We helped NAMI Charleston double their walk participation.
A local nonprofit with an annual fundraising walk and a limited marketing budget. We built a digital campaign that doubled year-over-year participation — and became a repeating annual partnership.
Strong cause. Limited reach.
NAMI Charleston runs one of the most important mental health awareness events in the Lowcountry — the annual NAMIWalks fundraiser. But their ability to promote the event digitally was limited. No paid campaign infrastructure, no coordinated social strategy, and a small internal team stretched thin during the run-up to the walk.
They needed a strategic partner who could build and run the campaign — not just advise on it. That meant ad creative, audience targeting, social content, email support, and results tracking. All of it, on a nonprofit timeline and budget.
- Campaign Strategy
- Paid Social (Meta)
- Ad Creative & Copywriting
- Audience Targeting
- Email Campaign Support
- Event Landing Page
- Campaign Reporting
Community-first. Data-backed.
Nonprofit campaigns live or die by authentic messaging and precise targeting. We focused on both — no fluff, no spray-and-pray.
Build the Campaign Foundation
Event landing page, campaign creative assets, and a clear registration funnel. Every piece of the campaign pointed back to a single measurable action: walk registration. No distractions, no dead ends.
Target the Right Audience
Meta campaigns targeting Charleston-area residents with interest signals tied to mental health, community events, and local causes. Retargeting layers for warm audiences. Messaging that led with the mission — not the mechanics of the event.
Manage Through to Walk Day
Ongoing campaign optimization, weekly reporting for the NAMI team, and coordination with their internal communications. Budget was managed carefully — every dollar tracked to registrations, not impressions.
More walkers. More visibility. An ongoing partnership.
The campaign delivered a 2x increase in walk participation — and NAMI Charleston brought us back the following year to do it again.
Have a campaign that needs to perform?
We build and run the whole thing — strategy, creative, targeting, and reporting.
The Challenge
NAMI Charleston ran their annual walk as a standalone event with a small, loyal donor base and limited digital presence. Year-over-year participation had flatlined, and the marketing approach hadn’t changed in several years: flyers, email blast, word of mouth. The team had no paid digital advertising experience and a tight budget that couldn’t absorb wasted spend.
What We Built
We treated the walk like a product launch. Starting 10 weeks out, we built a full digital campaign across Facebook and Instagram targeting prior participants, mental health advocates in the Charleston area, and lookalike audiences based on their existing donor list. The campaign included event awareness ads in the first four weeks, registration-focused ads in weeks five through eight, and a final urgency push in the last two weeks before the event.
On the organic side, we updated their Facebook event page, coordinated social content across their channels, and set up pixel-based retargeting to re-engage people who visited the registration page but didn’t sign up. Every dollar was tracked to registration completions.
The Results
Participation doubled compared to the prior year. Cost per registration came in under their benchmark, and the campaign delivered enough proof of ROI that NAMI Charleston renewed the engagement for the following year’s walk. The repeating annual structure means we build on the prior year’s data each cycle, improving targeting and reducing cost per participant over time.
If you run a nonprofit event or a seasonal campaign and want a data-driven approach to driving registrations or attendance, we manage paid campaigns for organizations of all sizes.