New Contest Will Award Charities That Excel in Digital Fund Raising

Catalog Choice, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalog mailings, is holding a new competition to “discover, recognize, and reward efforts to move nonprofit fund-raising efforts in a paperless direction.”

Charities can enter the Paperless Choice Challenge beginning on June 15. The deadline for all entries is September 15.

With money donated by the Overbrook Foundation, the competition will award a first prize ($5,000) and an honorable mention ($1,000) for the best digital fund-raising campaign by charities that compete in categories based on the size of their budget: small ($1-million or less), medium ($1-million to $5-million), and large ($5-million or more).

Additional awards will be given for the most innovative paperless fund-raising campaign, and charities of any size may compete for those prizes, which also come with a cash award.

The contest will give equal weight to three factors:

* Did the appeal produce measurable return on investment?

* How easy is it for other groups to copy the idea or approach and get good results?

* Is the appeal a satisfactory replacement for direct mail?

In addition, the judges will give extra weight to appeals that demonstrate originality.

“We need to figure out ways to drive innovation in digital fund raising if we hope to see nonprofit groups move beyond paper-based solicitations, which are both economically and environmentally costly,” said Chuck Teller, executive director of Catalog Choice.