A Real Direct-mail Mystery

As it turned out, the mystery remained intact, since the winner of the raffle opted for the cash equivalent and the name of the car was never revealed.

The car-raffle package was to be tested in March 2002 against the control cash raffle, then rolled out in the fall. But CU Executive Vice President Joel Gurin was so enamored with the idea that he used the car raffle in selected audience segments (while still testing it in other segments). The car beat the cash by an average of 20 percent across all audience segments. The January 2003 mailing, which featured the mystery-car raffle, was the best fundraising mailing in CU’s history, Castle says, explaining that it brought in 45 percent more revenue and 60 percent more donors than last year. It also brought in 20 percent more revenue and 44 percent more donors than in January 2001.