Goodwill Minnesota

Case Studies

Easter Seals Minnesota (GESMN) works to ensure funding for programs and services that connect individuals from all backgrounds to meaningful work. From career training to employment and youth services, GESMN has been creating career possibilities together since 1919.

The Challenge

Like many organizations, GESMN has experienced a slow decrease in their donor file and challenges acquiring new donors. In addition, they have seen a decreasing average gift size from existing donors. All of these factors contributed to a gap in revenue needed from their direct mail program.

GESMN came to Streamworks looking for solutions and a fresh perspective on their fundraising appeals and programs. They had been in a comprehensive campaign for a number of years and were nearing the end and wanted to finish out the campaign strong.

Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota year-end donation letter with highlighted sections and a QR code for giving.

Our Strategy

The Streamworks team gathered to look at GESMN’s past performance to set benchmarks and make recommendations on how to move forward. We were able to identify opportunities in both the messaging and design of the packages. In addition, we quickly realized that GESMN could benefit from a boost in average gift size to yield better results, so we began brainstorming testing opportunities to bring their average gift size up.

Campaign Strategy

Data Analytics

Data Services

Design

Copywriting

Print and Mail Production

Goodwill branded envelopes with donation messages to encourage giving by December 31st.

The Results

We performed a test related to the average gift size with the first campaign by creating a call-out around the middle ask amount to encourage small upgrades from existing donors. This test was successful and increased the average gift size by 33%, helping to close the revenue gap by gaining more from their current loyal donors.

We also performed a messaging test with two different envelope taglines. We found that leading with matching gift language generated even larger gifts, increasing the average gift size from the previous year’s campaign by 45% and by 20% compared to the control group.