Every day, millions of seniors across America face the threat of hunger, depression, and isolation. Now, COVID-19 has made what was already an urgent issue into a crisis. Meals on Wheels America’s mission to serve our nation’s seniors has never been more important or more in need of support than right now. Our assignment was to develop a digital fundraising campaign that inspires a new community of supporters to join us in this time of need.

The “Act Fast. Together.” Campaign

Creative Approach: We developed a rapidly-deployed social media fundraising campaign that leveraged current consumer behavior on social to drive short-term development goals. By utilizing compelling portraits of actual seniors who receive support from local Meals on Wheels America member organizations, we told an urgent personal story of human need. Visually, we introduced a new brand color—a previously unused red—chosen to communicate urgency and we added video to strengthen the message, which was focused on community and connection.

Media Approach: We focused on our highest-value prospects by capitalizing on learnings from previous larger campaigns and smaller, micro-moments to target our proven audiences. And, we broadened outreach by testing new audiences—specifically younger, active users of social media who were interested in social causes. With real-time optimization, and by tracking the impact of our media vs. other traffic to the page, we optimized our media campaigns and made website updates based on user behavior.

Viewers acted fast with acts of generosity. Not only did we see a 57% increase in donations, we also saw a 183% increase in monetary value of donations. Meals on Wheels America had a 100% increase in website sessions week over week and a 26% increase in new subscribers to their email list.