SUMMARY
New Life Camp is a Christian youth camp that’s been serving Raleigh for more than 65 years. In addition to offering summer camps, NLC offers sport clubs, homeschool programs and rental facilities. Having faithfully served more than 100,000 campers since inception, the camp’s original facilities were in dire need of revitalization to meet the year-round needs of the ever-growing ministry.
CHALLENGE
In May 2017, NLC publicly spearheaded its first ever capital campaign (CAMP ON) in which they sought out to raise $3M to renovate their facilities. Angel Oak was hired one year prior to the public launch to execute strategic marketing efforts for both the quiet and public phases of their $3MM capital campaign.
SOLUTION
Based on data pulled from a feasibility study, Angel Oak Creative developed processes and strategies to target three audiences: major donors, churches and the general public. These efforts included:
- Branding the capital campaign
- Developing a detailed communications flow process for donor cultivation touch points
- Creating a NLC email marketing account for ongoing campaign updates
- Producing thank-you and milestone update videos
- Designing campaign-specific collateral
- Training staff on all processes and ensuring the processes were being followed over time
OBJECTIVES
Branding for
capital campaign
Buy-in
from community
Consistent
messaging
Segmented
audiences
Marketing strategy
and execution
STRATEGIES INITIATED
Brand Identity
Creating both a visual identity and personality/voice for the capital campaign to ensure consistency in representation and messaging throughout all communications platforms.
Emotional Connection
Leveraging an emotional storytelling approach that pulled on the heartstrings of all potential donors by awakening the nostalgic joys of summer camp while creating a sense of responsibility that future generations are depending on the community to keep NLC alive.
Personification
Placing a strong emphasis on children (past, present and future) by bringing them alive in communications efforts through everything from children’s handprints on direct mailers to personal thank you’s from kids speaking directly into the camera.
Consistent and Segmented Communication
Providing clear and consistent communications efforts to community through development and execution of a holistic marketing plan.
Customized Donor Journey
Incorporating personalized thank you’s from both the organization (executive director) and the participants (children) through customized videos and handwritten letters from each.
RESULTS
$650K
raised during private phase
350+
total donors
6
total media outlets secured
4,000
website sessions
$2MM
raised in first year
Brand Development
After exploring several potential campaign brands, NLC settled on CAMP ON: rejoice in the past, imagine the future. NLC wanted to ensure the emphasis of this capital campaign was not on the here and now, rather on stewarding the summer camp facilities for the many generations of campers to come.
Collateral Development
Once the brand was established and finalized, we created a variety of campaign collateral including stationery, letterhead, envelopes, sponsor packets, informational rack cards, pledge cards, case for support brochures, vinyl banners and more.
Direct Mail
Over the course of the campaign, we executed three direct mailers: a campaign launch mailer, a match challenge mailer and an Alumni Association postcard. The campaign launch mailer and alumni association postcards were mailed to NLC’s entire database (6000+). The match challenge mailer was mailed to a target audience of 1700 households consisting of general donors, lapsed donors and current CAMP ON donors.
Multimedia
Nothing resonates like visual storytelling. Video and photography are powerful tools for showing people the heart and soul of New Life Camp. That’s why we incorporated high-quality video and photos into all marketing efforts, including email, social, website and collateral.
Digital
We maximized all channels of digital media throughout the course of CAMP ON, including email marketing efforts, social media, website landing pages and crowdfunding.
Public Relations
When you have a story as compelling as NLC’s story, you tell it! That’s why, upon campaign launch, we distributed the following media pitch (and we got quite the response).
