Winners of the 2014 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Additional Special Events (less than $10 million) Winners
SILVER: Art Institute of Chicago — Cyber Monday 2013 Campaign (Submitted by The Lukens Co.)

The Numbers
Recipients: 17,085
Response rate: 6.16 percent
Total cost: $2,830
Income generated: $87,824
Average gift: $83.40
Cost to raise a dollar: $0.03

Just like retailers, the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013 wanted to take advantage of the buzz around Cyber Monday — the Monday after Thanksgiving when online shoppers take advantage of special deals. To that end, it utilized a lightbox on its Web page for a 24-hour campaign to generate revenue by offering a 20 percent discount on gift memberships. The lightbox captured only the name and email required to redeem the discount. Once those fields were completed, the full e-commerce page appeared so the transaction could be completed.

The lightbox generated more than 17,000 unique visitors in the 24-hour period it was active, an increase in Web traffic by 25 percent compared to other years. It generated 1,053 additional memberships for a gross revenue of $87,824.

BRONZE: MSPCA-Angell — 2013 Walk for Animals (Submitted by DaVinci Direct)

The Numbers
Recipients: Public campaign
Response rate: 10 percent increase in participation
Total cost: $16,833.38
Income generated: $260,000

The goal for this campaign was to create as much media and public awareness as possible for MSPCA-Angell’s annual walk. A direct-mail piece to past walk participants and recent pet adopters reached out to a segment familiar with the organization. A brochure included in a mailer, distributed as handouts and in displays among various partners and was used to reach out to prospects at events and social gatherings, and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority posters were focused on awareness among the general public.

MSPCA-Angell and DaVinci made sure messaging stayed consistent through all elements of the campaign, and that collateral was displayed or distributed in specifically targeted areas. The DM budget was cut in half and the number of brochure reduced to fund the MBTA element of the campaign.