprise the campaign and created messaging, writing copy for the campaign site and e-communications. BBBSA exceeded its initial fundraising goal in just one day. It then doubled its goal, and raised enough money to create 20 new Big-Little matches.
Holiday Photo Card Campaign For the 2004 holiday campaign, Beaconfire developed the messaging for an innovative approach to reach out to BBBSA's constituents-we invited them to "Be part of something BIG!" by signing and uploading their photos to the World's Biggest Online Greeting Card. The card was then sent to new Littles notifying them that they had been matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister. By offering users the chance to upload a photo to the card with a donation of $10 or more, we elegantly wove a fundraising "ask" into the interactive experience. The results: nearly 3,000 signatures, 135 uploaded photos, and donations that again far exceeded BBBSA's expectations.
Monthly e-Newsletter Prior to working with Beaconfire, BBBSA had a small database and only occasionally communicated with those on it. Now, there are hundreds of thousands of people on its email list. We worked with BBBSA staff to initiate a monthly segmented e-newsletter for regular communications to build relationships with the organization's constituents. The newsletter achieves high open and click through rates. Its content includes a mix of fun activities, human interest stories, and follow-up results on the online campaigns.