Gold Awards Special Mention Honorees

Telefundraising
Reject the Right January 2012 Sustainer Invite
People for the American Way
Submitted by Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey

People for the American Way has long had a strong sustainer invitation program, and it succeeds because the organization and its agency, CCAH, know its supporter base and use that knowledge to speak to supporters in ways that get their adrenaline flowing. True to form, the script in this campaign focused on "the political threat the Radical Right would pose if it were to make any gains in the U.S. House, or take back the Senate — or even the White House!" It is full of talk of "radical candidates who are hell-bent on ... sending our nation back to the dark ages" and who want to "roll back civil rights, women's productive rights ..." and "support radical deregulation without common sense ..."

There's no doubt PFAW and CCAH know how to talk to their supporters. This was the most successful sustainer invite in PFAW's history — bringing in almost 500 monthly donors.

Special Events
Women Air Force Service Pilots Homecoming 2012 Flag Tube Mailing
National WASP WWII Museum
Submitted by Fund Raising Strategies Inc.

Tube mailings are usually pretty well-represented in our awards submissions, but this year we only saw one. What was special about it is that rather than containing a simple tchotchke to entice a donation, the offering from the National WASP WWII Museum acted as an invitation to a special event. Potential donors/attendees were asked to sign a card that was placed on the American flag rolled up inside the tube and return the card and flag (and ideally, a gift) so they could be symbolically present at a Memorial Day fly-in that was attended by 20 WASP. The returned flags were used to decorate the National WASP WWII Museum and then handed out to attendees. It was an expensive mailing ($3.24 per letter), but it was still the museum's most successful mailing of the year. More than 16 percent (2,210) of the recipients sent back the flag with an average gift of more than $50, netting just more than $65,000 ($4.89 per letter).