And the Winners Are...

Wow! Who ever thought the Gold Awards could be so exciting? The sun was setting on judgement day, and we had a tie for Package of the Year.

A first! So, I polled our four judges — Steve Froehlich, director of development analytics at the ASPCA; Tim O’Leary, vice president of McPherson Associates; Paul Bobnak, director of North American Publishing Co.’s Who’s Mailing What! Archive; and FS Senior Editor Abny Santicola. After some soul searching and spirited debate, they weighed in: two for one package and the other two for the other package.

Another tie!

Then I enlisted Target Marketing Group President Peggy Hatch and another innocent bystander. They holed themselves up in Peggy’s office and emerged with … another tie.

That’s when it became clear that we just were meant to have a dual award for Package of the Year.

Actually, it’s kind of cool since one of our winners comes from a huge organization with the power of multiple agencies behind it, and the other is from a much smaller group. It’s a perfect example of the marvelous diversity to be found in the fundraising sector.

As far as income goes, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ “Saving Lives, One Child at a Time” package had bigger figures overall, of course. But the fact that the little “All That Jazz” mailing from KCSM radio in San Francisco could elicit as much passion as the heart-breaking behemoth from MSF makes it a major player well worth the shared distinction.

We’d like to say congratulations to all of our winners, and a warm thank you to everyone who entered.

PACKAGE OF THE YEAR (TIE)
No. 1 and Winner, Renewal (Fewer Than 50,000)

KCSM RADIO
“All That Jazz”
Submitted by Goodman Marketing Partners

Numbers
Number of Recipients: 19,490
Total Income Generated: $332,200
Average Gift: $92.45
Total Out-of-Pocket Costs: $11,885
Response Rate: 18.43 percent