March of Dimes

Benefits

Eleven months into its Affiliate Program, the March of Dimes' 400 Affiliates had already donated more than 40 million banner ad impressions.  Says Jeffery Bair, "Our initial approach has been to use our Affiliate Program to help create awareness of March of Dimes' key issues, including how to prevent birth defects, premature birth and low birthweight."

Managing so many small and medium-sized Affiliates is something Bair says he could never have done without an Affiliate Program. "Otherwise, we would have needed a large staff to accomplish that task. But with the Affiliate Network, it's easy and relatively quick for me to manage hundreds of Affiliates through one interface."

That convenience leaves time for Bair to focus on creating Public Service Advertising partnerships with the largest web properties, including Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft. For instance, in November 2006 alone, MSN was generous enough to donate over 12 million banner impressions to the March of Dimes.

"The goal for Year 1 of our Affiliate Program was recruiting Affiliates and gaining banner ad impressions," Bair explains. "Any click-thrus leading to social activism and donations were a bonus." In 2007, Bair will begin to concentrate not just on banner click-thru conversion, but also on outreach impact and fundraising.