Dedicated to Seniors

Jeremy Bloom's Wish of a Lifetime is a Denver-based nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of low-income senior citizens. Bloom, a two-time ski champion and former NFL football player, started his namesake foundation after traveling the world and seeing how senior citizens were revered in other cultures, but not as much here in the United States. It was also a way to honor his own grandparents, who taught him to ski and raised him to be successful.

Wish of Lifetime has funded such opportunities as a skydiving trip for an elderly woman who always dreamed of jumping out of plane. It has also provided a trip for a mother to see her terminally-ill daughter in another state, a trip that wouldn't be possible without the generosity of others. Currently, the organization focuses on seniors in Colorado, but there are plans to open a California chapter in 2010, explains Deirdre Moynihan, executive director of Wish of a Lifetime. Plans are also in the works to start a Seniors in Motion exercise program to keep the Greatest Generation active.

Challenge: Keeping donors informed

To organize and fund its mission, Wish of a Lifetime hosts events big and small throughout the year. There's a large fundraiser every April, board meetings, volunteer meetings, and smaller donor appreciation events.

When Deirdre came onboard at Wish of a Lifetime in the summer of 2009, she found that communication with donors was inadequate and the system for collecting event information was ineffective. "The biggest challenge was getting out and spreading the word, and then capturing all the registration information," Deirdre says. "We also had to make sure it was easy for people to respond that they wanted to attend."

Before Deirdre's arrival, the organization was using regular email for its communications and a home-grown registration system on its website that was inadequate at best. "It was a nightmare. We couldn't get the information we needed out of it," she says of the old system. "And, donors found it difficult to use as well."

Solution: Better online marketing tools

Deirdre used Constant Contact Email Marketing when she was at previous employers, and decided to create a new account when she started working with Wish of a Lifetime. The organization uses both Email and Event Marketing to send information to donors and volunteers, as well to publicize events. "I find Constant Contact to be reliable and very user friendly. It makes us look good and is great for branding," Deirdre says.

Event Marketing came in handy for the group's recent donor appreciation night that featured Young @ Heart, a choral group made up of senior citizens that sings rock hits from bands such as U2. Wish of a Lifetime was able to use Event Marketing to build a homepage for its donor appreciation event, send out an invite, and quickly collect registration information, without having to hire outside help. "We didn't want to have to pay someone to update our website," says Deirdre, the only full-time staff member. "It was really great, too, that we could post a map and people had all the information they needed to attend."

Email Marketing and Event Marketing provide a much more positive and professional image. And it allows us to more effectively communicate with our donors and get important information out there. With Event Marketing, Deirdre does not have to worry about the vagaries of loosely collected registration information taken by phone, as was the case with previous events. "When someone says they are coming, I want to make sure that when they get to the door their name is there, their guest's name is there – all the concrete info we need that they've provided to us," she says. "It makes attendees and guests feel more welcome."

Results: Better donor communication

Using Event Marketing and Email Marketing has helped Deirdre increase Wish of a Lifetime's visibility. "It provides a much more positive and professional image," she says. "And it allows us to more effectively communicate with our donors and get important information out there."

In addition, Deirdre loves the back-end features that save her time and money. She says the analytics are great for tracking who is opening her emails and clicking on the links, which helps show what topics are of greatest interest. Another major plus: her contacts are all in one place. "Constant Contact allows me to combine email and event marketing in one place, and makes it very easy," Deirdre says. "Contacts are all in once place without having lists all over the place."

As a relatively new organization and a nonprofit, keeping the financial side of the house strong is also important. By using an online marketing tool, Wish of a Lifetime has saved money on printed mailings and postage. "We try to be cost effective," she says. "Printing an invite is hard and expensive."

It also bolsters the perceived size of the organization by making it look bigger than it actually is. "Being able to get updates and reports in a timely manner is huge. That is very important when the world thinks you're a larger organization and it is just you," Deirdre says. "I haven't found a lot of other marketing tools that do that."