How Goodwill Orange County reversed a donation decline.
This nonprofit streaming advertising case study covers 25 stores whose donated goods fund workforce programs across Orange County.
Book a Strategy Call+244%
Donations in Lake Forest, year over year
A 100-year-old nonprofit, 25 locations, and one shortfall.
Streaming built on Goodwill of Orange County's own customer data lifted donations 244% year over year in Lake Forest, 147% in Irvine, and 48% in San Juan Capistrano.
Goodwill of Orange County
100 years old, with 25 retail stores and donation centers.
Retail revenue funds the mission
Workforce development for job seekers, including people with disabilities.
South County was the target
The specific trade areas where donations had fallen.
Built on Goodwill's own data
Their customers and their trade areas, not a nonprofit template.
Donations were falling, and the previous campaign couldn't say why.
Donations fell across South County, and the campaign before it couldn't say what good performance even looked like.
Goodwill OC faced a significant drop in donations across its South Orange County locations. A shortfall in one part of the county created pressure across the whole organization.
The team had run one CTV campaign before. According to Marketing Communications Director Nicole Morrison, they came in without a clear picture of what good performance looked like, how the campaign should be structured, or what measurement they would get back.
How we built the Goodwill campaign.
01
A month to optimize before scaling.
The first month went into refining targets against real performance signals, not scaling.
02
Spend aimed at the actual customers.
Working from Goodwill's first-party data in Placer.ai with PersonaLive segmentation, spend concentrated on the segments that make up about 70% of their South County customers.
03
Creative built to act, not impress.
Spots like “time to clean out your closet” asked for a donation that week, not brand recall next quarter.
Donations climbed most in the markets that needed it most.
Streaming was one part of a coordinated push, aimed at the underperforming South County markets. That is where the lift landed, and Goodwill OC has kept investing since.
+244%
Lake Forest donations, year over year.
+147%
Irvine donations, year over year.
+48%
San Juan Capistrano donations, year over year.
Every figure in this nonprofit streaming advertising case study is Goodwill of Orange County's own donation count for the campaign period. Learn more about the organization at ocgoodwill.org.
“It was so clear that we were going to build this campaign to really meet those specific needs. It wasn't just something that, oh, it works for other clients, so we're sure it'll work for you. It was built for Goodwill, so that's why we felt so confident going into it.”
Nicole Morrison
Marketing Communications Director
Goodwill of Orange County
Hear how Goodwill OC built the campaign with us.
Nicole Morrison walks through the decisions that turned a coordinated push into measurable lift across the priority South County markets.
Nonprofit streaming advertising, answered.
What drove the 244% donation lift in Lake Forest?
Concentration. Instead of spreading reach across every possible profile, spend went to the segments that make up roughly 70% of Goodwill's South County customers, in the specific trade areas where donations had fallen, with creative asking for a donation that same week.
Was streaming the only thing running?
No. Goodwill OC ran several initiatives at once, and this campaign was aimed at the underperforming South County markets. That is where the lift landed, which is why the market-level numbers are reported rather than one countywide figure.
How did you decide where to spend?
From Goodwill's own customer data, which showed who actually shops and donates and which trade areas they come from, rather than a generic nonprofit audience.
How long did it take before donations moved?
The first month went into optimization rather than scale. Once the segments locked in against real performance signals, donations began to climb and the budget scaled behind what was already working.
Does streaming advertising work for nonprofits?
It does when the ask is concrete and the geography is tight. A donation is a local, this-week action, so a campaign built on real trade areas and real customer data outperforms broad awareness reach every time. That is the whole argument of this nonprofit streaming advertising case study.
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