The Food Bank of WNY obtains food and support from public and private sources and efficiently redistributes the food to affiliated charitable providers such as soup kitchens, pantries and shelters. An anonymous donor contributed $50,000 hoping to solicit a matching amount from the community.

The Food Bank had two major goals:

• Solicit donations to match or exceed the original $50,000
• Increase their donor database by leveraging new and/or younger donors

Our challenge was to communicate the Food Bank’s message while soliciting donations and capturing data. Donors were older and the Food Bank did not have significant digital outreach; they had not captured their donors’ electronic data such as email addresses.

The theme of the campaign, “We need 81 from everyone,” plays off (then current) Buffalo Bill Terrell Owens’ (TO) jersey number and requested that every individual donate 81 cents and every business donate 81 dollars to assist the Food Bank.

We developed a campaign that mixed direct marketing, traditional media and interactive media, with heavy emphasis on social media tactics. In addition to a main donation microsite, we created a series of social media properties to drive traffic to the donation website and help spread the community message. Using social media facilitated data collection: Users could interact with the Food Bank in different channels and self-identify on-going channels of communication.The use of TO leveraged a hot topic in Buffalo, his arrival to play with the Buffalo Bills. Owens’ popularity in the local community and in social media communities helped get out the Food Bank donation message. TO’s celebrity allowed the message to rise above the calls of various non-profits in the region asking for donations. What’s more, we could tap into the network of Western New York expatriates who were still interested in helping their hometown.

The day after the press conference, our campaign was on the FRONT cover of the Buffalo News and Buffalonews.com. That’s virtually unheard of with a non-profit event in the area.By using social media, the Food Bank tapped the expatriate network who contributed significantly.

The campaign raised close to $140,000, almost tripling the original donor’s amount. In addition, the Food Bank established email and social network connections for the future.