13 Award-Winning Campaigns That Raised Money for Non-Profit Causes

DIRECT MAIL

Gold Awards:

Christie Hospital
Wilmslow Road, Withington Manchester, England M4BX
Title of program: Teaming With Success
Agency: McCann-Erickson Manchester
Objective: To invite recipients to a fund-raising dinner with the goal of raising $2.4-million toward the hospital’s $25-million capital campaign.
Budget: None reported; all costs were paid by the advertising agency.
Lists: 40 people who were top corporate executives or civic leaders.
Media: A box of hollow, silver tubes made to look like the batons that runners pass to one another in a race were used to symbolize the race against cancer. The batons were hand-delivered to recipients by a runner, with a letter asking them to sponsor a table at an event and to pass the batons to their table mates during the evening. People who went to the dinner were asked to put their pledge or donation inside the baton and deliver them to runners at the dinner.
Results: 36 tables at the event were filled; the event produced $3.5-million in pledges to the campaign.

Silver Awards

Covenant House
346 West 17th Street New York 10011-5002
Title of program: Bed & Blanket Appeal
Agency: Epsilon
Objective: To encourage donors to give in the fall, in addition to giving during the holidays.
Budget: $163,019
Lists: 323,515 donors
Media: A letter, response envelope, and an extra response envelope that donors could pass along to others who might give. The message — that impending cold weather drives many runaway kids to Covenant House shelters — varied by donors’ address: Donors in the northern United States were asked to give because kids could freeze outside; donors in the South were asked to help kids who migrate to their area to escape the cold.
Results: 23.5 per cent of the donors made a gift with an average donation of $33.59; the appeal netted $2,548,402.

World Jewish Congress
501 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor New York 10022
Title of program: File Folder Package
Agency: Malchow Adams & Hussey
Objective: To solicit contributions by describing the charity’s role in pressing world leaders to investigate Swiss banks’ holding of assets seized from Jews during World War II.
Budget: $8,047
Lists: 424 donors
Media: Designed to look as if it were individually tailored to each recipient, the appeal was mailed in an “interdepartmental” correspondence envelope. In addition to a letter, it contained a manila folder that held 10 photocopied newspaper articles and other documents describing the Swiss bank investigations.
Results: 19.6 per cent of the recipients made an average gift of $1,261; the appeal netted $90,230.

World Jewish Congress
501 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor New York 10022
Title of program: Swiss Banks — Nazi Gold Prospect
Agency: Malchow Adams & Hussey
Objective: To recruit new donors and to call attention to the charity’s role in the investigation of Nazi-looted assets held in Swiss banks.
Budget: $269,102
Lists: 721,985 potential donors Media: An appeal and petitions urging U.S. government leaders to push for reimbursement of money stolen from Jews during World War II; the appeal was enclosed in an envelope designed to look like certified mail.
Results: 1.57 per cent of the recipients, or 11,351 new donors, made a gift in response to the mailing; it netted $68,271.

Bronze Award:

Camp Oochigeas
60 St. Clair Avenue East, Suite 404 Toronto M4T 1N5
Title of program: An Evening of Summer Dreams
Agency: Leo Burnett Company
Objective: To raise money and create an annual event that would make the charity stand out from others.
Budget: None reported; all costs were paid by the advertising agency.
Lists: 600 households and companies in the Toronto area.
Media: A three-dimensional paper invitation folded to look like a miniature teepee, tickets, and an auction catalogue; the event was also publicized by an insert in the charity’s annual report.
Results: 65 per cent of the recipients attended the event or made a donation; the event netted more than $88,000.

Leader Awards:

Bobby Goldsmith Foundation Sydney, Australia
Title of program: Supported Housing Project Mailing
Agency: FCB Advertising
Objective: To encourage donors to give at the end of the tax year to support a program that provides housing to needy people who are in the last stages of the AIDS disease.
Budget: $11,565
Lists: 14,350 donors
Media: An appeal designed to look like a classified, personal advertisement with a “desperately seeking” message; in addition to asking for donations, it encouraged recipients to send a photograph or message to residents in the program.
Results: 2.16 per cent of the recipients made a donation; the average gift was $151 and the total raised was $47,528.

