While the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) has traditionally had a reputation for not caring, they were among the first responders during the California Camp Fire, helping people get vital pieces of mail, such as prescriptions, insurance information and paychecks.

The holidays were right around the corner; USPS needed to deliver mail to help people get back on their feet, and also show that they deliver the holiday spirit to families in need—even those without homes. Through Operation Santa, USPS harnessed their unique position to connect these families with people looking to help, sending gifts in time for Christmas.

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.

To find where evacuees were staying, USPS PR teams in the area did the groundwork to find us the contact information and addresses of local shelters.

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.

Working with no media budget, we relied largely on word of mouth to raise awareness of the Camp Fire initiative and get people excited about this unique charitable effort. Twenty-five news outlets picked up the story, emphasizing the personal and heartfelt connections forged through Operation Santa and encouraging others to get involved.

In total, the program garnered a reach of 16.9 million, raising awareness while helping to shift public perception of USPS as a whole. On social media platforms, many people expressed their enthusiasm, and social media influencers helped support the program—without any contracts or agreements.

And it made it to the front page of Reddit.

Ultimately, our Operation Santa and Camp Fire efforts helped shift people’s opinion of USPS, highlighting the heart behind their work. By delivering holiday cheer to those in need—including people who lost everything in the California Camp Fire—USPS was able to reposition themselves in the minds of the American public. We improved net sentiment by 150% from 2017. Even perceptions of reliability increased by 19%.