Project
EMI CANADA: EMI’s Record-Breaking Financial Year
Project Scope
Brand Strategy Development
Fundraising Messaging
EMI Canada first approached Graf-Martin Communications for help refining the organization’s brand language, with the goal of bringing clarity to their donor messaging.
As an international not-for-profit, EMI offers specialized engineering and architectural services to enhance the work of frontline relief and development organizations. Their work supports and improves access to essential services like clean water, shelter, healthcare, and education in Canada and worldwide.
In other words, they do complicated but important work that is changing people’s lives.
EMI needed to develop a content strategy that would communicate the impact of their work with clarity while prompting prospective donors to respond. In collaboration with the team at EMI, an end-of-year fundraising campaign was established as the focal point of our efforts.
The Challenge
As with any year-end fundraising campaign, the greatest challenge was being heard above the noise of the holiday season. Not only is there the bustle of the holidays to contend with; virtually every charitable organization is looking to meet their giving/donation targets as the end of year approaches.
EMI needed to distinguish itself from the crowd with strategic timing and a message that would resonate deeply with its audience. Effective appeal development would be crucial to launching a campaign that would connect with EMI’s donors.
The Solution: Engineering a Successful Campaign
To address this challenge, we developed a year-end campaign with multiple digital and print touchpoints. After identifying key dates for the campaign, it was determined that four emails and one print appeal would be created with a singular call to action (CTA) across each.
An overriding theme and engaging story were selected, and then our copywriters went to work creating the series of appeals. Each appeal was filtered through the lens of the target personas we had developed for EMI’s core audiences. The language and tone were meticulously tailored to align with each persona, fostering a sense of familiarity and connection with readers.
Raised 86.67% over their fundraising goal.
7.2% CTR
379.25% ROI on print mailing
The Results: 87% Over Goal
Utilizing a multi-point digital marketing campaign, a conventional print piece and strategic calendar deployment was a winning combination.
EMI Canada surpassed their end-of-year donation targets by 86.67%. The email campaigns achieved a remarkable click-through rate (CTR) of 7.2%. And direct mail contributions yielded an impressive return on investment (ROI) of 379.25%.
The outstanding response to the end-of-year campaign resulted in a record-breaking financial year for EMI. Executive director Greg Young was overjoyed.
““The team at Graf-Martin was instrumental in the success of our end-of-year campaign,” said Greg. “Their strategic approach, creative insights, and dedication to getting the message ‘just right’ significantly elevated our outreach. We couldn’t be more happy with the results.””
Ready to Break Some Records?
Whether you're looking to amplify your next campaign or seeking fresh, innovative strategies to engage your audience, we're here to help. Graf-Martin Communications will partner with your organization on marketing strategy, content development, fundraising, copywriting, design, and more to turn your vision into reality.