CLIENT: Incarnation Camp

You might think that the oldest camp in the United States would have a thriving alumni association, but that was not the case. After the long-time camp director passed away, the camp struggled for new leadership. The camp also suffered from problems with their lake. So when a new director was brought on, she focused on enhancing the campgrounds and camper recruitment. After success on that front, the camp was ready to start reaching out to camp alumni and turned to Red Rooster Group to formalize and promote the association.

Determining the Mission

Our first step in the process was to determine the purpose and of the association and to formalize the its structure. We convened a small group of enthusiastic alumni, including some board members, as well as staff, to discuss the options and hammer out the details. We determined the mission as the following:

The purpose of the Incarnation Camp Alumni Association is to:

• Promote camaraderie among alumni, campers and staff.
• Advance the values and cause of Incarnation Camp and facilitate camper recruitment.
• Raise funds for the camp.
• Foster participation and volunteerism in camp activities.

Forming the Structure

The next step was hashing out the structure, which wasn’t as obvious as it seems. This aspect inspired a lot of discussion around whether the alumni association would be a part of the board or independent, and who would comprise its membership and whether they had to be alumni. Considerations were about having representation on the board, but remaining autonomous in decision-making, and in appropriately dovetailing with the camp’s other fundraising activities in reaching out to alumni.

The Alumni Association will be organized as a separate entity under the camp consisting of consisting of a steering committee comprised of selected alumni as well as 2 members of the board who are alumni. This structure will allow the alumni group to act independently from the board, but allow for a voice on the board. The Steering Committee will meet at least quarterly to determine the direction and strategies for the group, plan and oversee programs and marketing,

Membership levels for the alunni association were set ranging from $25 for alumni fresh off the camping experience, to $2,500 for lifetime membership.

Marketing Strategy

To promote the alumni association, we developed a full marketing plan that included coordinated efforts around the events, magazine, email newsletter, social media and other efforts.

Magazine

We developed a magazine to introduce the alumni association. In addition to a welcome letter and information about association, the magazine features updates on various alumni and a longer profile of one as well as response envelope for membership. See more of the magazine.

Email Newsletter

To nurture relationships with camp alumni, we designed this email newsletter template featuring photos in in the main content are and a strip of call to action buttons down the right hand side.

Website

We established an alumni section on the camp’s website including a letter from the director, membership rates and form, photo gallery, member list, magazine archive, and links to the camp’s social media pages.

Social Media

Knowing that social media would be an integral part of the alumni association, we conducted a review of the camp’s social media presence, which included many different Facebook groups that people had started over the years. We developed a plan to establish official Facebook pages for alumni in different eras.

Event Promotion

We created this direct mail piece to promote the Alumni Association’s Annual Reunion Weekend. The event attracted more than 300 enthusiastic alumni, double the amount from the previous year.

Results

Given the fact that the camp did not have a large mailing list for its alumni, and had not done any outreach to alumni previously, it was difficult to anticipate what response we might get. We are delighted to announce that the first issue of the magazine – resulted in more than $7,000 in memberships at all levels, including 2 lifetime members.

“Working with the Red Rooster Group team has been great. They take our vision of what we want our materials to look like and produce something even better than pictured. They are consistent with keeping the style of our marketing products cohesive so our camp materials can be recognized easily. The staff are extremely helpful, friendly, and do a wonderful job. Howard has helped us a great deal organizing our goals and plans for the Alumni Association as well. I love all the help and work Moheeta has done with our insane amount of Facebook groups organizing them and switching them over to pages. It’s such a huge help.”

— Ainslie Seeber, Development Associate

Links

• See the alumni magazine.
• See the brand and marketing for the camp.
• See the camp website.
• See other nonprofit branding case studies.
• Contact Red Rooster Group for help with your marketing.

Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us.

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