Digital Ads Drive Second Consecutive Record for Lincoln Giving Event

Summary

For the second year in a row, BCom partnered with Lincoln Community Foundation to drive record-breaking results for Give to Lincoln Day. With a refined digital ad strategy focused on younger donors, smarter audience targeting, and emotionally resonant creative, the 2025 campaign helped raise $9.5 million for Lincoln nonprofits — the highest total in the event’s history. This two-year collaboration demonstrates the power of strategic iteration and data-driven digital fundraising at scale.

Expertise
Social Awareness and Public Impact
Services
Digital Advertising, Digital Fundraising, Graphic Design, Media Planning, Messaging Strategy, Photo/Video Production, Social Media

Challenge

After BCom partnered with Lincoln Community Foundation (LCF) to raise a record-breaking $8.5 million for local nonprofits in 2024, we teamed up again in 2025 to reach even more potential donors for the foundation’s annual Give to Lincoln Day event. In 2024, we faced a new challenge. In 2025, we had a record to beat.

Solution

Our digital ad strategy was designed to deepen engagement with younger prospective donors, boost online fundraising and continue shifting donor habits toward scalable, digital-first giving. Leveraging performance data from the previous year, we tightened audience targeting to maximize clicks and donations and help the foundation break the 2024 record by a million dollars.

Record-Breaking Local Fundraising

Our 2025 Give to Lincoln Day campaign made history. We partnered with the Lincoln Community Foundation (LCF) with the goal of raising $9.5 million for Lincoln-area nonprofits, the highest amount raised since the event’s inception in 2012. Our targeted ad campaign built momentum throughout the month of May, combining engaging video content with timely static retargeting to build trust, drive urgency and convert action when it mattered most. In the end, we met and exceeded our $9.5 million goal, proving what’s possible when smart digital strategy meets a generous community.

Creative Strategy that Clicks

Behind the creative messaging was a refined digital targeting strategy that prioritized lead quality over audience volume. Building on what we learned in 2024, we refined our approach by retargeting only users who actively engaged with earlier ads — boosting both relevance and efficiency. That shift paid off: The campaign drove more than 5,900 clicks to the Give to Lincoln Day site. Despite fewer impressions overall, total campaign engagement outperformed 2024 results — proving that smarter targeting drives better outcomes.

Smarter strategy. Stronger results.

Behind the creative messaging was a refined digital targeting strategy that prioritized lead quality over audience volume. Building on what we learned in 2024, we refined our approach by retargeting only users who actively engaged with earlier ads — boosting both relevance and efficiency. That shift paid off: The campaign drove more than 5,900 clicks to the Give to Lincoln Day site. Despite fewer impressions overall, total campaign engagement outperformed 2024 results — proving that smarter targeting drives better outcomes.

2024-2025 Campaign Results:

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impressions

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Raised for local nonprofits

Two Years, One Big Leap Forward

In 2024, we partnered with the Lincoln Community Foundation to launch Give to Lincoln’s first major digital ad campaign, contributing to a record-breaking $8.5 million raised. That was the breakthrough. In 2025, we leveled up. By building on what worked and fine-tuning the plan even further, we came back smarter. We targeted more intentionally, spent more efficiently and delivered messaging that resonated with our new and growing base of local donors. The result was a record-breaking $9.5 million raised — proof that thoughtful, data-backed iteration builds game-changing momentum.

Year over year, this campaign has grown in dollars raised, and matured into a proven digital fundraising model that is built to scale.