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Civil War Trust

"The Convio platform enabled us to significantly ramp up our online communications channel, and use it in parallel to our offline efforts. Both channels work well with each other, targeting the same supporters, and yielding impressive results."

- Rob Shenk, Director, Internet Strategy & Development, Civil War Trust

About Civil War Trust

The Civil War Trust (CWT) is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States.  Its mission is to preserve our nation’s remaining Civil War battlefields and to promote appreciation of these hallowed grounds through education and heritage tourism.  Since 1987, the organization has helped save more than 30,000 acres of battlefield land in 20 states.

The challenge

  • Weak online presence despite strong brand and well established offline communications strategy
  • Website was not functioning as an effective communication platform and failed as a prospecting tool, in addition, content was rarely updated giving a stale view of an otherwise vibrant and successful organization
  • Complex and cumbersome multi-page online donation form only allowing for general gifts; infrequent emails out to constituents were untrackable giving no insight into their communication performance
  • CWT needed to find a platform that would enable the organization to have a more sophisticated online presence, which would help them deepen existing relationships and find future members

The solution

  • CWT placed Convio CMS at the heart of its overall communications strategy, fully integrating their content rich website with its fundraising, advocacy, and email communications
  • Donors are able to designate their online gift to a specific battlefield or campaign
  • Established a strong and growing presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, and YouTube
  • E-appeals to constituents would reference direct mail pieces to reinforce a multi-channel communication strategy

Results

  • Unique web visitors rose 73 percent in one year, and increased another 67 percent
  • Within the first year of using Convio, online fundraising increased 45 percent, and was up 88 percent the second year
  • The rich, engaging website content has also helped to increase the amount of time visitors spend on the site

Related links

Civil War Trust | Convio