Find out which fundraising efforts the judges chose as best of show in our 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

The Out-of-Door Academy 2004-2005 Annual Fund
Submitted by One to One Gulfcoast

Numbers
Number of Recipients: 600 +/-
Total Income Generated: $345,452
Average Gift: $702
Total Out-of-Pocket Costs: $15,000 flat
Response Rate: 82 percent
Cost to Raise a Dollar: $0.4

Personalization is nothing new in direct mail. It often takes the form of addressing prospects by their first name on the reply form and in the letter’s salutation. To get even more attention, some innovative mailers intersperse the recipient’s name throughout the letter. Seems cutting edge — until, that is, you see this mailing from The Out-of-Door Academy, a Sarasota, Fla.-based private school.