P.E.A.R.L Donor Recruitment Campaign

Graphic Design

Project Overview

P.E.A.R.L (Positive Energy Affecting Recovering Lives) had a problem retaining recurring monthly donors, instead receiving much of their funding from grants. To address this problem, my team and I were tasked with planning and creating a three stage marketing campaign to increase P.E.A.R.L's monthly donors for a goal of $3,000 per month.

The Process

While acting as team lead, I first planned which target market my teams campaign would be focused towards. We decided to aim the campaign towards those who had parents who had struggled with substance abuse disorders in the past. We named this target persona "Reita". Reita is a middle class mother in her mid 30’s. She is religious, believes in family values, and respects authority, but is not scared to show how she feels and advocates for family. She is not particularly empathetic unless it somehow affects her. Reita has experienced the effects of substance abuse in her childhood through her father, grandfather, mother, etc. Using this target persona, my team and I conceptualized the following three phase marketing campaign to increase P.E.A.R.L's monthly donors.

Phase 1: Direct Email Ad

The first phase of our donor recruitment campaign was focused on increasing awareness about P.E.A.R.L and their mission. In order to do this, my team and I planned and created a direct marketing ad meant to draw interest into P.E.A.R.L and direct potential donors to their website and social media profiles where they could learn more. This first phase begins the story of a younger "Reita", illustrating how her father has been struggling with substance abuse and has been getting more and more distant. The ad ends with questions directed towards the potential donors, making it clear that children like Reita's future can be changed with P.E.A.R.L's help. Included in this direct email ad would be links to P.E.A.R.L's social media profiles and website, with a focus on their Instagram and Facebook.

Phase 2: Social Media Posts

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

After increasing awareness around P.E.A.R.L and their causes, the second phase of the campaign was focused on convincing potential donors to make their first donation. In order to do this, my team and I planned out three social media posts that would be released sequentially. The social media platforms these posts were created for were Facebook and Instagram. We found that these two social media platforms had the greatest chance of reaching and getting interactions with our target market. These posts would continue to illustrate the story of Reita, a child whose parent(s) struggle with substance abuse disorder, through the format of a scrapbook. These posts illustrate the relationship between this child and their struggling parent(s), highlighting that P.E.A.R.L could be the one factor that ensures that "Reita" always has the parent(s) they deserve. These posts in particular focus on an emotional appeal for our target market, encouraging them that their donation could help parents be the guardian their children need with P.E.A.R.L's help, and prevent these children from feeling the pain that they may have gone through themselves. The captions of these posts would include a link to P.E.A.R.L's donation page and website, where these potential donors could make their first contributions to the cause.

Phase 3: Thank You & Follow Up

Finally, the third phase of this campaign focused on converting one time donors to repeat donors. After their first donation, donors would receive an email, thanking them for their donation. Included in this email would be a survey, asking how involved the donor is with P.E.A.R.L as well as asking for any feedback they wish to provide. In addition to these, each donor would also get a unique P.E.A.R.L donor sticker in the mail to include in their own scrapbooks. This phase is meant to make donors feel good about their contribution and entice them to donate again by highlighting how their donation has helped and praising them for donating in the first place.

Result

After presenting this campaign concept to P.E.A.R.L's president, we were told that our campaign perfectly matched P.E.A.R.L's mission, goals, and look. With our analysis, marketing deliverables, and thought-out plan, P.E.A.R.L was able to take inspiration from our project and implement concepts from it in their future campaigns.