10th Annual Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

By Sean Norris

Direct Mail House Annual Operating Budget $10 Million or Over

Treasure Chest of Gems
Little City
Submitted by Little City

The Numbers
Recipients: 18,795
Response Rate: 9.84 percent
Total Cost: $22,161.29
Income Generated: $134,250.89  (ROI 605.79 percent)
Average Gift: $72.57
Cost to Raise a Dollar: $0.16
Cost to Acquire a Donor: $1.17 (per piece)

Why It Won
The “Treasure Chest of Gems” from Little City, an Illinois-based developmental disabilities services nonprofit, delivered big-time on both creativity and ROI. Aiming to highlight Little City’s people and programs, and encourage donors to be active participants in making those programs possible, the mailing featured a large pop-up piece designed to look like a treasure chest. Printed on heavy paper stock, it included a wood-grain look, gold latches and a tab that could be “unlocked” to open the chest. Inside was a pair of jeweled coasters—designed by developmentally disabled artists working with Little City—with a photo and description of the artist on the reverse side. The copy featured stories and descriptions of Little City’s participants, showing donors their money at work.

“Our goal was to create a holiday campaign for direct mail and online that would inspire, educate and instill an emotion to give,” said Jayne McGrath, director of annual giving for Little City. And inspire it did. The mailing’s numbers were sparkling: a 9.84 percent response rate, a cost of $0.16 to raise a dollar, and $134,250 generated for a total cost of $22,161—an astounding 605.79 percent ROI.