When the Evangelization Scholarship was first launched in the Diocese of Brooklyn, it didn’t get as much traction as it could have. It is one of five scholarships that Futures in Education provides for children with financial need, to allow them to attend Catholic primary school affordably. Specifically, it allows underprivileged children who are enrolled in a CCD program to transfer to a Catholic school at a fraction of the cost.

Being as this was a cross-disciplinary effort, DeSales Media worked with Catholic Foundation (the development office), the Superintendent of Schools, and the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis (faith formation office) to understand the challenges involved. It seemed that some of the biggest hurdles to a would-be recipient family are the ideas that Catholic school is too expensive or too far away from home.

To increase applications for scholarships, DeSales launched a search and display media campaign, targeting families searching (and browsing) both for Catholic primary schools and private primary schools in NYC. The creative was bright and featured a diverse range of kids, both to reflect the diversity found in Brooklyn and Queens, and so that we had plenty of data to measure exactly what combination of art and copy worked best.

The ads clicked through to two versions of the landing page:

The campaign was a success and led to a huge uptick in the number of scholarship applications received. You can still visit the landing pages today here and here.