Kids in Need Foundation

KINF grew their online revenue by 30% compared to the prior year, and in June - August of 2021 saw 50% growth over the same period the year before. 

Background

The Kids In Need Foundation (KINF) believes that every child in America should have equal opportunity and access to quality education. By partnering with teachers and students in under-resourced schools, they provide the support needed for teachers to teach and learners to learn. 

In 2021, they served nearly 8 million students and 317,000 teachers from 13,807 schools across the country that needed school supplies and they continue that important work each year. They raise roughly $150 million a year, a bulk of that through Gift-in-Kind from corporate partners.

The Need

The Kids In Need Foundation (KINF) has very strong corporate relationships, evidenced by their success in gift-in-kind fundraising. KINF needed to raise more cash for operation and wanted to grow the support base outside of their current partner relationships. 

Focusing on growing the donor relationships has helped grow their cash fundraising significantly, up to about $6 million a year. And digital fundraising has been a big part of that growth.

The Approach

KINF wanted to grow their donor base AND wanted to deepen relationships with current corporate partners, because they are so vital to the success of the organization each year. Rather than seeing those things as two competing goals, they saw the opportunity to both at the same time. This unique approach increased volunteer engagement and helped them acquire new donors, all while strengthening relationships with key partners. 

The Campaigns

KINF created different offers for their corporate partners that created volunteer opportunities, built the brand of KINF and drove additional online giving. The Supply-a-Student and Supply-a-Teacher campaigns both involved packing backpacks of supplies and delivering them to schools, often near the corporate office of their partners. 

Their partners loved the opportunity to engage employees with volunteer opportunities that also helped connect the corporation to the local community. In addition to physically packing backpacks, each partner also agreed to a fundraising goal from their employees. 

KINF created a unique landing page for each partner that included an iDonate giving form and a goal meter so donors could see progress toward the goal. Links to those individual pages were then shared with employees from each partner.

Results

KINF grew their online revenue by 30% compared to 2021. Based on their mission, their best fundraising month is often August because they leverage the back-to-school marketing efforts that are so common in our culture. These various corporate campaigns allowed them to start earlier. June - August of 2021 saw 50% growth over the same period the year before. 

In addition, KINF was able to acquire new donors through these campaigns as well. More than two-thirds of the donors that have supported KINF online in 2022 were new to the organization. This new audience will be the foundation for a growing donor base for KINF.

iDonate Features

KINF used embeddable giving forms on unique pages that were branded for each of their corporate partners. They also included a goal meter that was specific to the goal that had been set by each corporate partner. 

https://www.kinf.org/current-campaigns/