of the estimated goal reached
Individual Donors
Campaign Ambassadors
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Christian Brothers Academy (also known as CBA or "The Academy"),located in the Lincroft section of Middletown Township, New Jersey is a private, all-boys preparatory school for grades nine to twelve, with a focus on Christian education. The school is run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.
A rich and rigorous curriculum, programs of spiritual formation, and a broad range of academic, athletic, and cultural activities enable CBA students to become intellectually mature and morally responsible leaders for the Church and society.
With over 16,000+ constituents spread across the world, the Academy is a 2-time National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence winner.
Christian Brothers Academy anticipated an increased need for financial aid in the wake of COVID-19. During these challenging times, financial aid plays a key role as the Academy tries to focus its efforts on supporting its community. The Academy is accountable for ensuring that no student leaves school due to financial concerns and continues to receive the education that he deserves once this situation dies down.
While Christian Brothers Academy anticipated the immediate need to raise funds, their staff had never hosted a Giving Day previously and therefore, lacked relevant experience. To add to that, social restrictions amidst COVID-19 made it impossible for the Academy to make fundraising asks the traditional way. Christian Brothers Academy had to completely switch to the virtual mode to communicate, connect, and urge its community to contribute to their cause.
The advancement efforts at Christian Brothers Academy is overseen by a five-member team. However, the driving force behind Giving Day fundraising at the Academy is Thomas Ferro, the Director of The Fund for The Academy. Thomas Ferro had the massive task of catering to 16,000+ constituents while shouldering the responsibility of hosting Christian Brother Academy’s first-ever Giving Day with only 30 days to go.
The economic impact of COVID-19 prompted Christian Brothers Academy to think of various strategies to better connect with their community during these testing times and garner their support to bring in much needed funds to ensure long-term stability. The Academy hosted their first-ever giving day, successfully raising over $77,000 in 24 hours.
The Academy set up a branded giving page and ensured a smooth registration process for constituents.
Christian Brothers Academy created a solid marketing plan to make their first giving day a success. In the light of strict social distancing measures, the Academy adopted a virtual communication strategy to be able to connect with their community and get maximum participation.
Christian Brothers Academy upped their game on social media and made brilliant use of email marketing to spread awareness and rally support for their Academy Giving Day campaign.
Here's a glimpse of the Facebook campaign #coltshelpingcolts rallying support from alumni, parents, and friends.
Follow this link to check out the Academy’s #coltshelpingcolts campaign.
The Academy also made use of email marketing and news features via the school’s alumni platform to keep their constituents notified about updates and rally support for their giving day.
Here’s a quick look at the targeted email campaign Christian Brothers Academy sent to its constituents. The Academy also ensured to include information about parent challenges and gift matching challenges in these emails, incentivizing the community to make a contribution.
$ 77,237.68 raised
85% of the estimated goal reached
248 online gifts
Christian Brothers Academy leveraged the support of its online community to amplify the impact of donations. The school provided its donors with the ability to track the impact of their contribution and also have an insight into who influenced the most number of gifts. With the click of a button, donors could effectively reach their entire social media network and share their contribution measurable via real-time stats, influencing their peers to also donate for the Academy’s cause.
The Academy leveraged gamification techniques like leaderboards, challenges, and tributes to invoke a healthy sense of competition amongst class years and various constituent groups.
19K gifts influenced by campaign supporters
24% of total gifts came through peer-to-peer solicitation
From creating a branded giving page to gift processing, all fundraising functions could be handled via a single dashboard easily. This made end-to-end campaign management easy, efficient, and helped Thomas Ferro single-handedly focus on implementing marketing campaigns to boost participation at the giving day.
The advancement team had access to real-time insight into all important metrics including the number of donors, total gift amount, campaign ambassadors, social shares, email engagement rates, and much more. This data is easily accessible and downloadable by the staff members and acts as an efficient data point for the school to plan future campaigns.
Christian Brothers Academy continues to support its constituents throughout the COVID-19 crisis and organize giving campaigns round the year with Almabase. Head over to the Academy's alumni website.