AGENCY REPORT

Select representative responses from agencies:

• 52 agencies posted campaign creative on their social media channels 
• 38 agencies shared a campaign press release with local media 
• 30 agencies sent article(s) to local diocesan newspaper with campaign theming integrated 
• 28 agencies distributed the local agency PSA to their TV station(s) 
• 26 agencies distributed the local agency PSA to their local radio station(s) 

Q: Based on a scale of 1 (not pleased) to 5 (very pleased), how pleased were you with the quality of the campaign and associated assets? 

4.35 average score with 22 very pleased, 26 pleased and three neutral responses. 

Q: Based on a scale of 1 (not pleased) to 5 (very pleased), how pleased were you with the execution and support of the campaign by the Catholic Charities USA staff? (examples: staff responsiveness, use of Canva resources, etc.) 

4.48 average score with 31 very pleased, 15 pleased and six neutral responses.  

Q: Note any positive feedback related to the campaign, both local placements or national placements, with your internal staff/volunteers, clients, community members or donors? 

Many respondents’ comments around positive responses and performance centered around their social media channels and the locally placed ads (YouTube and Facebook were most noted). Many agencies mentioned their staff positively responding to the heightened awareness over the campaign period. Board members were also mentioned frequently as a large source of positive feedback agencies received. A few agencies mentioned positive comments from existing donors. Six agencies indicated they had not received much of a response.  

Select representative responses from agencies: 

• The positive response to "We are there" was so strong that we are looking at ways we may be able to wrap our new messaging framework into the "We are there" campaign. They fit like a hand and glove.  
• Regardless of the external impact, it was encouraging to feel the support of CCUSA and knowing they are working with all other Catholic Charities to be successful. It also lent credibility to what we are doing, for those who may have a stereotype of what Catholic Charities does. 
• Heard positive feedback about the We Are There theme, which resonated.  
• Positive, glad we're doing this. 
• We received all positive feedback from staff, volunteers and donors regarding the campaign. 
• Agency staff have mentioned they have seen the national ads on YouTube. Facebook followers have mentioned seeing ads and social media posts and responded positively. 
• We’ve received comments and questions regarding our services primarily our affordable housing services based off our paid Facebook and Instagram ads. 
• The message resonated with some of our social followers. They engaged in our content with likes and a few comments. 
• Several mentioned seeing the local and national placements; a story ran (in local media); saw an increase in social media reach…Facebook follows increased by 37.5%... 
• Anecdotally, several people commented on the visibility of the campaign across our social channels, and it appeared to influence increased engagement.  
• Clients and followers responded well to positive posts and stories of "We Are There" with likes, shares and engagements. 
• Many of our staff and a board member mentioned seeing the national ads run on television. 
• Local staff feel proud and supported. Our group of former board members were impressed.  
• Our donors did see some of the spots. 
• We had a few donors and volunteers comment on how they liked the campaign. 
• People who saw it said they thought it was good and were excited to see us on CC TV (Connected TV). 
• We received limited feedback from supporters who saw the campaign, but it was all positive. 
• We didn't receive any feedback outside of immediate staff members involved in the project. 
• We haven't heard much organic feedback locally.  
• Thank you for this incredible opportunity to leverage our brand, present a unified message and highlight our partnership with CCUSA and affiliate agencies across the country! 

Q: Note any constructive feedback related to the campaign. 

Several agencies, especially those in mid-size and larger markets, expressed frustration that their local media (television and radio) would not run their public service announcements (PSAs). About half of the responding agencies indicated they had been able to distribute their PSA assets. Seven agencies expressed opinions on the creative and “fit” for their market and slate of services; others suggested more video/reels for social media rather than static content. A couple of agencies noted issues with the use of Canva for customization. Some agencies noted they needed better tracking locally to measure performance.  

Select representative responses from agencies:

• Still hard to get mainstream local media to respond to us to promote anything. 
• Unfortunately, local media TV and radio have not opted to run PSA free or at a reduced cost.  
• PSAs were difficult for us to execute due to our media markets overlapping with two other dioceses  
• Admittedly, we haven't seen much traction locally; radio stations made no guarantee to run/nor did TV and anecdotally we aren't seeing any of the commercials.  
• More video content instead of stagnant posts as we've found video is more effective for reaching our audience… 
• More story starters would be helpful, too. 
• We would like additional diocesan newsletter article content if possible. 
• We are a small agency, so many of the campaign images didn't apply to us. 
• I would love to see more variety. There were some great quotes, but I feel there would have been more engagement if the posts contained images along with the quote. 
• The focus on disaster relief at the beginning of the the PSAs…didn't feel like it fit very well with our agency since we don't offer disaster assistance.  
• With…continuing to be devastated by the opioid epidemic, the general PSA didn't quite fit for our market.  
• On our end, internally, we need a better system to measure conversions… 
• I would love to learn more about tracked metrics in our local market.  
• More diverse ads would be appreciated. Perhaps there could be a stronger push during Christmas. 
• Too much content options, needed to be more concise and targeted. It seems like most of our staff, volunteers, etc. did not fall within the targeted demographic. 
• Local media channels (tv and radio) were very receptive to the campaign ads. We have a large Hispanic population in our area, so it would be nice to have Spanish ads available as well.  
• Some staff/ and our Dev/Comm committee members questioned the focus on conservative media only.  

