The Client
Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides provide Dog Guides in 7 distinct Dog Guide programs, which empower Canadians living with disabilities to navigate their world with confidence and independence. Dog Guides are provided at no cost to Canadians in need. The cost to raise, train and match a Dog Guide is $35,000, with all costs covered for the lifetime of the Dog Guide. The Foundation relies on donations to provide these special matches and does not receive any government funding. Dog Guides are available for people who are visually impaired, are deaf or hard of hearing, for children on the autism spectrum, for people who have seizures or diabetes, or another medical or physical disability that restricts their independence. Lions Foundation of Canada also provides Dog Guides to agencies working with people in traumatic situations.The Challenge
HMA has been working with The Foundation to grow their legacy program – inspiring existing donors to give as well as finding new supporters. We have sent legacy appeals through the mail as well as ensured newsletters carry the story of a legacy supporter. At this time, we decided to test digital lead generation to see if we can inspire new audiences to be inspired to leave a bequest.The Solution
HMA developed, deployed, and managed a social media legacy campaign to help raise awareness about the impact people can have by leaving a gift in their will to Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, and to uncover excellent leads. This is an example of HMA’s approach to legacies: unearthing quality leads as well as inspiring people to leave a bequest who we know will never let the organization know. (Research tells us this is 4/5 bequest donors.)
We developed a series of digital ads carried on Facebook and Instagram, which lead to a tailored landing page where the lead could read more about legacy giving, watch a Dog Guide in action video, and fill out their contact details to either receive a digital will kit or to receive one in the mail. We encouraged leads to provide their mailing address, by offering a hard copy of the will kit along with a Dog Guide branded luggage tag.
The Results
Within 24 hours, 19 people had requested the will kit. This grew to 84 people after a week. By the end of the month, 359 people had requested the digital or print will kit. The client and HMA were thrilled with these results. The cost per lead was $6.49. In addition, The Foundation reached almost 58,000 people with this legacy message. We know that many of these people will be inspired as well, without needing the will kit. This has become the most successful legacy initiative The Foundation has ever conducted. Some of the biggest successes of this campaign were finding new potential donors, uncovering their current donors who are interested in making a gift in their will, developing new relationships, and also being able to turn on or off this campaign depending on other priorities and staff time.
Client: Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides Legacy
Services: Legacy Giving, Digital, Integrated Fundraising
