The Seed Company was launched by Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1993 with a mandate to accelerate Bible translation. It started with pilot projects in 10 different languages linked to prayer partners and investors. Four years later, the model was working with 50 different people groups and growing. Although Bible translation dates back to the first centuries of the Church, the spread into lesser-known languages began after the Reformation. Wycliffe Bible Translators initiated and led the modern Bible translation movement in the mid-20th century. By the 1980’s, however, they realized that it would take an additional 150 years at that then-current pace of translation to reach every people group. Wycliffe asked former CEO Bernie May to lead an initiative to build a model that would accelerate the pace of Bible translation and involve more national leadership.
By 2002, The Seed Company reached its 200th language group, with all projects being led by national translators. By 2007 the number of cumulative languages engaged grew to 400, and in 2012 tney entered their 800th language partnership. Today, The Seed Company is working with several hundred local translators who are leading the translation process in more than 400 Bible translation projects. These translators are responding to the local churches’ and ministries’ need to make Scripture available more quickly for church planting and discipleship. (Source).
Why They Engaged FrontGate:
The Seed Company requested FrontGate to find new potential donors for their non-profit organization. They recognized that FrontGate’s actively engaged Christian email subscribers represented a new audience for them, providing the ability to connect them with like-minded people who would see value in what they do. The Seed Company was not only seeking financial support for their efforts, but ultimately support from people who believed in their mission. FrontGate was able to achieve these goals for them and demonstrated how this non-profit could introduce itself to a whole new audience of potential donors and supporters.
Target Audience:
The target audience for the campaign was Christian women who were interested in the work of The Seed Company, and who would help raise awareness of their mission and needs.
Campaign Details:
Together with the client, FrontGate decided a direct email campaign was the best way to reach the desired audience. Fine-tuning a direct email ad, we executed an engagement campaign to reach 225,000 Christian women from FrontGate’s Christian subscriber databases who were chosen based on their close match to the target demographic.
Results:
The response of FrontGate’s direct email campaign was close to double the industry average for direct email.
According to Shane Wagner, Digital Experience Manager for The Seed Company, “FrontGate’s email subscribers are highly engaged. We have seen great results from our email marketing campaigns; far beyond the other ad networks we worked with on this same campaign.”
Related Links:
FrontGate’s Christian Web Network