Nonprofit Winners of Awards from Direct Marketing Association

GOLD AWARD

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
501 St. Jude Place
Memphis, Tenn. 38105

Title of program: “Abbi” Family Letter Campaign

Agency: Lisa Selner Creative, Ashburn, Va.

Objective: Raise money to support the hospital’s charitable activities.

Budget: $96,474

Lists: Donors who had previously given $250 or more to the organization.

Media: Mailing included a Christmas card photograph of a 1-year-old leukemia patient named Abbi Shaw, shown in her holiday dress, which was the same one she wore the previous Christmas because medical treatments kept her from growing beyond the size of a typical 3-month-old. The card was signed by the girl’s mother, who also wrote a letter detailing the traumatic experience of watching her daughter suffer from cancer.

Results: $3-million in net revenue; 15.7 percent of those who received the mailing made a gift; average donation was $517.50.

SILVER AWARDS

Catholic Relief Services
209 West Fayette Street
Baltimore, Md. 21201

Title of program: Little Each Month Club Appeal

Agency: BMD, Alexandria, Va.

Objective: Persuade repeat direct-mail donors to give monthly through electronic funds transfers, and generate one-time check gifts sufficient to cover the cost of the mail campaign.

Budget: $146,492

Lists: 70,100 donors with a two- to three-year history of giving $25 to $250 annually to Catholic Relief Services.

Media: A 9-by-12-inch clear envelope containing a personalized plea for contributions. The mailing was designed to look like it was haphazardly thrown together to emphasize the idea that the organization used every resource to ensure the mailing reached the prospective donor as quickly as possible.

Results: $161,166 in one-time gifts; 2,063 donors who agreed to give monthly, providing $410,652 in monthly gifts over the year.

Defenders of Wildlife

1101 14th Street, N.W., Suite 1400
Washington, D.C. 20005

Title of program: Stop Norton Now Campaign Kit Prospect

Agency: Adams Hussey & Associates, Washington, D.C.

Objective: Attract a new type of donor to the organization.

Budget: $518 per thousand packages; 30,000 packages sent.

Lists: Donors who had previously contributed to conservation groups other than Defenders of Wildlife.

Media: Mailing urged recipients to join a “campaign” against the environmental policies of U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The bright orange package provided donors with multiple opportunities to take action, including signing a petition, displaying a free bumper sticker provided in the mailing, and going online to add their names to other petitions. The mailing included newspaper headlines describing Secretary Norton’s record and pictures of animals the organization said had been harmed by her policies.

Results: 1.41 percent of those who received the mailing made a donation, a 16.5-percent increase over a similar mailing. The average gift amount rose by 12 percent.

Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund

1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901
Arlington, Va. 22209

Title of program: It’s Cold in Here …

Agency: Bruce W. Eberle and Associates, McLean, Va.

Objective: Raise money for the legal defense of Stephanie Mohr, a police officer sentenced to 10 years in a West Virginia prison for releasing her dog to stop a suspect fleeing the scene of a crime.

Budget: $35,615 for the first mailing; $28,231 for the second mailing.

Lists: Nearly 26,000 previous donors to the charity.

Media: Mailing was designed to look like a typewritten personal letter sent from Ms. Mohr’s jail cell, including a reproduction of a handmade birthday card Ms. Mohr received from her 4-year-old son, Adam. The return address was that of the prison where Ms. Mohr is serving her sentence, with her prisoner number blacked out.

Results: $279,592 raised from two mailings; more than 21 percent of those who received the first mailing made an average gift of $29.24, and 18.2 percent donated after the second mailing, which was sent to those who did not respond to thefirst appeal, with an average gift of $27.13.

BRONZE AWARDS

World Vision Canada
1 World Drive
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5T 2Y4

Title of program: 2003 Christmas Gift Catalog

Agency: Russ Reid Company, Pasadena, Calif.

Objective: Increase gross revenue from catalog by 30 percent.

Budget: $288,538

Lists: Previous donors to World Vision, people who have made purchases from other catalogs and have interests that match current World Vision donors.

Media: The catalog’s theme was to answer the question: “What do I give to the person who already has everything?” Each page described what specific gift amounts would provide, such as a Christmas package for an orphan and a month of breakfasts for a malnourished child. The catalog relied heavily on active verbs — “give, provide, make, build, change, and help” — to emphasize a donor’s impact on World Vision beneficiaries.

Results: $2.8-million in gross revenue, an increase of 254 percent over the previous year. The number of gifts purchased increased by more than 300 percent.

Catholic Relief Services

209 West Fayette Street
Baltimore, Md. 21201

Title of program: 2003 Mid-Level Campaign

Agency: Amergent, Peabody, Mass.

Objective: Persuade committed donors to make a “stretch” gift.

Budget: $311,000

Lists: 56,000 donors who have previously given at least eight times to Catholic Relief Services.

Media: The appeal arrived in three stages, mailed three weeks apart: first an announcement, then a general appeal, and finally a reminder. The hand-addressed mailings were printed on high-quality paper stock and included a note from the charity’s president, Ken Hackett.

Results: Raised $1.47-million, with 16.4 percent of those who received the mailings contributing. Donors who gave after the first two mailings responded with an average gift of $150; the average donation in response to the reminder topped $232.

