How Spare Change Became $205,000
Pennies 4 Lincoln Fundraising Campaign — Delaware County Historical Society
Campaign Strategy
Creative Direction
Design
The Brief
DCHS is home to the original 1860 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Campaign Banner. The 75 foot by 64 foot banner was used for presidential campaign parades in Delaware County both in 1860 and in 1864 .Despite being stored carefully, it was in dire need of preservation and restoration. The cost was well beyond DCHS’s normal fundraising capacity.
The goal of the campaign was to reach beyond major donors and raise enough funding to cover the restoration and preservation of the banner, and the costs of the campaign.
My Approach
The campaign turned the penny itself into the creative platform. By combining Lincoln, spare change, common phrases, and calls to action, I was able to relay a simple idea that could be understood immediately and easily adapted across all campaign touchpoints.
Launched on Lincoln’s birthday. DCHS embarked on the Pennies4Lincoln campaign, calling on all Delaware County residents to give what they can to help restore and preserve the precious artifact of the county’s and nation’s history.
We mailed a series of postcards to more than 100,000 Delaware County residents asking for “spare change” in an effort to achieve the goal. Posters, donation boxes, and website landing pages all carried the same theme.
The Outcome
The campaign was wildly successful and ended with a standing room-only discussion by a renowned Lincoln historian. The original estimate for restoration was $15,100. The campaign earned $205,618.
