Strike a Match

The reply slip also highlighted the matching gift, providing the option for donors to double their gifts, then providing an ask string that showed, for example, that a $50 gift would become a $100 gift. There was also a “Matching Gift Deadline: 6/30/12” reminder, as well as a premium offer of a 2012 CGF decal with a gift of $100 or more. And there was a “Please consider including the Coast Guard Foundation in your estate plans” note on the BRE.

Two weeks later, a follow-up mailer was sent, again with a teaser segment and a no-teaser segment. The teaser on the follow-up outer read, “There’s still time to double your gift! Matching Gift deadline extended.”

The contents this time included just one page, with type on the front and back, along with the same BRE. The six-paragraph letter was simple and straight to the point: “I wrote you recently about our Matching Gift Challenge, where your gift will be matched — dollar for dollar — up to $20,000 to support our Fallen Heroes Scholarship Fund.

“If you’ve already made a gift, thank you! If not, won’t you please consider doing so today? Every dollar you give by July 15 will go twice as far to provide college scholarships to children of Coast Guard members who die in the line of duty.

“So, if you make a gift of $XX, it will be matched with another $XX through the matching gift offer and double in value to $XX, while a gift of $XX will turn into $XX. And if you can possibly share $XX, it will be worth $XX.

“The truth is, members of the Coast Guard put their lives on the line every day to respond to emergencies at sea and protect America’s shores. Every time they step onto a cutter’s deck or climb into the cockpit of a helicopter, they know there’s a chance they won’t make it back.