Fundraising Publications Packages

General Observations

There were a number of strong contenders in this category, but a few things stuck out. We were impressed when schools utilized straight-forward copy that was direct and to the point. When reviewing so many entries, you see words like "transformational' over and over again. Yet, when someone is as direct as Earlham College and says that they need money to fix the leaky roof or the painting studio, you (and hopefully the donors) take notice.

We felt that in today's tight economy, some of the pieces that used a lot of expensive die cuts would potentially come off as too expensive to the donors/intended audience. Our donors need to know that we are good stewards of their funds. An expensive piece perhaps says the wrong thing. That is one of the reasons that entries like Hamilton College (using existing photography and plenty of e-mail/Web pages) and the Haas School of Business at Berkeley (no photography, just good text design) stood out. They were able to produce results without spending too terribly much on the project.

Even the Faces of Y'ALL campaign from South Carolina was not expensive. It used the Web and e-mail to interact with their alumni. And the creative idea behind the campaign was wonderful. Attracting young alumni and maintaining their information is challenging but this engaging campaign did exactly what you would hope. It brought more alumni back into the fold, re-engaging them and made them support the school.

Our Grand Gold winner (Berkeley) receives this award because their task was so large and then done so well. This was a large project - setting up the traveling photo booth and capturing photos as well as quotes and then using them in interesting and fascinating ways - including Web pages, campus banners, public installations and a searchable database of images. In addition, they developed branding guidelines, held focus groups and orchestrated events...what an undertaking. And if not done well, could have been horrific. But instead, it resulted in more gifts, pride and engagement.

Presentation is key, especially when the category involves more than one piece. We were turned off when items were thrown into a FedEx envelope with an entry form. If you are going to spend the money on an entry, put the pieces together to impress the judges.

We were surprised that some people didn't include the results section in their entry form. How can we judge how effective a piece was without results? Also, because there are multiple pieces in each entry, it would have been nice to know what the price per piece was.

Comments on Winning Entries

Grand Gold Medal

University of California, Berkeley

• Wow. What an effort. We were impressed. We were in awe. Kudos. This is a herculean task. The photo booth idea is wonderful and creative and allows the university to capture the uniqueness of its students, alumni, faculty and staff. By adding their own words in their own handwriting, they made the experience personal and vibrant. By doing the ground work they produced a successful effort. From focus groups and production schedules to developing password protected databases to house the images and quotes, we were impressed by all that went into the project. And the use of the images is wonderful. The banners, the Web Pages, the installation - they are all great vehicles to support this message. Congratulations on a job well done.

Gold Medal

University of South Carolina - Face of Y'ALL Campaign

• What school isn't struggling with remaining in contact with their younger alumni? Today, it is harder and harder to maintain young alumni records because of cell phones and e-mail accounts that change frequently. We felt that the Faces of Y'ALL campaign was a clever and effective way to re-engage recent alumni. It wasn't expensive and yet the results are impressive. To participate, their alumni had to register (aka: update your information). As we try to ensure that our Web Sites are engaging, this campaign ensured that their alumni would return to the site multiple times.
  The initial video is very fun and completely pulls you into their effort to find the Faces of Y'ALL. Its use of classic theme music and dramatic shots really was a joy to watch. You can see why it gained such attention and why the alumni participated.

Silver Medals

Hamilton College - Professors to Remember/Students to Inspire - Hamilton Annual Fund Participation Challenge

• We were impressed with this entry on many levels but mostly because they were able to get such strong results on a minimal budget. Their campaign was created with existing photography - which greatly reduced production costs. They used the Web and e-mail effectively. They presented the challenge grant from their alumni in an engaging and interesting way.
  We felt that their idea of a "Professor to Remember" was a great way to tug at the heartstrings of the alumni. Every alumnus/a has one faculty member that touched or influenced their life. They also shared these memories and thoughts with the faculty members (or his/her family). Institutions like ours need to be aware of the giving potential of their current and retired faculty members. While engaging the alumni, this effort also engages the faculty members. The results could include an increase in faculty support.

University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business, The Haas Annual Fund: Thing About It

• We knew you could provide such an engaging piece without using any photography? Certainly, Berkeley has the funds for photography - this is not because they can't afford it. But this choice - to use strong copy and to design it in an engaging way works for this piece. Particularly impressive are two different two-page spreads "Think about the impact" and "Any questions?" There is a lot of copy on these pages but the simple use of background color paired with direct, engaging copy works. We weren't as crazy about the inserts. While they are nice individually, together they could become messy but perhaps donors only receive one or two, not all as presented here.

Bronze Medal

Earlham College - Campaign Case Statements

• We applaud Earlham College for producing their first coordinated materials. This is a larger project for them and we feel it will be helpful in their cause. It serves the purpose of being traditional but it was engaging with its direct, to the point copy. The design is pleasant, although not too out of the ordinary. But it is the copy that won us over. Who can't agree that they need funding because the roof is leaking on the work of the painting, drawing and weaving students? We liked that the different packages for different campaign initiatives were similar in style but provided different content. It would be interesting to see how they would present these various pieces (in a coordinated fashion) if there were one donor that had an interest in each.