the challenge
The Children’s Hospital Foundation Telethon is the feel-good fundraising event of the year with a live broadcast jam-packed with entertainment, extraordinary patients, and family stories. After having to postpone the event entirely in 2021, the team at the Children’s Hospital Foundation (CHF) were looking to recapture the magic of their Telethon in 2022. The goal was to meet previous best results and improve on the direct response components of the campaign.
how we tackled it
Working closely with the team at CHF, FED developed a list of key tactics to be implemented to lift income back to 2019 levels. They included:
1. Maximise existing data sources
2. Maximise dollar matching and on the day income
3. Make communications more fun and more engaging
Across all assets, the language and design created an atmosphere of excitement. Child Ambassadors were always front and centre to reinforce the Why. We demonstrated the impact of dollar matching on their personalised dollar handles. More, and longer eDMs, were developed, each with multiple asks and even GIFs and emojis.
A conscious decision was also made to shift budget towards SMS.
the result
CHF’s 2022 Telethon was a massive success, raising over $400,000 in income from direct response channels—13% ahead of our goal to match the income generated in 2019, the best year to date.
Together, we also raised the average gift by 13.9% from over 4,700 donations made. It was an outstanding achievement, and a testament to the hard work put forth by all teams, on complex campaigns across multiple channels and stakeholders.
