Saint Andrew's Fund

Saint Andrew's, an independent school in Saratoga, California, needed to make the case for giving to its annual fund, to families who already support the school. The job was showing what this particular money pays for, in terms a parent would recognize.

The school brought in Gorilla Creative, a video production company in San Francisco, to produce a series of five videos, each sixty to ninety seconds, released over a three month period.

The Challenge

A fundraising appeal is competing with everything else in a parent's inbox, which puts a hard ceiling on how long it can run. Sixty to ninety seconds is room for one idea.

Specifics also land better than broad strokes. A lower school parent and an upper school parent are being asked the same question and they care about different answers to it.

And the people best placed to make that case are teachers and staff, who don't spend their days in front of cameras.

Our Approach

We built the series around one structure: an anchor video, four that get specific, and the same ask closing all five.

The first video, shared with the entire school community, sets up the Fund. It features the most recognizable face of the school, Head of Schools Khadija Fredericks. It explains what the Fund is, what it pays for, and why it matters. It primes viewers for the other videos in the series still coming. We filmed it fully scripted and on a teleprompter, because the positioning of a fundraising ask is worth getting word for word.

The rest of the videos we filmed as conversations. Teachers and staff talking plainly about what the Fund changed in their classroom, unscripted, because a teacher who sounds written stops being believable. Each video is aimed at a particular part of the parent body, so a lower school family hears from a lower school teacher.

Every video closes with Khadija making the ask directly. That keeps one voice on the money question while the middle of each video changes.

The Outcome

People give more when they understand the direct impact of their generosity.

The campaign exceeded every goal the school set for it.