Coast Guard Foundation Earns 47% Open Rate From Major Donors with Personalized Stewardship Effort
The Coast Guard Foundation wanted to close out the year by helping supporters clearly see the real-world impact of their generosity—beyond a single donation or campaign. Their goal was to launch MyImpact, a personalized experience that connected donor giving to tangible outcomes like scholarships, rescues, and family support, while setting the stage for stronger engagement in 2026 and beyond.
Our Solution
Building a Personalized Impact Experience
We developed MyImpact as a donor-first storytelling experience that surfaced individualized giving data—such as donation history, giving level, and recurring donor status—alongside Coast Guard Foundation’s impact areas. This allowed each supporter to see how their specific contributions helped fuel lifesaving work.
Layering Storytelling with Data
To bring the numbers to life, we paired personalized metrics with emotional storytelling, including scholarship stories, rescue highlights, video from frontlines, and thank-you messages from Foundation leadership. Symbolic giving inversions helped translate lifetime support into meaningful outcomes, reinforcing donors’ role in the mission.
Designing for Engagement and Sharing
The experience was built to feel more like a digital keepsake than a report, making it easy for supporters to explore, reflect, and share their impact. Customized social sharing prompts and a guided flow encouraged engagement well beyond a single visit, while social sharing prompts encouraged organic advocacy beyond the inbox.
Activating Through Strategic Email
We designed a segmented, multi-touch email strategy to drive adoption among donors, alumni, and non-donors. Each message was personalized by giving history and supporter type, connecting the campaign to year-end giving and donor stewardship. Segmented email campaigns also served as a delivery mechanism for year-end impact content—especially valuable for re-engaging lapsed supporters.
Features
Translated donor data into symbolic impact messaging, helping supporters understand what their lifetime and year-to-date giving made possible.
Integrated multi-format storytelling, including videos from honorees, rescue highlights, scholarship stories, and leadership thank-you messages.
Executed a segmented end-of-year email strategy, tailoring messaging for major donors, donors, and non-donors to maximize relevance.
Created reusable content blocks that can be redeployed for future campaigns, lapsed donor re-engagement, and annual reporting.
Incorporated social sharing moments, extending campaign reach and reinforcing community among supporters nationwide.
The Results
We were able to help the Coast Guard Foundation deepen donor engagement by launching a personalized impact experience that connected individual generosity to real-world outcomes.
Across the email series, delivery rates averaged 98%, with open rates reaching up to 47% among major donors and 18% among non-donors. Clickthrough activity demonstrated strong interest in exploring personalized impact, while unsubscribe rates remained minimal across all segments. Supporter feedback reinforced the value of MyImpact as a meaningful new way to reflect on progress and stay connected to the mission.
90,000
Over 90,000 total recipients reached across segmented audiences, including major donors, alumni, and non-donors.
CTR
Consistent clickthrough engagement (up to 2%) for personalized impact messaging and clear, action-oriented CTAs.
47%
We received a 47% Open Rate from Major Donors.
Client Testimonial
“Thank you for sharing this update. I appreciate the meaningful work the Foundation continues to lead for Coast Guard members and their families. The MyImpact platform is a great addition, and I look forward to reviewing the progress from the past year.”
– Mark, Coast Guard Foundation Supporter
Ready to Connect?
A personalized impact experience turns individual giving metrics into real stories and outcomes—boosting retention, reactivating lapsed supporters, and driving organic sharing through a guided flow and segmented email launch.
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