PR Hint of the Month - March 2007 - Hot Direct Mail Campaign Idea

I read the following article in this month's edition of Successful Promotions and thought it fit nicely with the PR Hint that Lisa sent out a few months ago on fund-raising ideas.

On behalf of the MLA PR Committee: Hot Direct Mail Campaign Idea:
"Puzzle Promo Generates Donations" by Jen Zorger
Successful Promotions March 2007

A hospital with a shortage of beds? That's hardly a prescription for good service. San Antonio Community Hospital (SACH) in Upland, CA, has been puzzled for years by this dilemma: not enough beds in its emergency department. Sure, the hospital has big plans for a new building that would increase the capacity from 18 to 52 beds, plus add 102 private rooms with telemetry capabilities-but to foot the bill, they need a lot of help from donors.

Christie Rose, manager of special events and annual giving for the SACH Foundation, wanted to send prospective donors some sort of lumpy mail to grab their attention. "Since what we're doing is trying to build a new emergency room and patient tower," she says, "I thought of all the puzzle pieces that have to come together to make that happen-and I thought, 'Why not a puzzle?'"
She consulted Ernest Nicastro, principal of marketing firm Positive Response. They worked with a promotional products supplier to create a jigsaw puzzle showing the hospital campus. The polybagged, unassembled puzzle mailed to high-income community members, along with a cover letter that played on the puzzle/solution theme.

"The cost for this mailing was more than double the amount this nonprofit typically spends on a fund-raising mailer," Nicastro says.

"Nevertheless, this one mailing brought in more than twice the normal amount the hospital generates from direct mail over the course of an entire year."

Rose notes that an average mailing for her foundation may draw from $8,000 to $15,000 in donations. The puzzle mailing brought in nearly $120,000 and she expects those donors to keep giving. "If you have a device or a vehicle to keep people involved with your product or your cause, then they continue to come aback to you," she says. "It's all good-it all helps."

She points out that for some promotions, ROI builds over time. Studying four past mailings, she found that the initial donations they drew totaled $51,000, but over several years, the same donors went on to give $246,000.

Patricia C. Spencer
Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator
Lewis and Clark Library