A multi-million dollar force for good: The digital marketing success of Franciscan Missions
The Franciscan Missions is an organization of Franciscan friars who dedicate their lives to missionary work with the poor, all over the world. They are on the front lines of poverty, and their “sandals on the ground” approach allows them to reach some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
If there’s a natural disaster, a humanitarian crisis, a civil war, or systemic economic poverty, you will find the Franciscan friars. With minimal organizational overhead and a small-but-mighty team based in Wisconsin, donations to the Franciscan Missions go directly to people suffering in real time. Through their abundant network of friaries and missions around the world, Franciscan Missions is doing life-saving and soul-saving work, bringing hope and material resources wherever they go.
But this cannot be done without the help of their dedicated donors.
In 2017, Franciscan Missions began a partnership with USDP to reach more donors and grow their capacity to do good. What has unfolded over almost a decade is one of the most successful marketing partnerships we’ve seen at USDP.
Starting the journey with Franciscan Missions
For years, USDP had worked with the Franciscans at St. Anthony's Shrine in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 2017, Jim Kott, the head of marketing for Franciscan Missions, asked our client at St. Anthony's to recommend a marketing partner agency. St. Anthony’s had been so successful in raising awareness and fundraising, and Franciscan Missions wanted to do the same.
Brother Andy, Executive Director for Franciscan Missions, traveled to Cincinnati to meet with the team at USDP. We discussed what digital marketing support would look like, signed the dotted line, and got to work.
To date, Franciscan Missions has raised tens of millions of dollars in donations with USDP’s help.
Here’s how they did it.
Franciscan Missions' Roadmap
The tremendous success that Franciscan Missions has seen is a perfect example of what’s possible when relentless partnership bears fruit.
Strategic Direction
The Franciscan Missions runs entirely on the generosity of donors around the world, so their messaging and outreach needed to be crystal clear. They had to effectively communicate to current and potential donors the monumental feats they were accomplishing through the hard work of their missionaries around the world.
We started by making some quick improvements to their website to create a better landing zone for potential donors. Then we dove into strategy for their many funnels, including ad campaigns, email marketing, and appeal-based fundraising.
Clarifying the message: Sending hope to the far corners of the world
The missionary stories were powerful, so we conducted a messaging refresh on some of the online content to drive home just how incredible the Franciscan Missions operation was.
Articulating the sandals-on-the-ground approach: We developed content that highlighted the unique model of Franciscan Missions, where the "volunteers" are actually friar missionaries living as permanent members of the communities they serve. By providing a glimpse into the lives of these men through email marketing and website content, we reinforced the reality that they are the hands and feet bringing every project to life, fueled by the direct support of generous benefactors.
Connecting donors with the heart of the mission: We turned first-hand accounts from friars about school construction, home building, and vital educational campaigns into a cohesive content strategy. By transforming these reports into compelling blogs, emails, and social media posts, we connected donors with the heart of the mission and the lives that were being fundamentally transformed by their generosity.
Cutting through “overhead” fears: We crafted the right messaging to present Franciscan Missions as a more direct, lean alternative to large-scale international NGOs with hundreds of corporate staff members. We communicated that contributions to Franciscan Missions could bypass bureaucratic fees and go directly to friars on the ground. In this way, the highest possible percentage of every dollar was reaching those who needed it most.
Email Marketing: Appealing to the right audience
Articulating the sandals-on-the-ground approach: We developed content that highlighted the unique model of Franciscan Missions, where the "volunteers" are actually friar missionaries living as permanent members of the communities they serve. By providing a glimpse into the lives of these men through email marketing and website content, we reinforced the reality that they are the hands and feet bringing every project to life, fueled by the direct support of generous benefactors.
Connecting donors with the heart of the mission: We turned first-hand accounts from friars about school construction, home building, and vital educational campaigns into a cohesive content strategy. By transforming these reports into compelling blogs, emails, and social media posts, we connected donors with the heart of the mission and the lives that were being fundamentally transformed by their generosity.
