City of Hope’s mission is to end cancer for all. To get closer to that goal, City of Hope needed to impact growth in two key donor segments: new donors and key multi-year donors.
24%
increase in paid media revenue in FY25
28%
increase in gifts from FY24
66%
of donors are in the key segments of new donors and key multi-year donors
The Situation
City of Hope began working with AGP at the start of FY2024, aiming to grow overall revenue and bring new donors to the City of Hope mission. Key to ensuring we would meet and exceed revenue goals was bringing in net new donors and key multi-year donors.
The Work
AGP crafted a customized full-funnel paid media program that immediately refined the media mix, partnerships, and placements based on their historical performance. Partnerships and budgets continue to evolve based on real-time performance data across ad platforms and the City of Hope donor file. AGP brought new partnerships to the table, including one that allowed City of Hope to target potential donors with a known connection to cancer using fully NAI and HIPAA-compliant data. The paid media efforts were closely integrated with direct mail and email efforts, delivering a true omnichannel campaign.
Deliverables
- Paid media strategy, copywriting, optimization, design, and analysis across programmatic display, native, CTV, paid search, Google Performance Max, and paid social. The paid media program for City of Hope is part of a true omnichannel program that also leverages AGP’s expertise in direct mail and email efforts.
The Results
- FY25 revenue from paid media was up 24%, and gifts were up 28% from FY24.
- New donors and key multi-year donors were the top two segments delivered by paid media:
- 46% of donors driven by paid media were new to COH
- 22% of donors were key multi-year donors
- Many paid media donors also went on to give through other channels, such as email or direct mail. Approximately 25% of total revenue from paid media-sourced donors in FY25 was directed to other channels.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) blows category benchmarks out of the water:
- Search: 82% higher
- Display: 71% higher
- Social: 277% higher
- Paid media was more effective at reactivating lapsed donors than any other channel.
- Our continued optimizations have driven continued growth in FY26. After just the first few months of the fiscal:
- Paid media has driven 84% of the full previous fiscal paid media revenue and 68% of the total donors.
- Average gift is up 139% over FY25.
- 66% of donors are in the key segments of new donors and key multi-year donors.
Paid media plays a critical role in acquiring new, quality donors for City of Hope. It has continued to be a strong part of our record-breaking annual giving program.
Jennifer lomax
Senior executive director – direct response, office of philanthropy at city of hope
