Re-Designed Package and Handmade Gift Lead to Big Jump in Holiday Donations
November 13, 1997 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Hale House, a New York charity that helps ailing babies, increased donations to a year-end appeal by 71 per cent in 1996 — largely by upgrading the quality of the gift that it includes in solicitations to top donors.
The charity sent out hand-crafted dolls to 1,000 people who had donated at least $250 during the previous 12 months. It also sent the dolls to a group of donors who had given $100 to $249 in the previous year and to others who had not given to the charity in two years but had donated at least $250 sometime earlier.
A letter tucked inside the box with the doll thanked the donors for their support and asked them to remember the children at Hale House in their prayers over the holidays. A reply card was enclosed for people who wanted to make gifts.
The organization netted $93,000 in gifts from the mailing. Another appeal last year to the same donors, which included a brass ornament, raised only $55,000.
The dolls, which cost the charity about $5 each, were made from wooden spools by craftspeople in Mississippi and have homespun appeal. The accompanying letter explained that the dolls were reminiscent of the gifts that the charity’s co-founder, known as Mother Hale, used to make. Together with the box, postage, and labor, each package cost about $9.50.
Based on the success of last year’s mailing, a spool angel similar to the doll will go to more than 4,000 donors this year.
Mary Hutchinson, vice-president of Newport Creative Communications, a consulting company that helps the charity design its year-end appeal, says the doll made donors realize their gifts were not taken for granted.
“A lot of our major donors are not wealthy people,” Ms. Hutchinson says. “They save up and give a significant amount of their money. Everybody wants to know that their sacrifice matters, and this is a way to let them know that.”
For more information, call Mary Hutchinson, Vice-President, Newport Creative Communications, 33 Railroad Avenue, Duxbury, Mass. 02332; (800) 934-0586, ext. 13.
