Winners of the 2014 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

In the end, the subject line test saw unprecedented results for The Wilderness Society. Open rates increased by 46 percent, clickthrough rate by 40 percent and revenue by 109 percent. The ability to roll out with a test subject line during the campaign allowed the series to rival year-end email campaign performance. Through the series, response rate increased with each send from 0.36 percent, to 0.55 percent and finally to 0.68 percent. Plus, 6 percent of the campaign donors became sustainers.