Nonprofit Appeals That Won Direct-Marketing Awards

USPS Gold Mailbox Award

To honor innovation in direct mail:

DENVER RESCUE MISSION
1130 Park Avenue West
Denver, Colo. 80217

Title of program: Thanksgiving Dinner Bag

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: To encourage donations to help provide Thanksgiving meals and shelter for needy people.

Budget: $7,042

Lists: 12,848 donors who had made a gift of $100 or less in the past 24 months

Media: A brown-paper lunch bag that contained materials explaining that a gift of $1.79 would provide a full meal or shelter to a needy person on Thanksgiving.

Results: 1,248 donors gave a net total of $25,651.

(This campaign also won a gold award.)

Henry Hoke Award

For the campaign with the most courageous solution to a difficult sales problem:

MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON’S RESEARCH
381 Park Avenue South,
Suite 820
New York, N.Y. 10016

Title of program: Start of the Michael J. Fox Foundation

Agency: McCann Relationship Marketing, New York

Objective: To generate donations to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that afflicts the actor Michael J. Fox, among others, and to increase awareness of the new foundation. The beginning of the foundation’s operations coincided with the final episode of Mr. Fox’s television show, Spin City, and had to balance the serious subject of Parkinson’s disease with Mr. Fox’s celebrity as a comedian.

Budget: $8,650 and donated design, production, editing, and airtime

Media: Print and television public-service announcements

Results: The announcements resulted in $1,982,034 in donations from private sources.

(The advertisements also won silver and bronze awards.)

Gold Award

COVENANT HOUSE
346 West 17th Street
New York, N.Y. 10011-5002

Title of program: Bed and Blanket Appeal

Agency: Epsilon, Burlington, Mass.

Objective: To encourage donations in September, as the weather became cold and the number of homeless youths needing help rose.

Budget: Less than $250,000, although the organization will not provide specific figures.

Lists: 567,237 previous donors

Media: The appeal was meant to have the feel of a local church donation drive, with donors giving to provide beds and blankets for homeless youths. Donors in northern states were told their donation would help prevent kids from freezing outside, while donors in southern states were asked to help relieve crowding in southern shelters, a result of homeless people moving to warmer climates in the winter. The appeal also included a donation envelope for the donor to give to a friend.

Results: The appeal raised a net $3,154,550 — the most raised by a fall mailing in the organization’s 30-year history — from 92,690 donors. The appeal raised $17.84 for every dollar spent.

Silver Awards

COVENANT HOUSE
346 West 17th Street
New York, N.Y. 10011-5002

Title of program: Christmas Appeal

Agency: Epsilon, Burlington, Mass.

Objective: To increase end-of-year donations to help provide food, shelter, clothing, and medicine to homeless youths.

Budget: $610,875

Lists: 650,566 previous donors

Media: A personal letter from Sister Mary Rose McGeady, president of Covenant House, explaining how the donor could help a youth at Christmas. The package also included a holiday ornament to emphasize how much the donor’s help was appreciated over the holidays.

Results: The letter netted $5,128,759 from nearly 124,000 donors. The average gift size was $46.31, the largest in the organization’s history.

NEW HAMPSHIRE HUMANE SOCIETY

1305 Meredith Center Road
Laconia, N.H. 03246
Title of program: Furr Ball

Agency: Sullivan Creative, Watertown, Mass.

Objective: To raise $10,000 for the society’s operations.

Budget: Donated design and printing services worth $800

Lists: 2,000 members and previous donors

Media: A tongue-in-cheek invitation to the Furr Ball — a non-existent dance for cats and dogs — where the “cover charge” is actually a donation. The invitation explains that “the best part is…You don’t have to go!”

Results: The appeal netted $10,168 from 343 donors, a 16-percent increase from the previous year.

WORLD VISION
34843 Weyerhaeuser Way South
Federal Way, Wash. 98001
Title of program: Easter Bounceback

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: To strengthen the bond between a donor and the child in a needy country with whom he or she is matched. The donor is offered an opportunity to send a child an “Easter Storybook” with a personal greeting, and is encouraged to make an additional donation to help other needy children.

Budget: $172,908

Lists: 285,912 donors who support specific youngsters

Media: The package included an “Easter Storybook” along with a letter asking donors to sign and return the books and encouraging them to send extra donations. A special version of the book was created for children in countries where it was not appropriate to send an overtly Christian storybook.

Results: All told, 69 percent of the mailing recipients returned the book and made a donation, giving a net total of $1,886,690 — a 32-percent increase from the previous year.

Bronze Awards

SAVE THE CHILDREN
54 Wilton Road
Westport, Conn. 06880

Title of program: Holiday Card

Agency: Bennett Kuhn Varner, Atlanta

Objective: To strengthen the bond between a donor and the foreign, needy child he or she supports by sending a holiday card, and to raise funds for special “extras” for children, such as school supplies or sports equipment.

