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Then & Now: St. Vincent Meals on Wheels
By Laura Esposito, Senior Consultant/Creative Director
January 2012

From one meal to 1.1 million meals a year in Los Angeles

In the mid-1970s, a dietitian at St. Vincent Medical Center who is also a nun began delivering nourishing meals to the homes of seniors in her L.A. neighborhood who were hungry after leaving the hospital.

Seeing a larger need than she could meet on her bicycle, Sister Alice Marie Quinn and a group of volunteers began serving a daily hot meal to seniors at a local church hall.

Soon after that, they began to make daily meal deliveries in a van to meet the needs of seniors who were too frail, disabled or ill to leave their homes…and St. Vincent Meals on Wheels was born.

Thirty-five years later, St. Vincent Meals on Wheels has grown to become the largest privately funded meal program in the U.S., serving more than 1.1 million meals a year to homebound seniors and seriously ill adults across Los Angeles.

Schultz & Williams has partnered with St. Vincent since 1988; I’ve been on the team since 1989 as their L.A.-based account manager and creative director/copywriter.

And although much has changed in fundraising over the years, many things remain the same.

When we started working with St. Vincent, direct mail was king. The program’s growth has come from a heavy dose of new donor acquisition mailings in Los Angeles County, along with frequent appeals to donors.

In the beginning, we also created brochures and mini-annual reports that were distributed at fundraising and community events. We tested advertising in the local Catholic newspaper and on a donated billboard; both efforts brought more new clients to the program than new donors! Thankfully, Sister Alice Marie was happy to serve them.

Although printing and postage were much cheaper in the ‘80s, direct mail was and still remains our most cost-efficient way to reach new and current donors.

Back then, the Internet and e-mail were not yet widely used. Facebook’s founders were in knee pants. YouTube was unheard of. No mobile fundraising. QR codes? Nope. And, at the client’s request, telemarketing has always been off the table.

Over the years, as the donor base has risen to 50,000 contributors and new fundraising channels arise, Schultz & Williams has worked to identify opportunities and grow the program in a variety of ways.

Direct mail is still king, but today’s program is vastly different than the one we implemented in the ‘80s—or even just five years ago. It includes:

• More targeted acquisition and donor mailings, using, donor modeling and database overlays.
• A monthly sustainer program, The Breakfast Club.
• An aggressive upper-level giving program. The Circle of Angels, a $500-$10,000 annual giving club marketed by mail and peer-to-peer phone calls, provides the program with their largest amount of income from individuals who can give at higher levels.
• Cultivation mailings. The Bread Basket newsletter goes to donors three times a year highlighting stories of clients whose lives are changed by daily meal delivery. This simple eight-page self-mailer has a gift envelope inside that also nets significant income.
• Capital campaigns. The donor base is engaged and reaches out to support capital expenses as well, especially the building of a new kitchen in 2001.
• Planned Giving. The Sister Alice Marie Legacy Society invites donors through the mail and other advertisements to notify us of their bequest so we may honor them in advance, and to inquire about planned giving opportunities.
• Online communications. Regular e-mail campaigns combine cultivation with e-appeals. And of course, the program now utilizes their website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to keep donors engaged.
• Reaching younger audiences. A new initiative to reach the next generation of donors has launched Cart for a Cause, the country’s first philanthropic food truck. And we’re experimenting with text-to-give at events.

Today we are launching a major gifts campaign to help ensure the program’s future. And next, we’re planning to help grow their endowment.

It’s been a privilege for our entire team to work with St. Vincent and Sister Alice Marie and see the program continue to grow to meet the needs of L.A.’s hungry seniors.

Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.