Bring Fundraising into the Digital Age

Executive Summary

Tripled the Foundation’s online revenue by digitizing all of its fundraising appeals

400% Increase in new donors

55% New online donors with a giving capacity of $25,000+

$400 Average online donation

The Challenge

Scripps, a $3.1 billion nonprofit healthcare organization that treats 700,000 patients annually and is ranked among the top 15 health systems in the nation, needed to build a pipeline and digital cultivation strategy for new donors that would transform them into mid-level or major donors.

Scripps Health Foundation turned to Digital Health Strategies to help them digitize their fundraising from the ground-up.

The Solution

Redesign the Foundation’s website

We began by building an entirely new web presence for the Foundation that was image-driven, content-rich and which featured multiple conversion pathways, such as “Honor Your Caregiver” and “Donate online.”

Implement Digital Health Strategies’ proprietary Honor Your Caregiver interactive platform

Our HIPAA-compliant, web-based application expanded the Foundation’s donor base by inviting patients to share stories and make a donation — while they were active patients and immediately after discharge.

Define the ideal patient experience

We mapped every patient and donor touchpoint across all channels, from clinical, Foundation and patient billing departments, and restructured the Foundation’s post-care engagement to improve consistency, patient experience and conversion rates.

Develop advanced segmentation

We used first-party data and third-party overlays to refine the Foundation’s segmented lists.

Create custom messaging for each segment

The laser-focused messaging was informed by giving history, interests, unique appeals and ask ladders.

Launch digital campaigns throughout the year

We developed and implemented a wide variety of digital campaigns, including for unrestricted (Doctors’ Day, Nurses Week and End of Year) and restricted funds (heart, oncology and orthopedic research).

Integrate digital with other fundraising efforts

Working with leadership across the Foundation, we developed an integrated approach to align our digital efforts (priorities, audiences, messages and timing) with direct mail, events and major donor outreach.

The Results

As a comprehensive digital fundraising partner, we tripled the Foundation’s online revenue and saw its ROI skyrocket by 699%. Ultimately, half of all online gifts were from first-time donors, most of whom have a giving capacity of ~$25,000.

95% Increase in site traffic

500% Email list growth increase

25 Average number of digital campaigns the Foundation now runs annually

1,000+ Stories shared by patients through our Honor Your Caregiver platform