Gold Awards Flashback: Canine Companions for Independence (2013 Email Campaign of the Year)

As FundRaising Success gears up for the ninth annual Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence, take a look back at last year's Email Campaign of the Year for organizations with annual operating budgets of $10 million or more from Canine Companions for Independence and Merkle.

From the write-up: Great results are great results, and this campaign certainly has them. However, in one important way, the submitters admit, this super-cute campaign underperformed. But first, let’s look at the campaign itself. It’s a series of emails centered around a tongue-in-cheek theme: an Initial Puppy Offering or IPO, mirroring the Initial Public Offering process in the finance world. Recipients were asked to buy IPO shares by making a donation. Its goals were multifaceted: to raise money, of course, increase awareness of the organization and its mission, and build awareness of Canine Companions’ corporate partner (a dog-food company), etc.