Q: What would you like everyone to know about Fidelco?

A: Fidelco partners specially bred and trained German Shepherd Guide Dogs with our clients who are blind. We use an “in community” placement model where the client can maintain their routine while learning how to work with a guide dog in their own neighborhood. This allows them to continue to work during placement and eliminates the stress of travel to attend a guide dog school for training and placement. On average, Fidelco German Shepherd Guide Dogs work with our clients for 10 years.

Q: Share how technology is helping Fidelco as you accomplish your goals.

A: It was our goal to embrace technology as a partner in fundraising. We
needed to get our mission in front of people—and today that means being
on whichever screens they watch throughout the day—phone, tablet or
computer. We are fulfilling that goal with Blackbaud solutions, including
Blackbaud Luminate Online, and the Blackbaud Digital Marketing
Services team.

Q: How did Fidelco strengthen its fundraising presence for GivingTuesday, the international day of giving during the holidays?

A: We had run GivingTuesday campaigns in prior years, but there was not
a singular focus on fundraising, and the results demonstrated this. Using
Blackbaud’s guidance, we created a program that spanned several weeks—
warming up donors, and then engaging them in a series of emails a few
days prior to GivingTuesday as well as throughout the day
on GivingTuesday.

Q: Explain how you transformed your approach to
GivingTuesday.

A: We wanted to engage with donors in a new way relative to
GivingTuesday. Past efforts had relied upon employees calling targeted
donors throughout the day, coupled with an email blast expressing
appreciation for support. While these are nice gestures, they were
too narrow in scope and reach to have a significant impact. We were
looking to expand our reach and engagement and do so in a fresh way.
The appeals created by Blackbaud definitely helped achieve that. Our
integrated campaigns effectively leveraged e-blasts and landing pages to
provide greater exposure to Fidelco.

Q: How did the Blackbaud Digital Marketing Services team help shape your strategies?

A: Blackbaud Digital Marketing Services was able to talk to us about
industry “best practices” and show us meaningful examples of
GivingTuesday campaigns that would work for us. What was key was the
passion that the team brought to the table—they were as excited about
the campaign as we were!

Q: Tell us about the results of the new Fidelco Day of Giving you established in the spring.

A: With our new GivingTuesday success, we decided to launch our own
Day of Giving Campaign tied to International Guide Dog Day, celebrated
each year on the last Wednesday in April. The campaign encompassed
the creation of a number of creative assets that placed a spotlight on our
working guide dog teams.
We created an email campaign that spanned a one-week period, sending four
appeals and a thank-you email following the Day of Giving. A unique Giving
Day landing page was designed, with significant input from Blackbaud’s
design team. A website lightbox went live on April 16, alerting our website
visitors about the upcoming campaign. We also ran Facebook and Instagram
ads throughout the campaign to drive additional traffic to the site.
On the Day of Giving, our Facebook impressions soared by 100% over an
average day with over 8,000 Facebook users being exposed to the Day of
Giving campaign! In total, we received 168 gifts, mostly generated through
emails, with revenue including matching gifts totaling more than $21,000,
which exceeded our revenue goals by 68%.

Q: What extra benefits do you see for visibility and awareness from your GivingTuesday and Fidelco Day of Giving campaigns?

A: We have received very positive feedback from our donors regarding
our digital presence. Many have commented on how they enjoy seeing
campaigns—and pictures of puppies never fail to attract attention! We also
hope to make these annual events.

Q: How does Blackbaud help with other digital elements?

A: Blackbaud has been a strong partner in helping us think creatively about
how we can stand out from other nonprofit organizations. Our brand
continues to evolve, and the Blackbaud team has done an outstanding job
of understanding our direction and providing guidance on how to execute
projects and campaigns. As we have a very small in-house team that can work
on these types of initiatives, it’s been incredibly effective to have a partner to
help us achieve our goals. I am very appreciative that the Blackbaud team is
not afraid to suggest changes and updates—we’ve received many great ideas
that have been implemented as a result of our collaboration.

Q: What’s the latest on Fidelco’s puppy-cam?

A: We have a puppy-cam in place, which will soon be expanded to an official
Kennel Cam! Sustainer donors will have access to live feeds of indoor and
outdoor activities of our dogs 24/7!

Q: How did you use Luminate Online to adapt your donation forms?

A: We created a “mobile friendly” multi-page donation form that works well on any screen and engages with the
audience in a meaningful way. The multi-page form raised 90% more donation dollars than the single-page form in a
test that Blackbaud ran for us and had a 54% higher average donation than the single page form.

Q: Anything more you’d like to share about your experiences with Blackbaud?

A: Our Blackbaud team feels like an extension of the Fidelco team. Everyone takes time to understand our business
objectives and ensure that we are moving in the right direction, at the same time. They have truly gone above and
beyond on many occasions to help us achieve effective outcomes.