Every holiday season, USPS receives tens of thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus. Many are written by children asking for help with basic needs. USPS felt a responsibility to deliver these letters—otherwise undeliverable—written in the hopes of having a happy, joyous holiday. So USPS digitized and published them for anyone to adopt and then send a gift, essentially crowdsourcing Santa.

This is how the digital Operation Santa platform began in November of 2017.

Just weeks before the 2018 holidays, as the California Camp Fire raged, we knew this Operation Santa platform could quickly connect those who had lost so much with those looking to help. We just needed to read the letters to Santa.

Because these people had nothing left, not even a pen and paper, we had to create over a thousand letter-writing kits with instructions, blank paper and stamped envelopes addressed to our unique Santa address. We shipped them in bulk to the affected regions, where USPS representatives and mail carriers distributed the kits to people in the local shelters.

These letters were then placed in mailboxes, where they were routed to our processing team. The letters were published on the Operation Santa online platform, allowing people in the community to adopt the letters and gift the specific items requested.

PR strategy centered largely on organic word of mouth, as we expected local news outlets to report on the story and individuals to share their experiences and enthusiasm on social media. Many social influencers even supported Operation Santa without any contracts or agreements, raising awareness of the program among their large networks organically and helping others adopt letters.

The Operation Santa program had already launched online, partnering with seven cities around the country to reach good people—the letter adopters. With zero media dollars spent, word of the program spread across news outlets and social media as people shared their enthusiasm and asked others for help in raising money for the bigger gift requests.

Visitors to the website were alerted that, among the many letters they could view, those with a red heart in the upper-right corner were from kids and families displaced by the California Camp Fire. These letters were adopted quickest of all.

Operation Santa saw great success as a giving platform, with a significant increase in the number of participants who provided items to families in need. Awareness was up 76% from the previous year, with the program garnering a 16.9 million reach. The site saw 10,000 new website visitors per week. Brand sentiment improved, and anecdotal social and news stories skewed very positive, as shown in the case video.

By showing people the heart of the brand that was helping people help others, we improved net sentiment by 150%. Even perceptions of reliability increased by 19%.

43,452 letters were processed, with 6,550 deemed adoptable. (Many lacked valid a return address or did not include one at all). The final number of letters adopted and packages received is withheld.