And the Winners Are … the 2014 FundRaising Success Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

Mailings guided recipients to a themed Facebook page to keep the engagement going, and it also worked as a vehicle to engage other potential donors who weren’t on the mailing list.

Sick kids aren’t the easiest topic to joke about, but this campaign succeeds by letting Josh just be a teenager and drive home a point to donors in a way that engages, entertains and educates.

Additional Multichannel (Less than $10 million) Winners
SILVER: International Campaign for Tibet — Match Appeal (Submitted by Schultz & Williams)

The Numbers
Recipients: 346,698
Response rate: 1.43 percent (3.7 percent mail only)
Total cost: $56,985
Income generated: $315,445
Average gift: $64
Cost to raise a dollar: $0.18

When Richard Gere smiles kindly at you from a letter, email, website or anywhere, really, and asks you to give, you give. At least that’s what 1.43 percent of the recipients of this effort on behalf of the International Campaign for Tibet did. And while Gere’s face certainly couldn’t have hurt, it wasn’t exactly that that was the driving force in this campaign’s success. It was his commitment.

Gere is the organization’s board chairman, and messaging for this campaign emphasizes that Gere himself is the person matching the gifts. No nameless, faceless foundation or mystery benefactor — but Richard freakin’ Gere. The campaign elements kept the star at the forefront of the messaging, and recipients received emails from him, followed by reminder emails from the organization’s interim president. It was a simple campaign that took full advantage of its star power, which made an even greater impact because it clearly conveyed Gere’s personal and deep commitment to the cause.

BRONZE: Art Institute of Chicago — 2013 Year-End Appeal (Submitted by The Lukens Co.)

The Numbers
Recipients: 76,611
Response rate: 2.14 percent
Total cost: $84,375
Income generated: $158,895
Average gift: $97.12
Cost to raise a dollar: $0.53