Challenge
For fifty years Save the Sound (STS) has led environmental action in the Long Island Sound area in Connecticut and New York. For the org’s year end package, we aimed to create a campaign that went deeper than the standard “this is your last chance to give this year.”
Solution
We highlighted STS’s heroic 50-year history, but from a donor-centric POV that celebrated accomplishments because of supporter help. Every focused on just two things: 1) Impact: Look back at the difference you’ve made through Save the Sound. 2) Urgency: Consider what happens if we stop the fight now. Because the organization has two strong supporter contingents: one in Connecticut and one in Long Island, we created two custom letters. Each version spotlighted geography-specific accomplishments and challenges. A full, color insert common to both packages illustrated a particular moment of truth – The Summer We Almost Lost the Sound – when a catastrophic sewage run-off in 1978 turned one-third of the Sound into a dead zone. The flip side of the insert, headlined “The Future Is in Your Hands,” puts the focus back on donors and spells out exactly what STS can – but only if supporters step up.
Results
With a response rate of nearly 9.4%, an average gift of almost $96, and additional revenue from a related email series, the “50 Years of Fighting” appeal was STS’s best performer of the year. The donor-centric “look back/look forward” theme, personalized-to-geography approach resonated deeply with donors. This package was awarded a 2024 DMAW SILVER MAX.