Children’s Memorial Hospital
2506 North Clark Street, Suite 302 Chicago 60614
Title of program: Be an Angel Catalog
Agency: Rapp Collins Worldwide/Chicago
Objective: To persuade businesses to order holiday cards with prices starting at $35 for a box of 25 cards.
Budget: $73,200
Lists: 98,000 businesses
Media: A catalogue of holiday cards
Results: 1.3 per cent of the businesses who received the catalogue ordered cards; they paid an average of $305.

National Museum of the American Indian
P.O. Box 96836 Washington 20090-6836
Title of program: Calendar Campaign
Agency: Lautman & Company
Objective: To raise money and to show donors artifacts that will be displayed in a new museum scheduled to open in 2004 in Washington.
Budget: $89,942
Lists: 40,363 previous donors
Media: A three-part solicitation featuring an announcement of a forthcoming gift, a calendar featuring photographs of artifacts to be displayed in the new museum, and a follow-up mailing.
Results: 25.7 per cent of the donors made a gift; the average donation was $27.78.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, S.W. Washington 20024-2150
Title of program: Butterfly Major Donor Appeal
Agency: Silver Marketing
Objective: To raise money for operating costs from previous donors, many of whom had made gifts to help build the museum but had not given since then.
Budget: $21,795
Lists: 16,864 donors who were thought to be capable of making a gift of $1,000 or more.
Media: A invitation-style appeal featuring a poem written by a boy in the Terezin Ghetto in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust, and a child’s drawing of a butterfly that appears in the museum.
Results: Seventy donors responded with an average gift of $3,287; the appeal netted $306,007.

MULTIMEDIA

Leader Awards:

World Vision
34834 Weyerhaeuser Way South Federal Way, Wash. 98001
Title of program: 30-Hour Famine — kNOw Hunger
Agency: Killion McCabe & Associates
Objective: To raise money and call attention to world hunger by recruiting young people to participate in an event during which they fast for 30 hours and recruit sponsors to give money for the time they fast.
Budget: $1,400,000
Lists: 8.8 million previous participants and other young people recruited through schools, churches, and youth groups.
Media: Print advertisements, direct mail, telemarketing, free T-shirts, and a free videotape about the event.
Results: The event drew 15,564 youth groups, 30 per cent more than in the previous year, and has netted $4.9-million to date.

PRINT ADVERTISING

Bronze Award:

Children’s Memorial Hospital
2506 North Clark Street, Suite 302 Chicago 60614
Title of program: Be an Angel
Agency: Rapp Collins Worldwide/Chicago
Objective: To offer companies the chance to order the charity’s free catalogue of holiday greeting cards, which contained sample cards designed by young hospital patients.
Budget: $21,634 (Some production services and advertising space were donated.)
Lists: 1.5 million subscribers to business publications
Media: A print advertisement in business publications; the ad featured an angel painted by a child and encouraged people to call a toll-free telephone number to order the holiday-card catalogue.
Results: The advertisement generated orders from nearly half of the people who called the toll-free number; they ordered $402,584 worth of cards.

TELEMARKETING

Leader Award:

American Red Cross Blood Services, Texas Division
One Medical Parkway, Suite 215 Farmers Branch, Tex. 75234
Title of program: Campaign for American Red Cross
Agency: Reese Brothers
Objective: To recruit blood donors who are missed by blood drives carried out in companies and on campuses.
Budget: $120,000
Lists: 201,878 households
Media: Telephone calls and mailings to remind people who agreed to give blood to keep their appointment.
Results: The charity received blood from 5,846 people as a result of the campaign.

TELEVISION

Bronze Award:

Oxfam-Great Britain
274 Banbury Road Oxford, England 0X2 7DZ
Title of program: Water Ad
Agency: Rapp Collins Worldwide
Objective: To recruit new donors and get them to donate $3.30 per month to help the poor in developing countries.
Budget: Neither charity nor ad agency would disclose.
Lists: More than 1 million television viewers
Media: Television spots showing how contributions to Oxfam enable poor people to build irrigation systems and fresh-water wells in their villages; the ads ask people to call a toll-free number to become a donor.
Results: Increased number of people who made a gift by 60 per cent over previous campaign.