Catholic Medical Mission Board

Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) is an international humanitarian relief agency. They conduct international medical and volunteer programs to provide basic health care to people in need throughout the world. Working with in-country partners such as CRS, Caritas and others, CMMB meets essential needs by providing medicines, medical expertise and service.

Challenge

CMMB realized the need to improve their web presence in order to increase revenue for their Direct Marketing program. They faced a number of challenges, including the following:

• Lacking sophistication in online efforts, including the ability to track visitor activity on CMMB's Web site.

• Experiencing stagnation in online donations, possibly caused by generic donation form that left prospects and donors uninspired to give.

• Having web-based initiatives and offline development efforts managed separately, which led to non-integrated messaging for e-campaigns and direct mail programs.

• Needing to improve Web presence to increase revenue for direct mail program.

Solution & Results

CMMB worked with Amergent to identify and implement an online fundraising tool set from Convio in order to develop effective, integrated multi-channel marketing programs. Amergent, CMMB’s fundraising database management firm and direct marketing agency, worked closely with NPAdvisors and Convio to help CMMB implement an effective online strategy that compliments their successful direct mail programs. This initiative included the development of appropriate messaging and customized donation pages that truly integrated CMMB’s online campaigns with the organization’s direct mail appeals. Various types of messages were tested in order to tailor future campaigns based upon the results. CMMB is now able to more effectively engage existing donors and increase renewal rates, as well as acquire new donors through viral marketing.

These efforts led to an increase in online giving from just over $32,000 in FY03 to more than $168,000 in FY07, with online donations nearly doubling during the first year using Convio.
CMMB launched an 'All Souls' appeal in October 2006, which led to more than 600 prayers being sent through Convio and has now become an annual event and a key donor stewardship tool.

CMMB grew their email list from 4,000 in 2005 to 32,000 in 2007 through new online registrations and donors, as well as through email appends that were followed by confirmation emails to the appended constituents.

Currently, CMMB is launching new cross-departmental initiatives, including chaperoned emails that utilized the services of American Catholic, Catholic Online and Catholic Exchange.

“By combining the strategic consulting services of Amergent and NPAdvisors and utilizing Convio’s e-CRM tools we have increased our online giving in four years, from $32,000 to more than $168,000, and grown our email list from 4,000 to 32,000."

- Dominic Manfredi, Direct Marketing Manager, Catholic Medical Mission Board