2013 Gold Awards: E-mail, NARAL Pro-Choice America

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

A Donation in Rush Limbaugh’s Name
NARAL Pro-Choice America
Submitted by Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey

The numbers

Number of recipients: 964,770
Response rate: 0.14 percent
Total cost: $1,750
Income generated: $45,082.34
Average gift: $32.46
Cost to raise a dollar: $0.04

We kind of knew we had a winner here when the judges were giggling as they read the e-mails that went out as part of this campaign. Laughter is a great engagement device.

Of course, Rush Limbaugh fans and NARAL detractors might not have found the message as amusing, but this campaign wasn’t going to them, right?

Aside from being remarkably cohesive, this series of e-mails took the unlikely position of highlighting perhaps one of NARAL’s most vocal and recognized foes. In the throes of the 2012 election cycle, the radio host referred to NARAL and Planned Parenthood as “death squads.”

NARAL and CCAH were all over it and harnessed the anti-Limbaugh sentiment among its supporters by launching an e-mail campaign inviting them to make a donation to NARAL in Limbaugh’s name and challenging them to “make Rush Limbaugh the biggest fundraiser for pro-choice victories in November.”

In the e-mails, NARAL President Nancy Keenan also promised to send Limbaugh a thank-you card with the donor’s name on it.

Response from first-time and repeat donors to NARAL was staggering, and the campaign became a social-media powerhouse.