Charities Win Marketing Awards

Four fund-raising appeals by World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organization that operates in more than 100 countries, dominated the honors won by charities in the 70th Annual International Echo Awards competition sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association, in New York.

Charities garnered nine trophies altogether: one Gold, five Silver, and three Bronze.

Seven of the awards honored direct-mail campaigns — including three by World Vision’s U.S. office and one by its British affiliate. Top honors went to a birthday-gift mailing intended to persuade the charity’s child sponsors — each of whom had already pledged $264 a year to help a particular needy child — to make additional gifts to finance other projects that would help not only the child but also his or her neighbors, playmates, and classmates. More than 7 of every 10 sponsors who received the mailing responded, generating some $1.9-million in net income from a campaign that cost $135,261 to produce.

Another mailing — this one tied to Christmas — was also aimed at motivating sponsors to broaden their support beyond their sponsored children. Holiday cards featuring glittery star stickers, which donors could sign and return to their sponsored children, were accompanied by an appeal for extra money to help children who had not yet found sponsors. That appeal raised more than $1.6-million.

A third appeal, mailed to World Vision’s child sponsors in Britain, was aimed at reducing the costs incurred by sending a hodgepodge of Christmas gifts to sponsored children. The cost of shipping assorted gifts to children had climbed above $60,000 a year — and also was absorbing significant administrative time and labor. The new mailing included a standard gift — a drawing pad, pencils, and crayons — and a personalized card. More than half of the recipients responded, and net income totaled nearly $770,000.

The charity’s fourth mailing tested an appeal intended to attract new donors — a process World Vision normally conducts through television advertising. But by educating prospective donors about hunger and offering them a chance to sign a packet of pumpkin seeds and return it for distribution to needy families in Africa, the charity managed to attract more new donors, with higher average gifts, than it had done before.

Appeals by other charities combined various creative approaches to fund raising. Comic Relief cut through the clutter of charitable appeals with an evening spent “painting the town red” with other direct-marketing colleagues. The Sierra Club persuaded regular donors to give even more by making it easier for them to have access to club officials. And Montserrat Abbey successfully wooed what it hopes will be long-term donors by thanking them with a book, a stone from the mountain, and an image of Saint Mary of Montserrat.