How Elevated Faith Built a Mission-Aligned Audience With 53 Giveaways

Inside Elevated Faith's Eight-Year Giveaway Strategy

Elevated Faith has run 53 campaigns in 8 years, about one every seven to eight weeks.

Josh's answer points to why it has stayed in rotation this long. "The giveaway is the intro; our email and SMS flows do the converting," he says, and that's exactly why it works: it reliably refreshes the top of the funnel with new, values-aligned people at a low cost per subscriber relative to paid

A giveaway brings in a large batch of mission-aligned subscribers in a short window, then lets email and content build the relationship from there.

Elevated Faith has one lever that does that, and it runs it on a schedule.

The Store Was the Front Door

The $1,000 Gift Card Giveaway is the most recent data point in that eight-year run, and the numbers hold up: 26,122 impressions, 21,405 actions, 3,961 users, and a 15.16% conversion rate. The large majority of that traffic, roughly 20,600 impressions against about 2,500 through Gleam's own giveaway directory, came through the campaign embedded directly on Elevated Faith's Shopify storefront. The store was the front door, not a separate contest site.

That audience also skewed heavily domestic, 91.6% of entrants were in the US, a reminder that this campaign was about growing a home audience for a US-based brand, not chasing global reach.

One Sitting, Thirteen Actions

The detail that says the most about how this system actually works is the ratio underneath those totals: roughly 5.4 completed actions for every person who entered, and the most engaged entrants went further still, completing all 13 available actions. That's not a single email drop and done, it's downloading the EF app, opting in as a "Text Insider" for SMS, following four separate Elevated Faith Instagram accounts, visiting their YouTube, following on TikTok and Amazon, applying to become a Brand Ambassador, and leaving reviews, all in one sitting. That only happens when the entry mechanic and the destination behind it are both worth the extra few seconds.

Why the Gift Card Isn't the Real Draw

The gift card isn't really the point. It gets someone to stop scrolling and enter, that's its whole job. The real goal is introducing them to Elevated Faith: faith-based products made to start conversations, and the Charity Day giving behind every sale. The giveaway is there to get people onto the list, not to hit a sales number during the entry window.

That's also why what works for Elevated Faith on Gleam is consistency, not a one-off stunt: a simple entry, a prize tied to the brand instead of something generic, and a cadence the audience comes to expect. The multi-action setup does the rest, entrants could download the EF app, join the Text Insider list, watch on YouTube, follow four separate Elevated Faith Instagram accounts, or opt in as a Brand Ambassador, all low-effort ways to learn more about the brand while the prize is still front of mind.

Why Community and Giving Matter More Than a Coupon

Elevated Faith's campaigns point people toward the mission behind the products, the brand's Charity Day giving to faith-based organisations, and the community and ambassador side of the business, the people already wearing the brand and inviting others in, not just a coupon code. 605 entrants also opted into Elevated Faith's Brand Ambassador program as one of their giveaway actions.

A new subscriber's first real touchpoint with Elevated Faith, through the welcome flow, is the story and the cause the brand exists for, not a discount they were chasing. That fits a brand built on 80,000+ five-star reviews and a mission to spark faith conversations. It's the reason the audience sticks around after the prize is long gone.

What Other Mission-Driven Shopify Brands Can Take From This

53 campaigns over 8 years is what happens when a giveaway is treated as an ongoing system, built around mission and community rather than a one-off prize.

Run It as a System, Not an Event

Elevated Faith runs this giveaway roughly every seven to eight weeks, not once a year. That's the thing other brands should copy: put your giveaway on a repeat schedule instead of treating it as a one-off, and pick the next date before you launch the first one.

Make the Prize the On-Ramp, Not the Destination

The gift card gets people to click. The mission, the giving, and the community are what keep them around after that. Cap the required entry to one or two actions like following and joining the list, offer bonus entries for sharing or tagging a friend, and make the prize itself a gift card to your own store rather than cash or a generic gadget, so it actually feels like your brand, not just any other giveaway.

Measure the Funnel, Not Just the Campaign Window

Elevated Faith doesn't expect the giveaway itself to move product. It expects the welcome flow and the ongoing email and SMS calendar that follows to do that work. Track list growth and reach as your in-campaign numbers, and look for sales later, in your email and SMS reporting, not during the entry window.

Let Community Re-Engage as Much as It Acquires

For an eight-year-old list, a giveaway is as much a reason for existing subscribers to re-engage with a brand they already chose as it is a door for new people. Send the giveaway to your existing list too, not just new audiences, and use it to bring back subscribers who've gone quiet.

Lead With What You Stand For

For a mission-driven brand, the giveaway works best as an introduction to the mission and the giving behind it. Build the entry mechanic around your mission or cause instead of a generic discount and let that be the story you tell publicly.