The Deaconess Foundation’s Christmas campaign results were a positive surprise

The Deaconess Foundation is boldly working for human dignity. The foundation helps people in need, regardless of age, gender, or social status. It also does a lot of important work for young people at risk of social exclusion.

In December 2020, we had the opportunity to be part of the Deaconess Foundation’s Hetkinen campaign, which aimed to strengthen the Deaconess Foundation’s brand and raise awareness as a donation target, as well as encourage Finnish companies and individuals to make donations to prevent social exclusion.

Visit the campaign page

A more unified service achieved through the website redesign

When our collaboration with the Deaconess Foundation started in 2018, our main goal was to streamline the online service and improve the cost-effectiveness of the website. We built a multisite, where the Deaconess Foundation, Hoiva, and later Rinnekoti websites were combined into one cohesive entity. We also did a lot of content strategy work together, and the Deaconess Foundation’s website won a Gold Award as well as the Best Content Award at the Finnish Web Awards, which honors the best website designers and creators of the year.

The structure and content of the redesigned website now serve the Deaconess Foundation’s various target groups more effectively — both customers and members of the organization. Since donations are crucial for the Deaconess Foundation’s nonprofit activities, creating a seamless conversion path was key. The website redesign and the agile way it allows for the creation of campaign pages turned out to be an excellent foundation for the Hetkinen campaign as well.

An impactful campaign to prevent youth social exclusion

We participated as a partner in the Hetkinen campaign, which aimed to prevent youth social exclusion. The Deaconess Foundation reached out to us because they wanted to reach a larger audience through Google’s advertising opportunities and ensure the functionality of digital analytics. In addition to fundraising goals, the campaign aimed to increase the Deaconess Foundation’s brand awareness and online presence. The Google Ads component of the campaign and the tracking of online donations were planned in November 2020 and ran throughout December.

Earlier in the fall, we conducted a keyword mapping based on the Deaconess Foundation’s users, which served as the foundation for the campaign’s search engine advertising. The campaign leveraged Google’s advertising opportunities, including keyword, Display, and YouTube ads. We also took care of the campaign’s analytics and reporting results to the Deaconess Foundation.

The campaign’s target audience was broad, as many people are interested in donating to support youth and contribute to a vital cause. However, donations on the Deaconess Foundation’s website had previously played a relatively small role compared to other activities. The goal was to strengthen the donation aspect, and the campaign executed in December served as an excellent first step in this direction. Christmas is traditionally an important time for organizations collecting donations. This also means that the competition is fierce – many organizations run effective, multi-channel campaigns to raise donations during the holiday season.

Cost-effective campaigning with strong results

The Hetkinen campaign also sought new donors through television and printed direct marketing. Online, the marketing was multi-channel, including social media, email, and banner ads. Online campaigns are cost-effective because the messages can be targeted very precisely to different audience segments. Our digital campaign delivered fantastic results, thanks to the precision targeting and, of course, the Deaconess Foundation’s strong online presence. The campaign’s results and the amount raised through donations surprised both the client and us.

The campaign was highly successful, especially considering the fierce competition during the Christmas season and the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic. Moreover, the campaign was executed without major changes to the Deaconess Foundation’s website. The number of online donations increased dramatically by 62% due to the Christmas campaign, and site visits grew by 75% compared to the previous year’s December. The new campaign also boosted traffic compared to November: in December 2020, the website saw 159% more visitors than in November.

Thanks to the campaign, we raised awareness about youth social exclusion and reached many Finns, many of whom ended up donating. Among Google’s ad types, search ads generated the most direct donations, while YouTube and Display ads served as excellent awareness-raisers and achieved great coverage.

"The Hetkinen campaign was a great success! Donation amounts grew across all channels, and we reached millions of Finns, making the Deaconess Foundation well-known as a donation target. Thanks to Evermade, we got stylish websites and excellently executed advertising through Google’s ad platforms. The online donation analytics also worked like a charm. With the fantastic fundraising results and the data gathered from the campaign, it’s even more exciting to move towards new records – especially with a trusted partner like Evermade by our side."

Pertti Keinänen

Fundraising Specialist, the Deaconess Foundation

Activities we also want to support

In Finland, there are around 60 000 young people who are either unemployed or outside of education, making them at risk of social exclusion. Thanks to the Deaconess Foundation’s donation activities, a lot is being achieved: the Foundation provides young people with much-needed support, from everyday essentials to future planning, and helps them transition into work and education. With the help of donors, more and more people at genuine risk of exclusion are able to reconnect with life. It is also an honor for us to be involved in supporting such activities. The work done for the benefit of young people strongly aligns with our values and the issues we consider important.

Our long-standing collaboration with the Deaconess Foundation has been rewarding, and we aim to continue improving their online services in the future. Our next focus in the partnership is, for example, making monthly donations even more appealing. We also want to clarify the website’s main message for different target audiences – because the Deaconess Foundation offers a wide range of services and activities, we aim to provide the right content to the right groups with even greater precision.