Marketing Case Study

1. Minds Matter Denver- DU Case Project - Additional Information:
● Marketing spend - in 2016, this was $10k total. In 2017, we're budgeting $1,500/month per the RFP.
● Fundraising mix and/or return on events -For 2016
○ $250k gross revenue
○ Casino Night: $120k gross, $90k net
○ Golf: $40k gross, $20k net
○ Breakfast: $10k gross, $0k net
○ Non-event = Board contributions ($35k) and grants/corp partnerships make up the remainder.
● Mentor retention/turnover -Over 90% year on year, but recruitment is often very difficult.
● Size: Currently 70 students, 132 Mentors, and 205 volunteers (including board). Only one paid staff.
● Target Size: In 10 years, we want to be in every public high school in Colorado (~500) which puts us at between 5,000 and
10,000 students.
○ P&L is attached w/2016 budget, 2016 actuals, and 2017 budget.
○ Major Donor/Grant list 2015-2016 also attached .
● I also asked him about how they recruit mentors now. Nearly all word of mouth.
○ “There are info events for interested individuals but that’s once people have been “marketed to”. I believe the input for
this is largely word of mouth or asks to the attendees at the fundraising events.”

2. AS A REMINDER…
The problem we’re trying to solve:
- Positioning and communications challenge
- Effectively position Minds Matter to target segments (mentors, volunteers and funders - schools too?)
- Networking
- Tax write-offs
- Personal connections
- Volunteering
- What the students need? Friendship, accountability,
- Attract and engage people - give them reasons to care enough to commit time and money
- Positioning and value proposition
- Value Prop and Segment - MPVs (main parameters of value) and Benefits
- Communications Plans
- Objectives
- Messaging Strategy
- Tactics - where/how do we reach them with our message
Cost and outcomes??

3. References
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead
_wrong

4. Minds Matter

5. Minds Matter story
Minds Matter transforms the lives of diverse high school students through 2:1
mentorship by empowering them to succeed academically and contribute to the
community. Mentors are often selfless individuals who are leaders in their field
and want give back to the community my making a profound impact on a
teenagers life

6. Build your base
Create strong value propositions to attract mentors, additional funding and
awareness in the community
Program awareness can also be boosted by:
Direct Mail, Calling Campaigns, Local Newspapers, Presentations in the
community, Increase Social Media
Prioritize stakeholders with monetary means to help:
Classify donors, focus on lucrative prospects

7. Different Groups … how to get to them
Young Professionals (Mentors)
- Have time to mentor
- Looking to get involved in the community
- Recent college experience
Working Professionals (Donors)
- Stay involved but may not have the time to mentor
- Involved in fundraising and brand ambassadors
- Attend events
Retired (Mentors and Donors)
- Mentor
- Larger pockets

8. Types of Donors
Corporations
- Enriching community (LMI)
- Talent Pipeline
Foundations
Individuals
- Matching Grants
- Event Participation
- Board “Pay to Play”

9. Reaching Donors
Talk about the school system
You know your money is going to a known and high value outcome

10. Market Potential Value (MPV) and
Benefits of Mind Matters
Colorado Population
25 to 34 years
664,027 = 15.4% of the population
55 to 59 years
194,722 = 4.5%
60 to 64 years
144,585= 3.4%
Total=339,307 = 7.9%
Total Market size:
1,003,334 People
If you can capture just 2.5% of this population
25,084 people
MPV for Mentors
As a mentor you get the satisfaction of seeing someone
grow and succeed.
You get to build a potentially life long connection.
You have the opportunity to change someone’s life in a
positive manner.
You get to interact and learn from someone that may
teach you something you never even thought about
before.
You get to broaden your perspective and widen your
network
Benefits for Mentors

11. Target:
● Utilize alumni network
● Reach out to college students to build a volunteer pipeline
○ Admin volunteers
○ Future mentors
● Identify people in contact with existing volunteers
○ Clients, friends, family, and those with similar upbringings as students
● Enhance digital media recruiting platforms
Strategy:
● Talk about the students
● Emphasize program structure and proven track record
● Networking opportunities with other likeminded professionals
Reaching Mentors

12. Competition
Be part of the ecosystem that is helping underserved students achieve success
MindsMatter has a unique target audience for their student selection, other players
in the industry tend to focus on a more general population.
Main Competitors:
Big Brother, Big Sister
Boys and Girls Club
The Mentoring Project

13. Marketing Objectives
● Increase number of donors and mentors
● Enhance digital presence
○ Website
○ Social Media
● Leverage students for content generation
○ Student stories
○ Social media content
● Build excitement around fundraising events

