21 million American kids are served meals at school during the regular school year—but when schoolʼs out, many do not know where their next meal is coming from. Donordigital client No Kid Hungry conducts an annual campaign that spreads awareness about childhood hunger, helps connect kids with food, and raises needed funds during summer months when kids are more likely to be hungry.

Many families donʼt know that free meals are available to kids and teens at thousands of sites nationwide—in fact, only 3 million children are participating in these programs. To help increase this number, No Kid Hungry created a SMS program where people can text FOOD to 877-877 to find summer meals sites near them. They have also created an Action Center where people are directed to action they can take, both online and in-person, to promote awareness of and support for summer meals.

Donordigital is working with No Kid Hungry to raise funds with a Summer Meals Challenge Match campaign.  Thanks to sponsorship from the Arbyʼs Foundation, the first $100,000 donated in June and July will be matched dollar-for-dollar. We helped create an email series spanning the summer months combining cultivation, advocacy, solicitation, and stewardship. We are using Facebook Custom Audiences with segments for donors and non-donors, testing ads promoting various actions and donation requests. We placed remarketing ads targeting people who have visited the No Kid Hungry website in the past few months but have not made a donation. We also optimized the donation form with multivariate testing leading into the campaign so that page visitors would be more likely to convert into donors. Working together, we hope to raise at least $200,000 this summer in support of kids.

Wendy Marinaccio is an Account Director at Donordigital, the online fundraising, marketing, and advertising company.  Contact: wendy@donordigital.com