Mission Australia

Level AM, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000

Title of program: Mission Magic

Agency: Publicis Mojo, Walsh Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Objective: Persuade people to attend a special fund-raising event, called Your Chance to Do Something Magical, to raise $367,700 ($500,000 in Australian dollars) for the organization.

Budget: $0 (services and materials were donated)

Lists: Top executives of large Australian corporations and Australia’s social “elite,” identified as those who would be most likely to pay $770 per plate to attend a charity auction.

Media: To reinforce the magic theme of the events, invitations came in a shirt box, with a white handkerchief within a black pocket. When pulled, a chain of brightly colored handkerchiefs emerged from the pocket, as in a magician’s trick. Also included were playing cards and a list of auction items rolled along its length to resemble a magician’s wand. The invitation required for admission was printed on a handkerchief to be worn in the donor’s pocket.

Results: The sold-out event raised $459,625 ($625,000).

World Jewish Congress

501 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022

Title of program: World Jewish Congress Forgotten Exodus Campaign

Agency: Adams Hussey & Associates, Washington, D.C.

Objective: Raise support for the organization’s campaign to increase awareness among world leaders of Jewish refugees who have been forced to flee Arab countries and to ensure that their suffering would not be forgotten in possible peace negotiations.

Budget: 52 cents per mailing to members who had given less than $500; $19.36 per mailing to donors who gave more than $500.

Lists: The organization’s members.

Media: An oversized envelope was designed to grab attention, with a teaser on the front saying that the “ethnic cleansing of Jews” was being ignored. The package included a letter listing the atrocities suffered by Jews, as well as petitions to President Bush and members of Congress. The package sent to the organization’s bigger donors included additional materials that were placed inside a file folder, giving the mailing a more official appearance.

Results: 8.27 percent of those who received the mailing made a gift and a total of $304,000 was donated, for a 513-percent return on investment. The package to donors who had previously given $1,000 or more yielded gifts from 11.3 percent of recipients; those donors made an average gift of $1,187.

World Jewish Congress

501 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022

Title of program: World Jewish Congress Ambassador’s Circle Atlas Invitation and Appeal Campaign

Agency: Adams Hussey & Associates, Washington, D.C.

Objective: Recruit donors, and increase donor loyalty.

Budget: $67,638

Lists: Current and prospective donors the organization thought were capable of giving $1,000 or more.

Media: Mailing included a high-quality world atlas that displayed handwritten notes on certain maps, drawing attention to locations where Jews may suffer persecution. People who did not respond to the first mailing received a follow-up, one-page letter from the organization’s president. Donors who had not previously given $1,000 or more were invited to join a group of “elite” contributors known as the Ambassador’s Circle.

Results: 21.55 percent of recipients responded, with donors who were already giving $1,000 or more making an average contribution of $1,163.48. The mailing also brought in 70 new members who contributed $1,000 or more.

SILVER AWARDS

American Heart Association
25 Hazelwood Drive
Amherst, N.Y. 14228

Title of program: 2003 Buffalo Niagara Heart Walk

Agency: SKM Group, Williamsville, N.Y.

Objective: Increase participation in the organization’s Heart Walk.

Budget: $0 (services and materials were donated)

Lists: Anyone in the Buffalo and Niagara, N.Y., region who had a family member, friend, or acquaintance who may have suffered from heartdisease.

Media: Invitations, save-the-date postcards, and posters posed the question “Who will you walk for?” and showed photographs of shoes owned by people who had suffered from heart disease. The organization also sent a thank-you card to participants in the walk.

Results: Raised $405,000, a 270-percent increase over last year’s total. Three thousand people participated in the walk in Buffalo, compared with 1,000 the previous year, and 1,000 participated in Niagara, 750 more than the previous year.

Food for the Poor

550 S.W. 12th Avenue
Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442
Title of program: Houses of Hope for Haiti

Objective: Raise $1,078,000 to support a building project in Haiti.

Budget: $39,536

Lists: 6,206 people who had given more than $1,000 to the organization.

Media: Mailing contained details about each of the four phases of the building project in a 9-by-12-inch folder containing informational inserts, photographs of Haiti’s poorest people, and reply forms. Donors were asked to give $2,000 to build a single housing unit, $12,000 to choose the name of a street, $25,000 for a sanitation block, or $50,000 to construct a community center.

Results: $2,500,401 in gross revenue; 18 percent of those who received the mailing made a gift, with an average donation of $2,226.

Women’s Aid Organisation

2 Lorong 14/3 A, Section 14
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia 46100

Title of program: SPEAK UP

Agency: OgilvyOne Worldwide, Malaysia

Objective: Encourage women in abusive households, as well as people who were aware of cases of domestic violence, to report the abuses.

Budget: $0 (costs were absorbed by sponsors)

Lists: Postcards were placed in stands at restaurants, clubs, florists, universities, community centers, and subway stations.

Media: Postcard displayed a pair of what appeared to be attractive lips that, when viewed closely, revealed images of violence and abuse. The postcard provided the organization’s hotline number to encourage victims and others to seek help.

Results: In the two months following the mailing, the organization recorded a 30-percent increase in calls requesting counseling or other services. Approximately 5 percent of the calls were from people other than the victims, including relatives, friends, and neighbors. The postcard also prompted greater discussion of domestic-abuse issues in the news media.