Winners of the 2014 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Not that humor is necessarily a hallmark of a great campaign, but when done right it can elevate the effort to award-winning status.

Although it is a multichannel campaign using direct mail, email and a social-media element, this submission’s reach alone wasn’t what earned it its honor here. More impressive was how it found numerous ways to present its consistent message. The theme — missives from Josh, a 16-year-old patient at the hospital, offering “insider” information about the facility — stayed consistent throughout the elements of the campaign, but each of the six mailings, one year-end piece, an email and a Facebook page seemed fresh and unique.