swim design

With campuses in Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, Md., Sidwell Friends School [SFS] is a Quaker day school educating youngsters from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Founded in 1883, SFS is one of the premier private schools in the nation.

SFS approached Swim Design about developing a Flash appeal in honor of the upcoming 125th anniversary of the schools founding. We created a 90 second animated video presentation that made use of historic photos from the school’s archives overlaid with a brief description of founder Thomas Sidwell’s educational vision. The appeal’s visual components are enhanced by a Bach choral piece performed by Sidwell Friends’ Chamber Chorus.

Response to the appeal has been uniformly positive. Many SFS alumni have reported that the email elicited fond memories of their own school years, and they were impressed enough to forward it on so that others could share the experience.

On the back end, Swim Design’s Flash tracking system is used to monitor the appeal’s progress: how often and how long it was watched by each recipient and which ones selected links from the appeal page to either replay, forward or make a donation. Recipient’s are tracked by their unique constituent ID number, which assists in determining the ROI of the email campaign.

In challenging economic times, the ability to quantify the success of a project and deliver measurable outcomes can make the difference between its being supported or rejected for budgeting purposes.

Due in large part to the positive response, SFS personnel have been able to make a case for funding of a total of 3 Flash appeals.

SFS is not the only educational institution in Swim Design’s portfolio. The firm has created similar appeals for other independent schools as well as colleges and universities. To view more examples of Swim Design’s work on behalf of educational fundraising, see our Education portfolio section.

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