Q: Describe any novel ways you promoted the campaign in your community that you would like to share with other participating agencies. 

Select representative responses from agencies:

• We also adapted the homepage of our website to align with the campaign's visuals.  
• Posted pop up window on our website.  
• I presented the campaign to all of our staff at our quarterly staff meeting. A press release was sent to all of the newspapers in our 28-county area, and many did run the press release. We ran the radio ads in local Catholic radio outlets. We ran social media ads on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn 2-4 days a week. The campaign did run in our diocesan paper towards the end of the wave… 
• If the agencies can afford small boosts on social media, given the way Facebook is squelching organic reach, the social media results will be much greater. 
• Inclusion of the campaign in…email campaigns. 
• We're taking the "We Are There" theme and using it in a series of direct mail appeals.  
• We are There has been incorporated in our direct mail, newsletters and website. 
• … we presented the campaign to our board members to help promote and engage the board to share with their peers. We also added this into our donor and staff newsletters. 
• We incorporated the "We Are There" theme into our summer appeal letter to donors and will utilize the tagline and campaign design elements to tell stories in our fall newsletter, too. 
• We were able to have our CEO interviewed by a local TV station at the campaign kickoff due to the anchor being a member of the Catholic Charities board.  
• We used the colors and slogans to update our social media and emails which has really helped give us more brand recognition and fresh look!  
• Tying it back to our work — using real-world examples of how we were there for our clients. 

Q: If you tracked donations related to the campaign separate from your normal gifts, what details can you provide about the campaign and its relationship to gifts to your agency over the campaign period? 

While the primary driver of the campaign was awareness, a “give” or “support” message was included at the end of each of the digital or broadcast ads. A few agencies noted some new leads and donations, but most either didn’t have metrics in place or reported no increase in donations year-over-year or through dedicated local landing pages they set up. Each agency provided their own campaign landing page copy with varying levels of “ask” built in. Many agencies noted they were putting plans into place for increased measurement in the second wave.  

Select representative responses from agencies:

• We continually stressed this was a brand awareness campaign, but many thought this would be an immediate donation pipeline and were disappointed it wasn't. Increased social media presence was evident. 
• We received $950 from 5 donors via online donations from first time donors since the campaign began.  
• Our donations increased by 72 percent from June 1 - July 31, 2024. 
• Unfortunately, we did not see a significant increase in traffic to our website or donations and are hoping the awareness as it continues, we can start to see some progress in those areas.   
• We've had 73 visits to our We Are There campaign donation form, $0 in donations thus far. 
• Unfortunately, we did not see any donations directly related to this campaign.  
• At this time, I don't think we have received any donations from the campaign  
• We did track gifts from this campaign separately, but we did not receive any gifts from this campaign. We received 12 page views. This is not surprising. In our rural area, we typically struggle with online donations, though, it is growing slowly. Most of our donors still prefer mail. 
• We did not tract donations related to the campaign separate from normal gifts but will intent to start now.   
• We did not track donations from the landing page, but will look at doing this for Wave 2. 

Q: If you placed media in your market, describe how you used the media dollars that were provided by CCUSA and matched by your agency? What did you find to be most successful? 

Select representative responses from agencies:

• …We were able to place our spots on the streaming services of our local NBC affiliate and with the Olympics, it was wonderful timing and we did get positive feedback from donors and others.  
• We placed two full page ads in the diocesan newspaper and heavily boosted ads on our social media… We are pleased to report a significant increase in website visits, up 231% and 368% when we started the ads.  
• Of the $5k total we spent…, we allocated $3,175 toward the purchase of a mailing list and direct mail postcard to 10K households that matched the demographics for the campaign; $2,500 was allocated for Meta carousel ads across Facebook and Instagram. 
• We placed $6k worth of media buys… and spent $2,750 Facebook, $2,750 Google (YouTube and Google display ads) and $500 local catholic radio station…Performance can be measured in a variety of ways but the objective of this was reach and awareness — our most effective tactic was YouTube with the highest click rate compared to the other avenues we used.       
• … our agency allocated $7,837 toward Wave 1 of the campaign, including print ads in our diocesan newspaper, a well-read local women's magazine, streaming radio, and several paid retargeting (geofencing, keyword search, lookalike audience) and social campaigns. The digital campaigns… (had) a reach of 105,874 and 843 clicks…Our best digital campaign with a CTR of 1.22% utilized geofencing our eight largest parishes in the diocese. A key lesson learned included the need to better restrict which cities displayed our lookalike retargeting ads to keep them within the bounds of the diocese.  
• Local cinema ad buys during screenings of the Chosen in our local markets.  
• We ran newspaper, local television, and social media ads. The most successful were the television ads and the social media ads. 
• We were able to advertise on Spectrum, both linear and streaming and because we were a new client, our dollars were matched one-to-one to increase our investment.  
• We purchased a small buy on a news/talk formatted station and were able to schedule our hour-long formatted discussion with our CEO.