How To Create Two Fundraising Award-Winners: Mount Paran Christian School

Chosen because Mount Paran Christian School won a Silver 2019 Brilliance Award for Printed Fundraising Appeal and a Bronze for Fundraising Video, Outsourced. InspirED talked about the projects with Tiffany Westbrook, MPCS Director of Marketing and Communication.

“This energetic campaign featured several pieces, including a brochure, physical banners, web banners, videos, invitation to presentation with cardboard viewer and VR app, and more. By always remaining true to its message and repeatedly inviting the school community into the process, it was a tremendous success.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Sweep and Inspire for the Final $12M

In the “Phase 3” portion of a 12-year capital campaign for Mount Paran Christian School, we had to make a splash to launch the public push to complete the final project. The goal was to raise the remaining funds for a $12M an innovation center addition to the current high school (built for 250, houses 450).

The campaign was a bit stale from two prior projects (including an exciting football stadium), so our goal was to do something very different than had been done, as well as more innovative due to the type of building that was being designed.  

We hired an event company to transform our gym into an innovative space for an innovative campaign launch event to introduce our school community to plans for the building and inspire them to contribute. “Imagine” was created and print materials and promotions derived from both a high-tech and inspirational angle.

Brand with Brilliance

We designed and ordered 4000 VR goggles to be mailed AS THE INVITATION to the event. The intention was to spur conversation about the unique item in their mailbox and entice them to bring the goggles to the event to see “what’s inside?” an actual virtual reality experience inside one of the new innovative learning classrooms.

Branded signage went up all over campus, including a literal box asking “what’s inside?” where students were surveyed for their ideas for the new space. Branding continued through social media, teaser videos, texts and reminders not to miss the “out of the box” upcoming event.

The events company also worked with our team to film students about their thoughts and build excitement for the overall campaign. The video was aired at the event for the first time and featured on the website.

Three Months of Production

The timeline for campaign launch, materials, art direction, and all production was about 3 months. Changes in building design caused a delay, as well as a sense of urgency to raise the funds before school was out of session. The invitation VR goggles were printed overseas and rush shipped in time to mail a month from the event date. The video was filmed in three days with several weeks of planning prior as well as post-production.

The response and conversation about the launch was better than expected. Many social media posts created buzz. Confusion and excitement over the goggles erupted, spurring conversations with comments such as “How do I put these things together?” and “Where can I see the classroom VR?”

Event DRAWS 400

Overcommunicating the event through the Giant Box on campus (which moved locations every few days) and through e-mails, texts and signage led almost 400 people the event. Students involved in learning innovation and robotics participated in the event, the VR experience was exciting, and the video and presentation were received very well by attendees (which aired on the Giant Box screens).

Results Justified Costs

In-house marketing staff created all print materials and was within the budget provided by the development team. Outdoor signage and construction of the giant cube was expensive. Video outsourcing budget was higher than expected, but justified the expense of creating both the campaign hype video as well as interviews and event video stories.

In the end, the full $12M was raised by the deadline and the project will be underway this spring.  

Our executive board was very congratulatory and excited about both the success and completion of the campaign, and the awards in recognition of our efforts. We are proud of this work, which is unprecedented for schools in our area.    

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The full campaign branding, completely different self-mailing goggle invitation, giant visual cube reminder on campus, video content/efficacy/feel, and the launch event itself were consistent, polished, and thought-provoking giving our community a vision for the future.

— Tiffany Westbrook, MPCS Director of Marketing and Communication

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The Benefit of Hiring Pros

With more time, we would consider launching an on-campus VR experience in a trailer, post-event. We could have created the campaign video in-house with our talent pool, but instead art-directed. ETA brought a fresh look to our typical promotional videos and was able to incorporate footage into the event storyline. The video expense was high and we could have done it in house. But the splash of the event ETA produced, including the video, brought a higher level of professionalism to such an exceedingly innovative project and event.  

Our executive board was very congratulatory and excited about both the success/completion of the fundraising of the campaign, and the awards for the work that was accomplished. We are proud of this work which is unprecedented for schools in our area.  

“Emphatic and consistent messaging of “imagine” theme with enthusiastic students, parents, teachers and grandparents speaking directly to the camera. Love the specifics of the need (spaces built for 200 kids now serving 400); really drives home the ‘why’ of the campaign. Nice narrative arc — beginning and ending with individual children asking us to ‘imagine.’”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

TEAM
Tiffany Westbrook, Director of Marketing and Communication
Tyler Shores, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communication
Jennifer New, Chief Development Officer
Cindy Gibbs, Assistant Director of Development
Paula Dieters, Donor Relations/Stewardship Manager
ETA Creative Events Producers, video and event

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While not part of the Brilliance Awards, the Mount Paran Christian School also created the event recap video and a behind-the-scenes teaser video (below).

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