Boston Winter Ball 2025
Corey C. Griffin Foundation
The Organization
The Corey C. Griffin Foundation (CCGF) is a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of children through education, healthcare, and faith-based initiatives. The Boston Winter Ball is the foundation's annual black-tie fundraising gala and one of the premier philanthropic events on the Boston social calendar. The 2025 event marked the 17th annual gathering, held February 8 at the Omni Hotel at the Seaport in Boston, Massachusetts.
Please note: This case study reflects work completed during the period of active collaboration. Laura and Vie's Legacy, LLC no longer manages or maintains this organization's marketing, communications, website, or digital presence, and current materials may differ from the original scope of work.
The Challenge
The Boston Winter Ball is a high-stakes event with a large, diverse audience of donors, sponsors, and community supporters. The 2025 campaign required building a full communications infrastructure around the gala: from sponsor and partner outreach to ticket sales, event-night coverage, and post-event engagement. The campaign had to move audiences from awareness to ticket purchase to gratitude without losing momentum across a multi-week window.
The goal: drive ticket sales and sponsorship revenue, generate visible community excitement, and leave the foundation with a reusable BWB communications framework.
My Role
This engagement was facilitated through Schick Creative, a marketing agency where I worked as a Marketing Associate. As part of the Schick Creative team, I collaborated on campaign strategy and took ownership of execution across copywriting, social media content and management, email marketing, paid advertising, graphic design, live event coverage, and all campaign documentation, from pre-event planning through post-event reporting.
The Approach
The campaign was built in four phases, all operating within a broader Boston Winter Ball marketing and communications plan developed before a single post went live.
Strategy & Infrastructure
Before any content was created, I developed the Boston Winter Ball marketing and communications plan, a full campaign roadmap covering event positioning, audience targeting, channel strategy, partner and sponsor outreach, and phased campaign sequencing. The BWB campaign operated inside this framework alongside the broader CCGF communications strategy, ensuring every tactic reinforced the Foundation's mission.
Pre-Event Campaign
Launched the Save the Date outreach and ticket sales campaign with sponsor and partner announcements, event details, and calls to action across email and paid Meta ads. Weekly in-feed posts were published to both the Foundation and the dedicated Boston Winter Ball Instagram page, with outbound links for ticketing and sponsorship. Content highlighted the honorees, entertainment lineup, raffle partners, and the purpose of the event.
Countdown and Urgency Content
In the final weeks before February 8, daily story posts across Instagram and Facebook built sustained momentum. A high-performing carousel post designed for saving and sharing covered everything attendees needed to know: venue, dress code, entertainment, and ticket links. Partner spotlights and entertainment announcements added additional points of anticipation across the countdown window.
Event Coverage and Post-Event
On the day of the event, live posts went out across Instagram and Facebook with performance footage, venue shots, and program moments. Day-of countdown stories received over 1,100 views on the Foundation page and 1,400 on the dedicated BWB page. Post-event, a thank-you email was sent from Rob Griffin to the entire Foundation community. The recap reel reached over 24,000 views, the highest of any video previously published by the Foundation.
Social Media Campaign
Click any image to view the full post with caption
Event details post
Event partners
Post-event photos
Youth Courage Award
Sample posts from the campaign across Instagram and Facebook, including the Foundation and dedicated Boston Winter Ball pages
Email Marketing
10 emails across pre-event outreach, ticket sales, partner announcements, and post-event follow-up
Events blast email
Giving Tuesday email
54% average open rate · Campaign emails managed through Constant Contact
By the Numbers
$2.4M
Total Raised
54%
Email Open Rate
Industry avg: ~25%
1.4%
Email Click Rate
Consistent with industry avg
$0.17
Cost Per Ad Click
4
Paid Ads Run
Across Meta
10
Emails Sent
1,100+
Day-of Story Views
Foundation page
1,400+
Day-of Story Views
BWB page
24K+
Post-Event Reel Views
Highest reach ever published
9
Event Partners Spotlighted
What Performed Best
Video content consistently outperformed static posts across both Instagram pages. The post-event recap reel reached over 24,000 views, the highest of any video the Foundation had previously published, driven by organic resharing from supporters and Board members. Day-of stories on both the Foundation and dedicated BWB pages exceeded 1,000 views each, with audience-generated content amplifying reach well beyond the core follower base. Among static posts, content centered on impact, purpose, and clearly visible people outperformed event logistics alone.
What We Learned
Every campaign builds the next one. Key takeaways documented for future Boston Winter Ball events:
- Start Save the Date communications six months in advance
- Allow more lead time before sponsorship and ticket sales launch
- Leverage vibrant photos and videos of past attendees to build early excitement
- Assign a dedicated handler to manage the photography shot list for VIPs, Board members, leadership, and award recipients
- Prepare post-event social media acknowledgements before the event for timely release
- Continue post-event excitement to build momentum for next year's Save the Date
What This Built
Beyond the gala itself, this engagement produced a full-scale Boston Winter Ball communications plan the Foundation can use year over year, including content templates, channel strategy, partner and sponsor outreach frameworks, and a documented campaign playbook. The infrastructure created positions CCGF to approach each future BWB with clarity, consistency, and a proven framework for driving both revenue and community impact.