14. Messaging Strategy
● Cohesive messaging across channels
○ Communicate the vision of Minds Matter and the change Minds Matter has made in
everyone’s life
○ Stick to our strategies for reaching donors and mentors
● Let students communicate the message
○ Show the impact that Minds Matter has on students by telling their stories on website and
other channels
○ Encouraging the students to engage with Minds Matter social media creates a sense of
community and excitement

15. Tactics
● Update website
○ Share the emotional message, success stories, update design and copy, blog
○ Find student volunteers/interns to update website
● Social Media - Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat
○ Event promotion and engagement
○ Get the students, donors and volunteers talking to each other
● Videos
○ Short testimonials that can be used across multiple channels
○ Facebook Live from events
● Email Marketing Campaigns
○ Focus on action - make a donation, apply to be a mentor

16. Get the word out: Minds Matter’s Currently spends $5,993 in Marketing (or 2.4% of Revenue).
we tell the for-profit sector, "Spend, spend, spend on advertising, until the last dollar no longer produces a penny of value." But we don't like to see
our donations spent on advertising in charity. Our attitude is, "Well, look, if you can get the advertising donated, you know, to air at four o'clock in the
morning, I'm okay with that. But I don't want my donation spent on advertising, I want it go to the needy." As if the money invested in advertising could
not bring in dramatically greater sums of money to serve the needy.
in the for-profit sector, the more value you produce, the more money you can make. But we don't like nonprofits to use money to incentivize people to
produce more in social service. We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make very much money helping other people.
Interestingly, we don't have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money not helping other people.
People are yearning to measure the full distance of their potential on behalf of the causes that they care about deeply. But they have to be asked. We
got that many people to participate by buying full-page ads in The New York Times, in The Boston Globe, in prime time radio and TV advertising. Do
you know how many people we would've gotten if we put up fliers in the laundromat?
Another area of discrimination is the taking of risk in pursuit of new ideas for generating revenue. So Disney can make a new $200 million movie that
flops, and nobody calls the attorney general. But you do a little $1 million community fundraiser for the poor, and it doesn't produce a 75 percent profit
to the cause in the first 12 months, and your character is called into question. So nonprofits are really reluctant to attempt any brave, daring, giant-
scale new fundraising endeavors, for fear that if the thing fails, their reputations will be dragged through the mud. Well, you and I know when you
prohibit failure, you kill innovation. If you kill innovation in fundraising, you can't raise more revenue; if you can't raise more revenue, you can't grow;
and if you can't grow, you can't possibly solve large social problems.
Get the word out: Newspaper Ads, Facebook Target Ads, ect (and get the website better, fairly easy at little to no costs)

17. Corporate & Government, Foundation & Program Partnerships
Corporate: bring volunteerism into the workplace, inviting students to meet with corporate employees) from Comcast NBCUniversal. Employees
spend time with students, doing anything from homework to providing guidance to just having fun. They could also be filling their future employee
pipeline (maybe internships). Employees will inevitably share Mind Matters mission outside of their work environment.
Does Chipotle donate food? I bet we could find someone that would. Minds Matter spends $6,981 on Mantee Meals and $6,008 on Party which
could be donated by Dave & Busters (just for an example). These two spendings alone are 2x the Marketing budget.
Federal Government: support and funding enables local agencies to make a significant impact in their communities and helps maintain strong
standards nationally. BBBS has been awarded competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.
With the support of Foundations, Mind Matters will be able to keep reaching out to at-risk students and providing them with much-needed mentors.
BBBS Partners with the following Foundations: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Altria Group, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, S. D. Bechtel, Jr.
Foundation, Caesars Foundation, Duke Endowment, Oak Foundation, Comcast Foundation, Jack in the Box Foundation
This list does not include the many community partners of Big Brothers Big Sisters at the local level.
Programs: sometimes a unified voice can more greatly impact children and families. Together with organizations that share Mind Matters values and
goals, they’ll work to address many issues that at-risk students face in America today. BBBS partners with the following organizations: America’s
Promise, Boys and Girls Club of America, Communities in schools, The First Tee, iCouldBe, iMentor, National 4-H Council, National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children, YMCA
○ https://www.coloradononprofits.org/events/training-and-events/list
○ If we’re not co-sponsoring events, maybe Colorado Nonprofits Org has connections helping us getting the word out.
■ What is our relationship with other nonprofits in Colorado/Denver?
■ Do we have a relationship with this organization who raised $33.8 million in one day?
● https://www.coloradogives.org/