Project Management Case Study

THE CHALLENGE

John Kearns & Associates, Inc., a professional fundraising consulting firm, asked Compu-Mail to assist them in reaching residents of Orchard Park, NY. The communication goals were to introduce a newly built Community Activity Center (CAC), and at the same time, launch a parallel community capital campaign to fund equipment for the new Center.

Working with multiple stakeholders to accomplish this objective, Compu-Mail designed simultaneous direct mail campaigns, including:

Town of Orchard Park: Develop a personalized postcard letter package as an awareness campaign for the Town of Orchard Park to inform residents of the opening of the CAC, utilizing an oversized EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) postcard.
Community Activity Council of Orchard Park (Non-Profit): Developed a multi-step direct mail campaign, including an oversized postcard, followed up by a letter package featuring details of a capital campaign for the new CAC.

While each client campaign was separate, they both shared common goals: The Town of Orchard Park was an awareness campaign; the Community Activity Council capital campaign was a fundraising effort. Compu-Mail needed to find a way to balance these projects while managing multiple stakeholders in a way that streamlined communications and ensured that both campaigns ran separately, smoothly, and on-time.

THE SOLUTION

Compu-Mail understood that there were going to be multiple people involved and many moving parts. With this in mind, they first established a communication plan with Bill Hogan, VP of John Kearns and Associates, who was the primary point of contact and who acted as the gatekeeper for information flowing between Compu-Mail and John Kearns and Associates.

Compu-Mail then established timelines for the design and approval of the creative, procurement of the mailing list, production, and mailing of each project. The campaigns were setup as three separate jobs in Compu-Mail’s project management system with their instructions and mail dates.

Compu-Mail assigned a dedicated Client Service Representative to handle all three projects and made sure when communicating with the client that they referenced the specific job in each phone call and email communication. In instances where project crossover still occurred, the sales representative (Michael Oliver) or client service representative (Doug Jowsey) asked for clarification and noted everything in the respective job folder. Michael Oliver also stayed in constant communication with the client to ensure that Compu-Mail was meeting their needs and always exceeding expectations.

John Kearns & Associates commended Compu-Mail’s ability to balance the three projects and drive results. Visitors to the capital campaign website page increased by 285%, and donor responses increased significantly.

“Compu-Mail got the job done! They had the difficult task of balancing multiple stakeholders that had shared common goals but were acting independently. We were impressed with Compu-Mail’s ability to balance these projects seamlessly. Their team kept the communication flowing between all of the stakeholders, ensuring each campaign was successfully delivered on-time and on-budget.” -Bill Hogan, Vice President of John Kearns & Associates.