Increased online donations
Client: ADRA
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is the official humanitarian agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ADRA Australia works as part of the global ADRA network to help people in poverty thrive.
- Digital strategy
- Marketing Automation (Salesforce & Pardot)
- Email Journey Mapping
- CRM Integration
- Media buying (Google & Meta Ads)
- Website/Landing Page Optimisation
996,758
Record $$$ raised
91
Increase in new website visitors
75
Increase in campaign traffic
258
Increase in goal completions
The challenge
ADRA engaged maxemus Digital Marketing to manage their digital fundraising and scale their online donor base. Our initial challenge was to architect a high-converting digital strategy for their End-of-Financial-Year (EOFY) Appeal across multiple digital touchpoints.
Following the success of our acquisition campaigns, ADRA engaged us again in 2021 to guide the strategic rollout of their Salesforce and Pardot implementation. The challenge was to bridge the gap between their technical platform and their philanthropy goals. ADRA needed to transition from manual, single-send email campaigns to a sophisticated, data-driven “always-on” contact strategy, without losing the deeply personal connection they had built with their donors.
The solution
Implemented robust ‘always-on’ automated donor journeys via Salesforce/Pardot, supported by right place, right time media strategy
Pillar 1: Data-Driven Acquisition & Paid Media For the EOFY appeal, it was a matter of asking better and asking more often. By pairing highly targeted Facebook, Google, and Taboola advertising with appeal-specific graphics and clear messaging, we drove high-quality clicks to optimised campaign landing pages. In just 7 short weeks, we leveraged community passion into real financial support, resulting in ADRA’s largest-ever EOFY result.
Pillar 2: Marketing Automation & Supporter Journeys To secure long-term donor retention, we led the strategic implementation of ADRA’s marketing automation capabilities within Salesforce and Pardot. Our approach included:
Comprehensive Email Audit: We conducted a deep-dive audit of existing communications, providing actionable recommendations that immediately improved email response and deliverability rates.
‘Always-On’ Architecture: We designed the overarching automation strategy, outlining the integration of marketing data and trigger events required to run seamless, personalised sequences in the background 24/7.
Welcome & Impact Journeys: Knowing that donor retention relies on proving impact, we mapped out highly specific automated contact strategies. This included triggered “Welcome” series for new supporters and automated “Impact” emails showing donors exactly how their contributions were changing lives.
Governance & Compliance: We provided the technical team with strict requirements for designing triggered sequences, including complex tracking parameters and automated subscriber removal rules to ensure total compliance and list health.
The outcome
ADRA Australia’s then-chief-executive Mark Webster described the nearly $1 million fundraising figure as “incredible,” noting the amazing result meant thousands more people would flourish.
Beyond the immediate revenue injection, maxemus Digital Marketing successfully transitioned ADRA from a campaign-to-campaign mindset into an ‘always-on’ digital powerhouse, equipped with the Salesforce automation architecture required to nurture donors at scale.