Budget: Less than $60,000

Lists: 61,930 donors who support specific youngsters

Media: A personalized holiday card from the donor to his or her sponsored child, and a letter encouraging donors to send money for “extras” during the holiday season.

Results: The appeal netted $243,303 from 8,237 sponsors — an increase of 66 percent from the previous year’s holiday appeal. In addition, 12,510 sponsors mailed the holiday card to their child.

OREGON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY
1945 S.E. Water Avenue
Portland, Ore. 97214

Title of program: OMSI Membership Drive — 2000

Agency: Lewis Kennedy Associates, Portland, Ore.

Objective: To increase membership and attendance.

Budget: $105,548

Lists: 245,467

Media: Each of four appeals included information on a different visiting exhibit and offered a 15-percent discount offer on many of the most popular membership levels. Each was mailed in an envelope with colorful graphics that related to the exhibit and were intended to capture kids’ attention.

Results: $82,404 raised from 3,304 new and rejoining members

DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
4339 Park Avenue
Memphis, Tenn. 38103

Title of program: “Visualizing the Blues” invitation

Agency: Archer/Malmo, Memphis

Objective: To broaden the museum’s audience by inviting current and prospective supporters and community leaders to an opening reception for a photography exhibit, “Visualizing the Blues.” The event was informal — featuring a barbecue and a local blues band — in order to appeal to young adults. The museum raised money at the reception through memberships and donations.

Budget: $10,500

Lists: 6,500 current supporters and members, prospective donors, local artists and photographers, and community and political leaders.

Media: The invitation was printed on acetate to resemble an old photographic negative and was mailed in a 6″x9″ envelope that read, “Photographic materials enclosed: do not bend.”

Results: 850 people attended the reception, and $150,000 was raised at the event.

Silver Award

WORLD RELIEF
7 East Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Md. 21202

Title of program: Fall 2000 Major Donor Renewal Campaign

Agency: Direct Response Marketing, Wausau, Wis.

Objective: To solicit donations to help rebuild a village in Mozambique that had been devastated by a flood.

Budget: $9,000

Lists: 600 active donors who had made a gift of $1,000 or more or who had given $10,000 or more over their lifetimes.

Media: A clear tube containing a colorful map of Mozambique, a letter that explained how many families would receive aid from a donation of a specific amount, and a reply form and envelope.

Results: Raised a net of $104,488; the average gift size was $1,021.

Silver Award

MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON’S RESEARCH
381 Park Avenue South,
Suite 820
New York, N.Y. 10016

Title of program: Auction

Agency: McCann Relationship Marketing, New York

Objective: To encourage people to bid on items like furniture and boxer shorts from Michael J. Fox’s television show, Spin City, as part of an online charity auction. The proceeds went to support research on Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that afflicts the actor.

Budget: $9,579, plus donations of creative costs and air time.

Media: ABC Network donated Michael J. Fox’s costumes and other items from the television show Spin City. Amazon.com then held an online auction, the proceeds of which went to the foundation. The auction lasted 10 days, and a public-service announcement spot was created to draw attention to it.

Results: $125,000 raised from 8,960 bids on 374 items.

Silver Award

SAVE THE CHILDREN
54 Wilton Road
Westport, Conn. 06880

Title of program: E-sponsorship Web site

Agency: Bennett Kuhn Varner, Atlanta

Objective: To create an engaging Web site to encourage donors to help children living in poverty around the world by contributing $24 a month.

Budget: Less than $30,000

Media: A Web site where donors can find children to support by entering country, gender, and age preferences. Visitors can also sign up to sponsor one of the charity’s field offices.

Results: Thirty-percent increase in the number of sponsors acquired through the group’s Web site.

Silver Awards

SALVATION ARMY
101 Newington Causeway
London, England SE1 6BN

Title of program: Christmas Multi-Media Campaign

Agency: Target Direct Marketing, Cheltenham, England

Objective: To recruit new donors during the holidays, while encouraging them to commit to monthly donations the following year. Also, to give people a better idea of the type and scope of work the Salvation Army does.

Budget: $1,894,946

Lists: 9,000,000

Media: Television, radio, magazine and newspaper inserts, direct mail, door drops, and Internet banner ads

Results: $5,172,729

FUNDACIÓN SALES
Viamonte 2043, 6ºA
Buenos Aires, Argentina 1056
Title of program: ePhilanthropy: Aborigines of the Misiones Jungle

Agency: CP Comunicación-Proximity, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Objective: To raise money to help prevent uterine cancer among women of the Mbya Guarari tribe in the jungle areas of Misiones Province by obtaining in-kind donations from businesses, then auctioning the items online.

Budget: $2,086

Media: An online auction to enable people to bid on donated items and to make additional donations.

Results: Netted $21,827, more than the total amount the organization raised the previous year, when it only ran a newspaper advertisement.