Establishment of Online Program and Continued Growth for Key Campaigns

In 2016, Eidolon began collaborating with NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP), New York’s most-trusted hospital network, to manage and cultivate their Annual Fund program, including the establishment of an online program. We created a plan for long-term development that has since expanded their digital presence and yielded significant revenue growth year over year.

Following an in-depth audit of existing Annual Fund initiatives, we proposed a robust online creative calendar featuring a healthy mix of fundraising, cultivation and engagement efforts throughout the year to steward their list of supporters, whose engagement had been largely limited to direct mail only. Our intent was to broaden NYP’s online communications outside of the traditional year-end fundraising window to provide another channel for corresponding mail campaigns, present donors with additional opportunities to support the Hospital and highlight the incredible and inspiring patient stories promoted through NYP’s Amazing Things marketing and advertising initiative.

Initiate Anchor Cultivation Efforts

We began by targeting three key areas of focus. First, we developed a monthly Annual Fund e-newsletter to help strengthen the connection between the donor and the impact of their support. The newsletter is comprised of carefully curated content showcasing the Hospital’s wealth of inspiring patient stories, useful health and wellness tips and updates in medical research. Since its inception, we continue to regularly test and optimize content and are pleased to report that the mailing consistently exceeds industry benchmarks for key engagement metrics. In fact, donor feedback on the e-newsletter has been so positive that we have since expanded the mailing to new donor segments at the request of NYP’s Annual Fund Major Gifts team.

Establish Giving Tuesday Campaign

Our second objective was to launch and subsequently grow NYP’s Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign with a goal to maximize online reach and increase revenue, and the campaign has experienced significant growth over the past three years. For the 2018 Giving Tuesday campaign, however, we were privileged to capitalize on an exciting opportunity: Blackbaud selected NYP as one of several organizations whose campaigns were promoted on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, New York City, through proactive media outreach leading up to and during Giving Tuesday. Additionally, Aaron Boone, manager of the New York Yankees and a noted community influencer, agreed to promote NYP’s Giving Tuesday campaign on social media. We capitalized on these exciting developments by weaving this incredible energy into our strategic email appeal schedule which, along with a coordinated push on social media and the promotion of an online supporter toolkit, helped build momentum leading up to, as well as the day of, the campaign. This excitement was undoubtedly reflected in the results. The number of Giving Tuesday email donors increased by an incredible 226%, netting a 37% increase in email revenue with an average gift of $286 — well above the health industry average of $130. This, coupled with web, social media and other revenue resulted in over $50,000 in total Giving Tuesday revenue, exceeding the targeted goal by 38%!

Fueled by the success of the 2018 campaign, we expanded our collaboration with NYP even further in 2019, working in conjunction with the Annual Fund, Major Gifts and Marketing teams. To build on the previous year’s momentum, we developed a campaign theme centered around the Hospital’s "Everyday Heroes," highlighting the moving stories of grateful patients and their families, in addition to showcasing the breadth of talent, dedication, compassion and perseverance that, together, embodies NYP’s incredible standard of excellence. Additionally, the campaign would reinforce the Hospital’s recent significant achievement: ranked as the #1 hospital in New York and a Top 5 hospital in the nation by U.S. News and World Report’s annual survey of "Best Hospitals."

The campaign theme was developed into a seven-part email series, with integrated social media and web components, including peer-to-peer fundraising and an interactive donor toolkit and ran over a period of three weeks, culminating with Giving Tuesday. The email creative featured compelling images of grateful patients, their families, hospital staff, impactful quotes and crisp, succinct copy. Each effort exemplified why donor support was greatly appreciated and so critical to sustaining NYP’s unparalleled suite of healthcare services.

The campaign results were incredible: The email series alone raised over $35,000, representing double the amount raised the previous year. In total, we raised over $133,000 from 163 gifts — a 468% and 83% increase respectively — with a $820 average gift.

Enhance Online Channels at Year-End

For our third and most crucial objective, we aimed to expand the NYP Annual Fund year-end fundraising campaign into the digital realm with increased success year over year. To start, we developed a targeted online appeal strategy that worked in tandem with the anchor November and December mail appeals. Utilizing a donor matching gift, the efforts were scheduled throughout the latter half of December through the final day of the calendar year and highlighted inspirational patient stories and featured deadline-driven copy and clear calls to action. These appeals were bolstered by a coordinated push on social media, along with an optimized giving landing page on the NYP website. In 2018, the email campaign experienced record growth — a 700% increase in the number of donors, with a 548% increase in revenue, totaling over $26,000. The average gift was $204 — once again, well above the health industry average of $130.

The online program is reflective of the success of the Annual Fund program at large. In 2018, with Eidolon’s collaboration and management, the program raised over $1.3 million in total revenue — shattering its targeted goal by 153%!

The online Year-End Match had another strong finish in 2019, despite some modest cannibalization from the successful Giving Tuesday earlier in the month. In total, the online match raised over $21,000 from 51 gifts. While email revenue dipped slightly from the previous year due to some donors contributing to the Giving Tuesday campaign, the average gift more than doubled at $412.