Increasing Fundraising Efficiencies
Advocate Charitable Foundation, Downers Grove, IL
SUMMARY
The Advocate Charitable Foundation (ACF) serves as the philanthropic arm for Advocate Health Care, a 14 hospital system that serves greater Chicagoland.
SITUATION
Realizing that the organization was underutilizing its internal constituents and mail program to generate gifts and revenue, ACF turned to Copley Raff to optimize its direct marketing and employee giving programs, as well as to create and execute an annual development program that would result in significantly higher participation rates, gift size, frequency, and fundraising ROI.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
Copley Raff consultants conducted a comprehensive assessment of ACF’s direct mail and annual giving programs including a review of past goals, metrics, results, materials, and strategies. Based on these findings, our experience, and fluency in healthcare-specific best practices, Copley Raff developed a three-year direct marketing strategy and presented recommendations for reallocating development staff resources. Copley Raff also brought the annual associates giving campaign to the next level through targeted, multichannel communications, and contributed to a study of employee philanthropy attitudes.
MOVING THE NEEDLE
• Reduced personnel expenses by two thirds
• Reduced consulting expenses by 40%
• Reduced overall expenses by 42%
• Increased the number of new donors by nearly 100%
