For nearly 60 years, City Rescue Mission has been a beacon of hope to thousands in Oklahoma City and beyond. City Rescue Mission offers a path back to hope. Instead of indefinite shelter, they offer a clean, safe, temporary place to stay and successful programs and services to help people transform their lives for the better.
Our multichannel emergency response resulted in:
121%
increase in multichannel gross revenue and donor counts
330%
year-over-year rise in April DM gross revenue
118%
increase in multichannel renewal rates
121%
increase in multichannel gross revenue and donor counts
330%
year-over-year rise in April DM gross revenue
118%
increase in multichannel renewal rates
“We are so appreciative of RKD’s team approach and their ability to be nimble and pivot with an aggressive and innovative fundraising plan. Subsequently, this has allowed us to view the rest of the year much more proactively and positively and has put us actually substantially over budget at present.”
Debbie MacDonald, Development Director at City Rescue Mission
THE CHALLENGE
Challenging road ahead
City Rescue Mission faced a number of challenges due to COVID-19. Like many nonprofits, the organization was concerned about diminishing donations as unemployment numbers and positive cases began to rise. The significant hit to the oil and gas industry was also took an economic toll on the community in Oklahoma City. Furthermore, ongoing support of volunteers that helped with overhead was eliminated in March. Lastly, City Rescue Mission became the Alternative Care Homeless Shelter for COVID-19 positive and symptomatic patients, which required additional funding above and beyond their normal operating expenses. City Rescue Mission reached out to RKD to help begin the search for emergency revenue so they could adapt to the current reality.
THE SOLUTION
Integrated, multichannel response
RKD quickly pivoted to add an emergency COVID-19 appeal to the mail schedule. We also adjusted and coordinated our messaging across channels to highlight what City Rescue Mission was doing to address the current crisis. When we saw the increased response to our COVID-19 emergency appeals, we made the decision to add an extra acquisition drop to the mail schedule.
breakthrough
Significant increase in revenue
Our integrated, multichannel response was a significant revenue driver for City Rescue Mission this fiscal year. Both donor count and gross revenue was up 121% in digital and direct mail. They also saw a 118% increase in renewal rates. The March acquisition efforts generated positive net revenue and brought in 171% more donors than projected. The April appeal was the highest grossing appeal of the year, bringing direct mail revenue up 330% year-over-year.
