A global faith-based client is committed to presenting the life-changing message of the gospel to the world, from radio and television programs to public evangelistic events. As the ministry’s 50^th anniversary approached in 2023, it saw an opportunity to increase both engagement and gifts from its donor base. Thanks to a strategic partnership with Allegiance Group + Pursuant (AGP), they doubled their original fundraising goal for a strong finish to 2022.

The Challenge

In anticipation of the ministry’s 50^th anniversary year in 2023, they planned more evangelistic outreach than ever. So, it sought to drive high participation and funds raised for its 2022 calendar year-end campaign in preparation.

The ministry wanted to create a matching challenge gift to present to its annual fund donors in order to propel higher revenue. Its goal was to raise a $100,000 matching challenge gift among mid-level and major donors. The ministry’s leaders knew that if they could secure a $100,000 challenge gift ahead of time, they could motivate other donors to match the challenge when it was announced at calendar year-end 2022.

The Solution

The ministry strategically focused on engaging two distinct groups:

1. Current mid-level or major donors who had contributed a single gift of $750 or more between January 2021 and July 2022
2. Donors who had made a single gift of $750 or more but had not yet been recognized as mid-level or major donors in the ministry’s records or who may have fallen into other categories, such as monthly giving

With the help of AGP’s strategic team, a matching challenge direct mail and email campaign was created and sent to these two groups in September 2022. The campaign asked them to create a $100,000 matching challenge fund. In total, 1,731 donors were targeted.

The Results

Of the 1,731 individuals targeted, 102 responded, for a 6% response rate. The average gift was $1,741, and a remarkable $253,000 was raised for the matching challenge. This gave the ministry a strong ending to the 2022 calendar year.

Despite surpassing its targeted matching challenge amount, the ministry chose to stick with its original plan of offering a $100,000 match to all other donors. When the calendar year-end arrived, they targeted its main file of annual fund donors with a general direct mail piece and email. The communication highlighted the opportunity of a $100,000 match gift and presented them with a gift array encouraging recipients to contribute so it could meet the challenge.

Overall, during the 2022 calendar year-end period, the ministry not only surpassed its $100,000 matching fund goal by 153%, but it also exceeded its overall prior year-end fundraising.

What’s more, throughout 2023, the ministry’s team has delivered on the evangelistic outreach it asked donors to help grow and support during the year.

In September 2023, they repeated the strategic approach of asking a similar group to create a higher matching challenge of $150,000 for the end of the 2023 calendar year. Again, with the help of the AGP team, and thankful reflection on the many stories of impact, donors responded overwhelmingly by providing more than $350,000 to create the matching challenge.

The ministry also partnered with GivingDNA to upgrade more donors. Read about its success.