And the Winners Are …

“The childlike drawings are in stark contrast to the content, which often includes guns, sexual implements or, in the case of the tsunami, illustrates water everywhere,” she wrote.

The back of each postcard shows a small thumbnail picture of MSF staff working with people in volatile regions, a brief description of the work they’re doing there, and the organization’s URL. They’re accompanied by a letter that explains the organization’s mental-health programs and describes the experience of an MSF psychologist working in the field with women and children who are too traumatized to even speak.

Also included in the package is a two-panel report that summarizes MSF mental-health programs in Indonesia, Haiti and Nigeria. The package mailed in a white No. 10 envelope, with only the MSF return address information on the face and “Awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize” on the flap, along with the organization’s URL and phone number. There’s a 7-inch-by-8.5-inch, folded reply device, an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch buck slip, the double-sided letter with the same dimensions, a BRE and the postcards. The headline on the reply reads, “You can help save a life,” and there’s a scrawled, faux-handwritten quote on the bottom half of the reply: “The emotions of the children sitting opposite me are easy to sense, even before I hear the translation.”

This package is by no means lacking for elements, but easily its most effective are the postcards. In that limited amount of space, MSF gives real-life reasons for its programs and sums up its case for support in a freemium that also works as a powerful pass-along device.

Renewal (Fewer Than 50,000 Mailed)

The Out-of-Door Academy 2004-2005 Annual Fund
Submitted by One to One Gulfcoast

Numbers
Number of Recipients: 600 +/-
Total Income Generated: $345,452
Average Gift: $702
Total Out-of-Pocket Costs: $15,000 flat
Response Rate: 82 percent
Cost to Raise a Dollar: $0.4