About
The hotline started as a result of the Violence Against Women Act that was passed in 1994. Since then, they have responded to over 3.5 million calls for help from women in abusive situations.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline seeks to provide compassionate care and support to every person. If someone’s not ready to leave, they help her think through a safety plan for the next twenty-four hours. They meet the callers where they are because they know their situation best.
The Challenge
Raising money for domestic violence prevention and support is no easy task. Many people cannot relate to what it’s like to be a recipient of domestic violence, but they do understand the need for safety, education, and access to support.
On September 8th, 2014, a video of Ray Rice beating his then fiancee, now wife, unconscious in an elevator surfaced, and there was nationwide coverage. With the issue in the spotlight, people in these domestic violence situations knew that they weren’t alone and reached out to the hotline for help.
After the Ray Rice video was released, The National Domestic Violence Hotline’s call volume jumped by 84% and even months later, it hadn’t gone back down.
The Domestic Violence Hotline knew that in order to sustain the increase in call volume, they needed to raise additional funds. They decided to set up a campaign with CauseVox and used GivingTuesday as a jumping off point for their campaign.
How CauseVox Helped
CauseVox provided an essential platform for the National Domestic Violence Hotline’s campaign.
The hotline developed the #gingerbreadforgood theme because it made domestic violence a relatable subject to talk about and also helped donors comprehend the impact of their donation. They used CauseVox’s customization features to apply imagery that people are comfortable with, as well as help visualize impact, (gingerbread men representing each $20+ donor), the hotline made it easier for those not aware or uncomfortable with the subject to learn more and become engaged.
$20 funded one call with a victim of domestic violence, so they utilized CauseVox’ Impact Metric, which counted how many calls with victims would be funded as each $20 came in, encouraging donors that their donation made an impact. Social media played a large role in the campaign’s success, and over 400,000 people accessed the donation site. The CauseVox platform hosted five blog posts throughout GivingTuesday, so as to drive additional traffic and attention to the campaign. These posts highlighted impactful stories and calls from clients and advocates alike. Also, CauseVox’s donation receipts feature allowed for automatic and personalized “thank you” emails to go out to every donor, giving them instant recognition. One of the more successful features was donation tipping, which offers donors the option to cover the administrative fees of their donation, offsetting most of the fees for using the platform.
Their Results
The #gingerbreadforgood campaign was designed to help people understand it takes an entire community to end domestic violence, adding a gingerbread man to their village with every $20 donation. At the end, there were 2,669 gingerbread men, to represent the 2,668 people that would be helped from the campaign. Board members and staff also aided in setting the standard for giving.
There was an unprecedented number of donations from the board (75% participation) and staff (44% participation.) The #gingerbreadforgood campaign organized by the National Domestic Violence Hotline was extremely successful overall.
Over the course of 6 weeks, the hotline raised $53,373 from 329 donors. 63 of those donors gave during a previous campaign and the remaining 266 were new donors.
