Mercy Home’s Shamrocks for Kids campaign is a study in successful multichannel fundraising.

By Nicole Rollender

“We’re very fortunate to be able to build off a very long history of direct-marketing innovation at Mercy Home. We have a very dedicated donor file, and we’ve been mailing for over 100 years,” Schoewe says.

In 2005, a lift note from actor Dennis Farina, a former Chicago cop who remembers bringing children to Mercy Home, was included in the package to test whether a celebrity endorsement would have an effect on donor response.