THE STORY OF…
Opportunity & success for young women
The brief
The Mac.Rob Foundation sits at the heart of one of Melbourne’s most high-achieving schools. Through scholarships and bursaries, it supports some of the state’s brightest young women — celebrating academic excellence while providing practical financial support to families who need it.
The mission was strong. The digital presence wasn’t.
When STORYMKR came on board in 2022, the Foundation’s platforms were steady but underpowered. Newsletters were ticking along, social media lacked consistency, and reporting was reactive rather than strategic.
The goal? Bring structure, clarity and momentum to the Foundation’s communications — transforming email, website and social into a cohesive, measurable ecosystem.
The hustle
First, we audited everything. Early reporting (Feb-April 2022) showed newsletter open rates of 38.8% and 53.6% — already above industry benchmarks, but with clear room for improvement in skimmability, visuals and call-to-action structure. From there, we:
Refined newsletter structure for readability and stronger CTAs
Introduced more storytelling — alumni profiles, bursary impact, board spotlights
Built a strategic LinkedIn content plan focused on governance and alumnae success
Strengthened cross-channel integration between email, website and social
Used reporting insights to continuously refine content themes
We leaned hard into people-focused storytelling — because impact is always more powerful than information.
The result
Newsletter open rates climbed from the high 30s and low 50s in 2022 to a consistent 63-64% in 2024-2025 — significantly outperforming the 44-46% industry benchmark. Click-through performance strengthened, with campaigns recording up to 20% clicks per unique open and zero unsubscribe periods, reflecting both relevance and trust within the subscriber base.
Website growth followed. Between February-April 2024 and the same period in 2025, total visitors increased 27%, unique visitors rose 36%, and page views grew 21%. By late 2025, site traffic reached 2.1K visits per reporting window, up 34% year-on-year. Scholarship and bursary pages recorded some of the highest engagement times on site, with readers spending more than three minutes on key content pages.
LinkedIn became the Foundation’s fastest-growing platform. Between April 2024 and April 2025, followers increased 29%. By October-December 2025, the page had grown to 439 followers, with 55 new followers in that period alone — a 267% increase. Total impressions surged to 25,600 (+435%), with 489 post likes (+375%) and comments increasing by 2,600%.
435%+
LI impressions
36%+
unique web visits
64%
open rates