Nonprofit Winners of Annual Echo Award Contest

DIRECT MAIL

Gold Award

Mercy Home for Boys & Girls

1140 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago 60607

Title of program: Legacy of Miracles

Agency: Epsilon, Burlington, Mass.

Objective: To persuade donors to contribute a total of $3-million that would be used to match gifts by other donors to the orphanage’s $9-million fund-raising campaign to build a new shelter for youngsters.

Budget: Not available

Lists: 8,484 current donors

Media: A hand-addressed envelope contained a seven-page letter from the Rev. James J. Close, describing his battle with cancer and his mission to raise money for the orphanage’s campaign.

Results: Raised almost $5.2-million in net income, from more than a quarter of the donors; the donors solicited gave a total of $250,000 the previous year. The mailing also produced the highest average gift — $2,399 — in Mercy Home’s history.

Silver Award

World Vision U.S.

34834 Weyerhaeuser Way South
Federal Way, Wash. 98001

Title of program: Birthday Bounceback (Spanish)

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: To strengthen the bond between a donor and his or her sponsored child by sending the child a birthday card; the appeal also sought donations to improve the lives of other children by helping to pay for items like library books or playground equipment.

Budget: $40,103

Lists: 71,655 sponsors of children in developing countries

Media: This Spanish-language appeal included a colorful birthday card for the donor to sign and send to the sponsored child, and a congratulatory sticker with the child’s name and birth date to personalize the card.

Results: 57 percent of the sponsors made a gift; the net total raised was $378,872.

Bronze Awards

World Vision U.S.

34834 Weyerhaeuser Way South
Federal Way, Wash. 98001

Title of program: Birthday Bounceback (English)

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: To strengthen the bond between a donor and his or her sponsored child by sending the child a birthday card; the appeal also sought donations to improve the lives of other children by helping to pay for items like library books or playground equipment.

Budget: $111,262

Lists: 249,466 current child sponsors

Media: Appeal included a colorful birthday card for the donor to sign and send to the sponsored child, and a congratulatory sticker with the child’s name and birth date to personalize the card.

Results: 78 percent of the sponsors made a gift; the net total raised was $1,851,247.

World Jewish Congress

501 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor
New York 10022

Title of program: The World Jewish Congress’s Ambassador’s Circle, United Nations Geneva Package

Agency:Malchow Adams & Hussey, Washington

Objective: To raise money for the World Jewish Congress’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews.

Budget: $13,877

Lists: 698 donors

Media: Included a copy of a statement that donors could sign and send to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to register their concern about what the World Jewish Congress calls “inequitable and unjust treatment of the state of Israel within the United Nations.” The appeal included a prepaid express-mail envelope and was mailed from Geneva to highlight the global reach of the World Jewish Congress.

Results: The appeal netted $153,370 from 135 donors.

CATALOG

Silver Award

Children’s Memorial Hospital

2506 North Clark Street, Suite 302
Chicago 60614

Title of program: “Create a Little Magic” Catalog

Agency: Rapp Collins Worldwide, Chicago

Objective: To sell holiday cards designed by young patients and use the proceeds to finance programs to help children and their parents cope with the emotional difficulties of an extended hospital stay.

Budget: $49,957

Lists: 53,718 current and prospective donors

Media: The catalog featured children’s artwork on the cover as a way to signal that the catalog was not like most commercial mailings. Catalog carried a message to the recipient on the inside front cover, eliminating the need for a separate letter. It also included a sample card bound into the catalog.

Results: Appeal netted $641,836 in card sales from 1,605 orders; the cost of the appeal decreased by 28 percent from the previous year.

DIMENSIONAL MAIL

Silver Awards

Hale House

152 West 122nd Street
New York 10027

Title of program: Brownstone

Agency: Newport Creative Communications, Duxbury, Mass.

Objective: To thank donors for their previous support and encourage them to make a year-end gift.

Budget: $57,703

Lists: 5,000 current donors

Media: Appeal came in a hand-addressed box decorated with an artist’s rendering of Hale House, and stamped with commemorative Christmas stamps. Included a letter of appreciation and a Christmas ornament of Hale House with a cameo of the founder of Hale House holding a baby.

Results: About a quarter of the donors responded with an average gift of $128, netting a total of $92,878.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, S.W.
Washington 20024

Title of program: St. Louis Portfolio

Agency: Lautman & Company, Washington

Objective: To find a cost-effective way to show its more than 200,000 members in 53 countries the types of exhibits available at the museum, and to encourage members to make additional gifts.

Budget: $167,000

Lists: 200,000 members

Media: One group of donors received a “portfolio version” of the catalog depicting the museum’s “Voyage of the St. Louis” exhibition; another group received a final catalog of the exhibition, which included the names of donors to the portfolio campaign.

Results: The portfolio mailing raised an average gift of $250 and a total of $207,693 in net income. The average gift in response to the catalog mailing was $36; the net total raised was $194,437.

Bronze Award

World Vision U.S.
34834 Weyerhaeuser Way South
Federal Way, Wash. 98001

Title of program: Honduras Video Persuasion Series

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: To encourage donors to give $3,000 apiece to help the charity rebuild homes in Honduras for victims of Hurricane Mitch.

Budget: $85,384

Lists: 5,426 donors who had previously given $1,000 or more

Media: Potential donors were first sent a four-color postcard; they later received a videotape showing the damage to the region plus copies of blueprints of the homes that donors could help pay for; the third mailing they received was a letter from the head of World Vision Honduras designed to look like it was mailed from the region where the charity was constructing homes.

Results: A net total of $854,578 was raised from 567 donors; the average gift was $1,658.