Cutting through “overhead” fears: We crafted the right messaging to present Franciscan Missions as a more direct, lean alternative to large-scale international NGOs with hundreds of corporate staff members. We communicated that contributions to Franciscan Missions could bypass bureaucratic fees and go directly to friars on the ground. In this way, the highest possible percentage of every dollar was reaching those who needed it most.
Performance Marketing: Spreading the good news
Digital advertising would prove to be a large funnel for raising money for Franciscan Missions. We spun up a few campaigns to get the ball rolling in the ads space.
Taking stock of the core ad strategy: Historically, the Franciscan Missions’ digital revenue was driven by search engine marketing through Google and Bing. The ads were primarily focused on Mass offerings, including single Masses and the Gregorian Mass series, that could be said for individual donor intentions.
Pivoting from the Stackadapt approach: Not wanting to lose this important channel both for Franciscan Missions and their donors, we kept the concept of the Mass donation funnel, but successfully transitioned other parts of the ad strategy from a search-based model to an appeal-based approach. This significantly expanded the donor base.
Embracing Meta and organic social media appeals: After analyzing the StackAdapt performance, we recognized that better engagement was coming through organic social channels. We pivoted the bulk of our advertising budget to Meta and transformed specific project requests from the friars into ads and posts on social media. In this way, we were speaking directly to donors’ desires for tangible impact.
Seeing results in the ROI: From 2022 to the time of this case study’s publication in 2026, our management of a few hundred thousand dollars in ad spend has generated multiple millions of dollars in revenue (excluding email contributions). These figures represent about a 6:1 return on ad spend (ROAS). By keeping an open mind about new ways to grow and expand, we have scaled Franciscan Missions’ digital fundraising operation to raise millions of dollars over the course of our partnership.
Organic Social: bringing the brand to life
As digital marketing has evolved over the years, so has our approach to it with our clients. With Franciscan Missions, we eventually branched out into leveraging social media as an emergency funding tool for appeals.
Constant engagement testing: On top of posting about specific project updates and fundraising appeals, we began to expand our social content to include more general Catholic content. Project appeals were driving direct donations, but faith-based educational posts were being shared at higher rates, serving as a powerful tool to introduce the mission to a younger audience. Posts that usually saw 300 impressions were now up to 1,000.
Liturgical content for reaching new audiences: During liturgical seasons like Advent and Lent, we added to our usual email cadence by sending daily prayers and liturgical education, such as explaining the significance of the Advent candles or the Easter Triduum. These "shareable" faith-based assets have proven critical in gaining traction with a broader audience, as followers have reposted to Meta stories or sent prayer-focused graphics to friends.
The beauty of the MSA partnership: For clients on a high-level Managed Service Agreement (MSA) with USDP, we can conduct organic social management as part of our comprehensive marketing efforts. This approach ensures that social media is not operating as a stand-alone channel, but as part of a full marketing ecosystem. Because of our management of all of Franciscan Missions marketing, including blog content, email marketing, and digital ads, we are able to create organic posts that worked in harmony with the overarching mission and maximized the return on ad spend.
The Results: Going on a Decade of Partnership and Counting
Franciscan Missions raises millions of dollars every year. Their sandals-on-the-ground approach is making a true impact on communities around the world, and using digital marketing to tell this incredibly compelling story stirs the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of donors.
Over our many years in partnership, the strategy for Franciscan Missions’s digital marketing has grown and evolved. From direct mail to email marketing and Stackadapt to organic social media, ways to reach donors have changed. Month over month, we’ve grown donor lists, evolved our approach to digital advertising, experimented with different campaigns, and pivoted where necessary. As we continue to work with Franciscan Missions to further their work for the poor, we continue to find better strategies to reach new and younger audiences to keep the missions alive.
Through many channels—email, organic social media, direct mail, advertising, website content, and more—Franciscan Missions paints a full picture of the work they do, day in and day out, and awareness for this cause has grown exponentially. The results and global impact from the millions raised has been powerful. Houses have been built, schools have been opened, clean water sources have been established, refugees have been sustained, and most importantly, people’s lives have been reinvigorated with hope.
We’re proud to partner with Franciscan Missions and we’re excited to see where the next ten years take them!
