The Goal
Sandy Hook Promise’s holistic view of gun violence prevention encompasses a variety of priorities: from legislative advocacy to implementing solutions that empower students to know the signs of gun violence and get help before a tragedy happens. Our mission, then, was to capture the audience’s attention by leveraging content that elevated all parts of Sandy Hook Promise’s mission and create cross-channel strategies that could turn that attention into a lasting movement to protect children, while growing their audiences and accelerating their fundraising to continuously support these essential efforts.
The strategy
Building an impactful, connected strategy across digital channels for Sandy Hook Promise that would powerfully communicate their unique story and mission while driving ongoing support to their work meant working closely with their team at every level of their program: from creative development to strategic calendaring to tactical activation across channels. We helped Sandy Hook Promise develop a compelling and unique voice, build advocacy campaigns around key initiatives, grow their sustainer base and retain donors and lead the way in innovation as early adopters in channels like SMS.
Capturing Sandy Hook Promise’s Emotionally Powerful Voice.
Founded and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, the stories Sandy Hook Promise tells are difficult ones. Still, it was impossible to capture the essence of their organization and mission without giving voice to the raw emotion parents and loved ones of those murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary were feeling. We worked closely with their team to develop a compelling voice for their messaging across channels, which included parents and loved ones telling their stories in the most direct, emotional way possible.
Promoting Lifesaving Work
Central to Sandy Hook Promise’s mission are the programs that empower students and families to learn, intervene and take critical legislative actions that can prevent future gun violence tragedies. We’ve worked with their team to develop powerful campaigns that amplify their message across channels and reach new audiences to broaden the program’s base of supporters.
“UnTargeting Kids.” In 2025, this campaign sought to break through ideological divides to reach moderate and conservative voters – who are often left out of gun violence prevention advocacy efforts – to establish a powerful common ground: Gun owners and non-gun owners alike can agree that kids should not be the targets of firearm marketing.
We worked closely with the SHP team to grow this audience, engage new supporters, and drive action through ads, emails, and SMS content, as well as surveys, quizzes, and petitions. This campaign placed a powerful emphasis on bipartisanship by building a moderate file within their audiences, growing their supporters in priority advocacy states around the country and driving powerful awareness to a message at the heart of their mission to protect America’s children from gun violence. These efforts yielded 4.1M total impressions, resulting in 31K new supporters taking 20.2K actions across digital channels – and were awarded with a Bronze Win by the Anthem Awards for a National Awareness Campaign in 2025.
Balancing Rapid Response With Ongoing Support
While responding in moments of tragedy is, sadly, a big part of Sandy Hook Promise’s program, a sustained movement capable of driving life-saving gun violence prevention reforms requires us to build strategies for driving ongoing support and engagement outside of those breaking news moments.
Driving critical advocacy actions.
We’ve organized around legislative pushes for mental health reform and background check bills, spoken out against the development of a school shooting video game, and called on public figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene to renounce harmful conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook. These efforts, all critical components of SHP’s mission, drove ongoing engagement through smaller, important news hooks, allowing us to get back in front of supporters over email, paid ads, and more.
Retaining donors brought in through rapid response.
Working in gun violence prevention, Sandy Hook Promise sees a great deal of new donors join their audience in rapid response efforts to tragic shootings. We’ve helped them dramatically increase their sustainer conversions to build a foundation of ongoing support for their mission beyond emergency moments by rigorously testing upsell experiences, including our proprietary tool for building supporter journeys, Sign For Good. Efforts like these have increased sustainer conversions by 314%, with SHP now bringing in 60% of their annual revenue through valuable and highly sustainable recurring donations.
We’ve also worked closely with SHP to keep these supporters engaged with their ongoing work. In FY26, we helped them drive a 74% recurring donor retention rate – well above industry standards, even in a year without a major rapid response moment for their program. Strategic segmentation, frequent cultivation and opportunities to deepen their donors’ commitment to their mission keep their retention rates high.
Investing in midlevel audiences with SHP’s Impact Circle.
As a dedicated midlevel donor program, SHP’s Impact Circle receives tailored communications at a lower cadence than their base audience, centered around gratitude for the impact their leadership support has on expanding the lifesaving prevention programs that protect children every day. Working alongside SHP, we closely monitor the storytelling, strategies, and renewal efforts directed toward this audience to keep supporters invested in SHP’s mission and optimize for ongoing retention and returns. In FY 2026, these efforts drove an 822% ROI for the program overall.
Leading The Latest Innovations
The digital world moves fast, and it’s critical to have the ability to zero in on the tactics and technologies that will move the needle and drive big results. In our partnership with Sandy Hook Promise, we’ve worked to ensure they have the most robust program possible, leading the industry in the latest innovations.
Launching an SMS program: $1M raised in year 1.
In 2020, we saw an opening to maximize reach and audience response through SMS – a platform that was increasingly proving more immediate and urgent than email and thus incredibly lucrative for both fundraising and advocacy efforts. We launched a dedicated SMS shortcode program in 2020, and quickly grew an audience of 700,000 opted-in supporters, who responded to appeals over text at unheard-of rates. Among the first nonprofits to scale up a major SMS program, Sandy Hook Promise led the way in the industry in proving the powerful impact this growing channel can have on fundraising programs.
Optimizing for ongoing SMS growth.
As more nonprofits move into SMS and the channel becomes more competitive, we worked closely with SHP to ensure we could find new pockets of opportunity for continued growth. We’re helping their program move into longcode SMS rentals to drive revenue in key moments, acquire new donors to their file, and shift the focus of their texting program to higher net revenue. These strategies are once more leading the way for nonprofits with established SMS programs looking to optimize in a newly minted core digital channel.
“MissionWired has been a strong partner from the very beginning. Because of their support, strong storytelling, and fundraising expertise, we are able to save more lives and prevent more violence in schools and communities across the country.”
