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

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Our judges found this to be an unusual and expensive risk, but it was one that resulted in an 82 percent response rate and surpassed its fundraising goal by more than $100,000.

Brian Weiner, president of One on One Gulfcoast, said that the campaign yielded a more than 60 percent increase in giving levels over the previous year’s annual appeal and that nearly three out of five families met or exceeded their gifts from the previous year.