Nonprofit Project
Each year the Email Experience Council chooses a nonprofit with an email challenge and assembles a team of expert members to help them achieve their goals. We think there's no better way to showcase the power of email marketing than to demonstrate its incredible return on investment in the nonprofit sector, where manpower and financial power are especially precious. Our Nonprofit Projects also provide members with a chance to expand their skillsets and network with peers—all while giving back to the community.
Learn about our current and past Nonprofit Projects:
> 2007: The Women's Bean Project
> 2006: The Ryan Andrew Kaiser Memorial Foundation
Do you know of a worthy nonprofit that could use the help of the eec to improve their email marketing? If so, please let us know:
> Nominate a candidate for the eec's Nonprofit Project
2007: The Women's Bean Project
The Women's Bean Project (WBP) helps women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment by teaching workplace competencies for entry-level jobs through employment and by teaching job readiness skills in their gourmet food production business. Founded in 1989, the Denver-based nonprofit primarily provides employment through its catalog and online store, which sells bean soup, cornbread, salsa, brownie mixes and other food items made by the women in the program. Sales not only provide the women in the program with critical experience, they also defray a significant portion of the organization's overhead expenses.
The Goal: Build an email marketing program for the WBP, which had previously sent out event invites, calls for volunteers and donor announcements using Outlook. Construct a variety of email templates for different messaging to reach its three audiences: customers, donors and volunteers. Develop a content strategy and email calendar. Ensure that the WBP staff is sufficiently trained to continue the email program at the end of the project.
The Result: We developed an ambitious but practical content strategy for the Women's Bean Project, where email can help reach new audiences, drive more ecommerce sales and donations, and simplify volunteer outreach. Initial emails generated 32% open rates and 15% clickthrough rates. Page views from email subscribers are two times higher than other sources.
> For more on the project planning, read this September 2007 project update.
> For more on our competitive reconnaissance during the planning process, read "Competitive Recon for the Women's Bean Project".
> For more on the results of the project, read "How Email Impacts Society".
The Team: We'd like to thank all the eec members who helped make this project a success:
Executive Chair - Jeanniey Mullen of the Email Experience Council and Zinio
Project Chair - Stephanie Miller of Return Path
Project Manager - Colleen Petitt of Antics Online
ESP - Executive - Scott Bleczinski of ExactTarget
ESP - Account Manager - Laura Opperman of ExactTarget
Content Strategist - Susan Tull of Blue Hornet
Segmentation - Rachael Anderson of Blue Hornet
Content Development & Strategy Support - Darlene Garbe of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
Creative Designer - Blue Hornet
Analytics - Jeff Herrity of RedBoots Digital
Metrics & Measurements - Gregg Oldring of Industry Mailout and Chris Harris, Blackbaud, Inc.
Deliverability & List Growth - Sarah Hsueh of Leapfrog Enterprises
Fundraising Message Strategy - Bryn Erich of Future Integrated Marketing
Project Administration & Competitive Reconnaissance - Chad White of the Email Experience Council
Project Administration - Ali Swerdlow of the Email Experience Council
2006: Ryan Andrew Kaiser Memorial Foundation
The Ryan Andrew Kaiser Memorial Foundation (RAKMF) raises and donates grants and funding for the care and cure of pediatric heart patients. The New Jersey-based organization was established in late 2003 by Andy Kaiser after his 6-year-old son, Ryan, who was born with Complex Congenital Heart Disease, died unexpectedly. RAKMF's mission is to (1) financially assist local families with critically ill children, who may not otherwise be able to afford proper healthcare; (2) provide grants and funding to doctors and hospital groups that specialize in the care and cure of pediatric heart patients; and (3) fund, plan and build childrens playgrounds.
The Goal: The primary goal was to introduce email into the fundraising and news sharing mix. A secondary goal was to update the website with an email opt-in option, and a donation capability. Most efforts would be focused on a pre-event newsletter series to support Ryan's Run, RAKMF's fundraising 5K run. Multichannel efforts included using the email series in conjunction with social networks and radio to drive awareness and participation in Ryan's Run and solicit donations.
The Result: RAKMF used email and a Gather.com group to drive people to tune into a live radio interview with Andy Kaiser, as well as a recorded version of the interview, which discussed the foundation and its upcoming Ryan's Run event. Rented lists to a very targeted and local group helped drive awareness as well as interest in the event. Finally, email opt-in on the site enabled RAKMF supporters to stay up to date on events leading up to the event, following the event and to learn more about donations being made. All together, the promotional effort doubled online donations, while also growing its email list by 10%.
> For more on the overall project planning, view this PowerPoint presentation.
> For more on RAKMF's deliverability issues, view this PowerPoint presentation.
> For a sample of the creative design, view this sample email.
> For more on the results of the event promotion, view this PowerPoint presentation.
The Team: We'd like to thank all the eec members who helped make this project a success:
Project Co-Chair - Jeanniey Mullen of the Email Experience Council and OgilvyOne worldwide
Project Co-Chair - Paul Beck of OgilvyOne worldwide
Jim Scova of VentureDirect
Michelle Eichner of Pivotal Veracity
Dave Dabbah of Lyris
Steve Carey of eStara
Theresa Lewis of CBS Radio
Tom Gerace of Gather.com
Nominate a candidate for the eec's Nonprofit Project
The Email Experience Council choses a new nonprofit project early each summer. If you have a recommendation of a nonprofit organization that could benefit from our assistance, please let us know by completing the form below.
new from the roundtables
May 12, 2008: The eec's Nonprofit Project shares a recap of their work with the Women's Bean Project. Read How Email Impacts Society.
Apr. 3, 2008: The List Growth & Engagement Roundtable shares the takeaways from their latest meeting discussion, which involved tackling the list growth challenge of how to deal with lapsed subscribers. Read List Growth Challenge: Lapsed Subscribers.
Feb. 27, 2008: The Clients-Only Roundtable shares notes from a recent meeting where they discussed what kept them up at night. The Roundtable's chair, Brian Ellefritz of Cisco Systems, said, "We hope the vendor and agency side is listening because what we said—and heard—speaks volumes for unmet needs." Read Notes from the Client Side.
Feb. 22, 2008: The Advocacy Roundtable publishes the latest post in its Email Advocate blog series, discussing the use of the CAN-SPAM Act against a Las Vegas-based company peddling HGH via email.
Feb. 12, 2008: The List Growth & Engagement Roundtable releases an interactive Excel calculator to help retailers measure the ROI of their acquisition and retention email mailings, including deployment costs, list growth calculations, and more. See a sample of the ROI Calculator for Retailers or visit the Whitepaper Room to download it. The calculator is $49 for non-members, discounted for silver and gold members, and free to platinum members. (Learn more about membership.)
Jan. 30, 2008: The Advocacy Roundtable publishes the latest post in its Email Advocate blog series, addressing the status of the FTC’s CAN-SPAM rulemaking and whether the agency is going to reduce the opt-out timeframe.
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