OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND
Fundraising Campaign Case Study
CLIENT SITUATION
The Opportunity Scholarship Fund (OSF) helps lower-income Oklahoma families bridge the financial gap to specialized PreK-12 education. OSF engaged Candor in 2023 to help with its end-of-year fundraising campaign to boost donations and increase the number of scholarships the organization could distribute.
PLANNING & EXECUTION
In partnership with OSF’s director of development, Candor developed a multi-faceted campaign to retain old donors and attract new ones, adjusting tactics to reach adults of all ages.
The nonprofit launched an online donor portal in 2022, making it possible to give online for the first time. Rather than eliminate direct mail since it had been effective in the past, Candor and OSF opted to begin including a QR code, directing donors to either return the physical form or to donate online. This approach made it possible to continue connecting with current donors who prefer physical mail while making it easier for all donors to complete donations online, if they choose.
From September to October 2023, Candor served brand awareness ads on social media to potential new donors who indicated they share a similar ideology with OSF supporters. This created a larger audience of prospective donors, and throughout November and December, those same targets were served fundraising conversion ads to solicit new donations. Paid search was also utilized to quickly connect curious prospective donors with OSF.
Previous donors were also served fundraising conversion ads on social media and received donor forms in the mail, reminder postcards and e-blasts encouraging donations.
RESULTS
Thanks to collaborative strategies, OSF raised over $5 million in a single fundraising season.
OSF secured 160 new donors who donated more than $860,000. The social media strategy contributed to a nearly 180% increase in donations from social media users.
Website traffic increased by 33% year-over-year (YoY); social media (435% increase YoY) and paid search (314% increase YoY) attributed to the large boost in web traffic.
E-mail marketing proved to be an effective tactic, resulting in a 57% conversion rate, far surpassing the industry average of 17%.
