Appeals With Appeal

Nonprofit organizations win 15 awards in an annual direct-marketing competition

A Defenders of Wildlife mailing featuring a caricature of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, looking very much

like Disney’s pup-murdering cartoon villain Cruella De Vil, was one of 15 charity fund-raising appeals that won honors in the 74th annual Echo Awards Competition, sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association, in New York.

The winners were chosen on the basis of creativity, marketing strategy, and the financial results of their appeals. Three charitable organizations won gold awards, four received silver awards, and eight were recognized with bronze awards.

The appeal featuring Secretary Norton was part of an effort by the Washington environmental charity to tap into a new pool of potential donors who consider themselves activists, as opposed to the group’s more traditional animal-loving donors. The mailing, which used both biting humor and a cautionary tone, and included information on Ms. Norton’s environmental record, raised $42,000 and brought in 2,500 new donors. The campaign garnered the charity a silver award.

The Indianhead Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in St. Paul, also used cartoon characters in its campaign to reverse a decline in Cub Scout membership. Pictures of Scouts of different ethnicities and races appeared in mailings to parents, as well as on bus advertisements, posters, trading cards, and in newspaper ads. All accompanied catchy messages, such as “Idle hands are trouble. Hands stuck in melted marshmallow, less so. Cub Scout enrollment is here.” The appeal, for which the Indianhead Council won a bronze award, increased registration by 23 percent, exceeding the organization’s goal of 7-percent growth and halting a two-year decline in the council’s Cub Scout recruitment.

Three charities won gold awards. World Vision U.S. received one for its effort to raise $1-million to match a foundation grant to provide clean water to children and families in Africa. The group mailed a large brochure, with pictures depicting the problems caused by lack of clean water, as well as the benefits gained once solutions are put into place, to a group of loyal donors, then followed up with a second, simple appeal. The campaign brought in nearly $1.3-million from the donors, with an average gift of $755 — $125 higher than the previous average for that particular group of donors.

Other gold award winners were the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, which appealed to local businesses with a low-cost campaign that used volunteers to hand-deliver packages containing sticks and other items commonly used to abuse animals as part of a request to donate money; and the AIDS Help Association, in Vienna, Austria, which won for a mailing inviting business owners to order promotional materials, such as matches and drink coasters, to be used to encourage people to be tested for HIV and AIDS.