The 2024 Toast of the Town (TOTT) took place on April 20, 2024. The event honours Edmontonians who have made significant contributions to others in the community in need. The third Toast honoured Cal Nichols, who saved the Edmonton Oilers not once but twice while also raising vital funding for CAR T-cell immunotherapy research at the Cross Cancer Institute. Focus Communications is proud to have supported this important event by offering graphic design, web design, social media, media relations, and communication services.
The Focus team began by updating the Toast of the Town website with fresh content and a new look, which clearly explained the mission of the Toast, the cause it supported, and who was being toasted.
Additionally, Focus Communications also assisted by developing and and implementing a comprehensive communication strategy. This strategy included an aggressive social media campaign on all Cure Cancer Foundation and Toast of the Town social media channels, sending out multiple engaging email newsletters, and media relations efforts.
Results
The event was a resounding success, raising $450,000 for Car-T Cell Immunotherapy on the night of the event. This was $50,000 more than the fundraising committee’s original goal.
The Toast Cal Gift
The Focus Communications team aided the event by creating and implementing an aggressive digital fundraising campaign, asking those who couldn’t attend the event, to donate a one-time amount of $98 in honour of Cal Nichols’s role in saving the Edmonton Oilers in the year 1998. Focus Communications created graphics and video content to support this campaign.
The Toast Cal Gift campaign was incredibly successful raising an additional $30,000 for the charitable event.
Social Media Results
The event generated significant engagement on various social media platforms. Across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and TikTok, posts related to the Toast of the Town on the Cure Cancer Foundation’s social media accounts generated 27,652 impressions, 1,105 likes, 43 comments, and 224 shares.
Email Newsletter Results
Open Rate: The number of users who have opened your email. MailMunch states that a healthy email campaign open rate is anywhere between 17 to 28%.
Click Rate: The number of links clicked on within the email. MailChimp suggests that a healthy click rate within an email is 2.62%.
Click to Open Rate: the percentage of people who open an email campaign and also click on a link within that email. Campaign Monitor states that the average click-to-open rate is 10.5%.
Unsubscribe Rate: The number of users who unsubscribed from your email list per email campaign. MailChimp states that the average unsubscribe rate is 0.26%.
Focus Communications issued three email newsletters as part of the Toast of the Town communication plan. On average, the open rate was 36.79%, the click rate was 6.30%, the click-to-open rate was 17.09%, and the unsubscribe rate was 0.04%.
If your non-profit event could benefit from similar attention and fundraising expertise, contact Focus Communications today!
