How Boys & Girls Club of South Central Tennessee Cut Mailing Prep Time by 6 Hours and Tripled Their Campaign Output with Mimeo

CHALLENGE

Running marketing for 14 club locations, 80 staff, and 1,800 kids is a lot for any team. For Boys & Girls Club of South Central Tennessee, it was a lot for one person. Peter Kwong, Director of Marketing and Communications, managed it all himself, and before Mimeo, the process was almost entirely manual.

Twice a year, staff gathered for full days of handwriting up to 2,000 pieces of mail. Newsletters and other materials were sourced piecemeal from local Nashville-area businesses, some of which Peter had to pick up in person on his hour-long commute into the office. Uniforms and supplies for new hires and summer programs meant staff sorting t-shirts by size in a conference room, turning the space into a temporary warehouse each season. Marketing requests came in last minute, and getting materials to the right people on time fell entirely on Peter’s shoulders.

HOW MIMEO HELPED

Peter connected with Mimeo through a sales conversation about the club's biggest pain points: the need for mail merge, automated mailing, and affordable branded materials, all within the budget constraints of a regional nonprofit. That conversation led to a Mimeo Marketplace storefront built around the club's internal structure, giving club directors and staff the ability to order what they need directly instead of routing every request through Peter.

Print, Digital, and Marketplace materials all moved to Mimeo's platform, with supplies for uniforms, newsletters, and event materials stored in Mimeo's warehouse instead of under Peter's desk. Newsletter printing, once outsourced to a local shop, now costs 40% less through Mimeo, shipping included.

"It's not like the Vistaprints or the 4imprints. You have a dedicated person that you can speak to. They check in with you all the time." -Peter

THE RESULT

The impact showed up immediately in time savings. Mail merge and automated mailing through Mimeo now save the team roughly 6 hours of prep time per mailing, a task that used to require full staff days of handwriting. That time savings, combined with the ease of the new process, let the club grow from two annual mailings to seven, including timely campaigns like a St. Patrick's Day mailer the team never had the bandwidth to run before.

Summer onboarding changed too. Uniforms and supplies now arrive already organized and in stock, so staff no longer spend hours sorting t-shirts by size during the seasonal rush. Club staff across all 14 locations can log into the internal Marketplace and order what they need directly, from uniforms to business cards, without waiting on Peter.

"The convenience of that pays for itself."

THE BOTTOM LINE

For a one-person marketing team supporting a regional nonprofit, time is the scarcest resource. Mimeo gave Peter back the hours he used to spend on procurement and pickup, freeing him to focus on developing new campaigns instead of chasing down materials.

"It has allowed me to spend less time on procurement of marketing materials and more time on developing them and expanding our campaigns."

Key Takeaways

Mail merge and automated mailing cut prep time by 6 hours per mailing, letting the organization grow from 2 to 7 campaigns a year
A branded Marketplace storefront let club staff across 14 locations order materials directly, removing bottlenecks from a one-person marketing team
Warehousing uniforms and supplies eliminated the seasonal scramble of sorting t-shirts by size for summer onboarding
Newsletter costs dropped 40% across 700 recipients
A dedicated account contact gave the club the responsiveness of a personal vendor relationship, something Peter didn't find with larger print companies

Boys & Girls Club of South Central Tennessee provides after-school and summer programming, mentorship, and enrichment activities for kids and teens across 14 locations in the region.

Visit bgcsctn.org