AIDS Walk San Francisco benefitting our client the San Francisco AIDS Foundation just took place July 21, 2013. Over 20,000 people walked in Golden Gate Park in support of HIV prevention and care. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation took advantage of the opportunity to grow its email list at the event by promoting a text-to-join program, gaining nearly 700 new email subscribers at the event.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation promoted a sweepstakes in which they gave away an iPad in exchange for joining the email list via SMS. They worked with Mobile Commons to create a 3-step series of texts to gather AIDS walkers’ full name and email address. Approximately 1,000 people started the series and 90% of them made it all the way through the process.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation followed up the next day with an email message thanking them for participating in the walk and joining the list, and confirming their name and email address—and a few days later with an e-newsletter focused on event photos and impact. The first message had a whopping 50% open rate and 0% unsubscribe rate; the second email had a 38% open rate and 17% click through rate with only 2 unsubscribes.

In addition to raising $2.5 million in order to provide free HIV prevention and care services to their clients, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation also gained an engaged new list segment.

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