Case Study: Engagement Strategy and Implementation for Gamers Engaged
A robust engagement strategy can lead to long-term sustainability for your nonprofit. Engagement strategies that speak to the natural intersection of communications and fundraising can provide a clear roadmap for nonprofits to achieve strategic goals, from increasing donations to keeping community members informed and activated.
This case study provides an in-depth look at Common Great’s work with Gamers Engaged, who approached us in the fall of 2023 for support with:
Reaching a broader audience besides their closest supporters
Intentionally stewarding and re-engaging donors of all levels
While only recently incorporated as a 501(c)3, Gamers Engaged has inspired volunteerism and philanthropy among the gaming community - individuals and companies alike - for over a decade. By facilitating programs and events via Mox Boarding House and Card Kingdom, Gamers Engaged connects the gaming community with causes and nonprofits that operate in the spaces where they live and play. Their vision is to revolutionize the way the games industry engages with philanthropy.
Their keystone event, the Gauntlet, is a tabletop tournament fundraiser harnessing the generosity of gamers to give to nonprofits. It also raises funds to build and launch new initiatives at Gamers Engaged, like their low-barrier grant making program, Play-it-Forward.
Before our partnership, Founder and Executive Director Lyla Ross drove the Gauntlet and other Gamers Engaged programs. With limited bandwidth, Lyla has been able to host amazing events for over ten years and build some incredible partnerships. Over the last decade, the Gauntlet has raised over a million dollars for ten different nonprofits. However, broad reach communications and a donor engagement strategy were largely left on the back-burner.
Gamers Engaged is forging systems and strategies to build on the success of the past decade and leverage the traction from their previous events and relationships with the gaming industry. Through our work together, we’ve:
Designed an engagement strategy for 2024 that includes systems and tools
Implemented the engagement strategy via fractional talent and ongoing consultation
Selected and set up a new CRM and CMS (Neon) for Gamers Engaged
Consultants Caroline Rensel and Kirsten Rogers led the work with Gamers Engaged, along with Associate Consultant Elise Anderson in a fractional talent role.
Common Great’s Approach & Implementation
Common Great developed a realistic engagement strategy for Gamers Engaged, grounded in organizational capacity. With one full-time team member, streamlining processes and outlining clear actionable steps was crucial for the project’s success. Common Great held recurring meetings with Gamers Engaged to talk through their overall goals, along with the strategy for engaging their community. The goals guiding our work included:
Engage their existing audience
Reach new audiences
Bring in more donations to fund their programs
To design an effective engagement strategy, Common Great had to understand the motivations and interests of gamers and gaming communities. Community mapping activities, a landscape analysis, a communications audit, and S.W.O.T. analysis provided our team with insight into the groups most aligned and interested in the organization’s work.
Common Great developed comprehensive core messaging for Gamers Engaged. Our team created detailed audience personas for Gamers Engaged that informed our marketing strategy, including customized messaging to appeal to the motivations of each group.
With this information, Caroline and Kirsten developed an in-depth, 12-month engagement strategy that included plans for mass communications and more tailored one-on-one donor engagement across audience segments.
The multi-phase strategy mapped out short-term and long-term engagement goals, engagement recommendations, and a content calendar that provides Gamers Engaged with a clear roadmap throughout the following year. This strategy addressed the engagement of existing audiences and outreach to new audiences through lead generation tactics.
Throughout the project, Caroline shared and coached Gamers Engaged on best practices for donor engagement, and provided guidance on long-term development strategy. For the Gauntlet event in May 2024, Common Great reengaged a decade of donors to past Gauntlets through a series of mass communications for email and social media, as well as 1:1 emails sent using a high-deliverability personalized email merge tool.
Common Great also helped Gamers Engaged select and implement a new constituent relationship management system (CRM), which includes giving tools and email marketing capabilities. Caroline identified CRM needs and conducted thorough customized research, ultimately presenting Gamers Engaged with multiple options for a CRM and took organizational capacity into consideration. We then led the transition and implementation of the new CRM.
With Kirsten and Caroline focused on strategy and donor engagement, Elise Anderson rolled up her sleeves to implement the engagement strategy. Elise’s work included management of social media, from ideation to filling out the editorial calendar to writing the content and designing the accompanying graphics. She flexed her strength as a gifted copywriter to draft Gamers Engaged’s newly launched monthly email newsletter and Gauntlet-related communications. Additionally, she planned and implemented the strategy for event-day social media at the 2024 Gauntlet.
Results and Impact
Common Great’s work resulted in qualitative and quantitative success that helped Gamers Engaged meet and exceed their goals. First and foremost, Gamers Engaged now has a solid strategy in place, with the processes, technology, and coaching to support it.
With support from the Common Great team, the one-person organization raised $112k+ for the 2024 Gauntlet, surpassing their fundraising goal of $75k by 49.4%. This event engaged 1,245 first-time donors and 722 returning donors.
Elise’s work on social media and newsletter production took social media and email engagement to new heights for Gamers Engaged, including:
Increased post reach by 381% and post impressions by 332% on Facebook
Increased post reach by 65% and post impressions by 56% on Instagram
Increased followers by 116% and engagement rate by 248% on LinkedIn
Maintained a 54% open rate on average for their email marketing
Averaged a click-through-rate of 7% for their email marketing
Conclusion
Common Great’s robust engagement strategy for new and lapsed donors and the broader gaming community provided short-term and long-term benefits for Gamers Engaged. In addition to surpassing their fundraising goal and maximizing engagement, the new communications tools and successfully implemented CRM/CMS have streamlined their efforts to engage their community across communications channels.
Common Great and Gamers Engaged continue to partner to implement elements of the engagement strategy, as the organization continues to create change by revolutionizing how the games industry engages with philanthropy.
Do you want to effectively engage your audiences through communications and fundraising? Reach out to Common Great for a free consultation and discover how we can help your nonprofit reach its goals.
Check out our blog for more nonprofit resources and stay tuned for our upcoming case studies.
