Case Study: Fenwick High School

Helping One High School Increase Donations by 45%

After a successful inaugural crowdfunding campaign in 2017, Fenwick High School was ready to launch its second-annual day of giving event. With a goal of 1,000 donors, Fenwick was hoping to get more students, alumni, and parents involved than ever before.

Social Sharing

The campaign was shared heavily on social media over its 24-hour run. The “Friar Feed” on the giving page shared posts, pictures, and tweets from the day and friendly challenges between alumni drove peak amounts of traffic.

A Simple Refresh

The reusable template meant that Fenwick only had to make small content changes to its campaign. Instead of worrying about the development of an entirely new site, the team could focus on little updates that made a huge difference.

Exceeding Expectations

For the second year in a row, Fenwick held a day of giving campaign that exceeded its initial donor goal. Thanks to the reusable template from KDG, the school can look forward to plenty more record-breaking campaigns in the years to come.

screenshot of Fenwick's 2018 giving campaign

Becoming a Partner & Cheerleader

To engage both returning and new donors, the team used the custom crowdfunding template designed by the crowdfunding team at KDG. KDG had helped the school launch its inaugural giving campaign and looked forward to helping the school get students excited about this new annual tradition.

  • Re-usable template
  • 23 student-directed videos
  • Challenges and bonus gifts
  • Custom admin panel to track donor stats
  • "Coming Soon" page
  • On-campus events
  • Social media integration
  • 2,100+ donations & a 45% donation increase

A Winning Partnership

"It's a win-win... I really do feel that KDG is invested in the success of Fenwick."

Cindy Day Erwin, Director of Annual Giving Programs

Solutions

Creating New Experiences

Fenwick was able to entirely re-use the template from its 2017 “Raise the Shield” crowdfunding event, saving both time and money. However, to prevent donor fatigue, the page was refreshed with new content. Students created 23 exciting videos of the school’s mascot to share on the giving page throughout the day. In the videos, the mascot traveled through the community, getting people on and off campus excited about the campaign.

A Repeat Success

Both the team at Fenwick and the crowdfunding team at KDG were able to listen to feedback from the previous “Raise the Shield” campaign to ensure donors’ wants were being met. The “Coming Soon” page was enhanced and turned into a “Q&A” page, answering donors’ questions and reducing their anxiety. In addition, more events were held on both campus and social media, like a “decade challenges” where alumni could unlock bonus gifts.

Keeping Score

An admin panel with custom features built just for Fenwick helped the school keep track of its donors, gifts, and stats throughout the very busy day. The school had access to participation graphs, lists of referrals and affiliations, time charts, and much more. Any stat the school would need to gauge its engagement was at the ready and updated in real time.

Student Surprises

Students filmed nearly two dozen new videos which were shown throughout the day.

Staying Social

Social media profiles were embedded on the site so donors could see what was happening on campus.

Custom Admin Portal

A custom admin panel allowed the Fenwick staff to track donations during the day of giving.

Easy Engagement

The simple form was quick to fill out, especially on mobile devices.

Filtering Abilities

Fenwick's campaign featured easy ways to filter between donor type and class years.

Friendly Competition

Friendly competition was waged between graduating classes.

Real-Time Donor Data

The custom admin panel gave Fenwick leaders the opportunity to search for donors.

Fenwick high school logo

This year’s event really built upon the success of our 2017 campaign as we were able to re-engage last year’s participants and seek out new ones... Our Friar community has come to look forward to participating in the day and supporting Fenwick in this fun way.

Cindy Day Erwin,
Director of Annual Giving Programs

Most importantly, [KDG] took our feedback from the 2017 campaign and made improvements to their overall product... We continue to be grateful for their partnership and we look forward to continuing to develop the relationship in the future.

Cindy Day Erwin,
Director of Annual Giving Programs

By Matt Harwick | January 29, 2019

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