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The Salvation Army of Metropolitan Chicago is on its way to a 10% rise in donations thanks to a multichannel direct marketing campaign in the area.

Launched late last fall, the organization's Christmas campaign included a 1.8 million-piece direct mailing to prospects in the city and surrounding suburbs (up from the 2004 effort's 1.1 million pieces).

It also featured direct response print ads and freestanding inserts in the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times newspapers, and DR ads in Chicago Magazine.

The 2005 direct mail budget was about $750,000, said Margot Buckley, vice president at Grizzard, the organization's Atlanta-based agency. The budget for DR space and FSIs was 195,000, up from $175,000 the previous year.

The average gifts for this campaign differed widely by medium, Buckley said. The group sought donations between $15 and $100, but respondents to the FSI gave an average of $67 while direct mail donors contributed about $30, she said.

The direct mail came in a 4-inch by 8-inch white envelope with the teaser line, “Please don't forget…” on the front side.

The letter, printed on pink paper, led off with the headline: “What does it feel like to be forgotten at Christmas?

The copy read, in part: “This Christmas hundreds of children risk being forgotten on Christmas Day — unless you and I do something.

“Right here in Greater Chicago, there are families struggling just to put food on the table. They have no money to buy Christmas toys or clean, new clothes for their children.”

Attached to the bottom of the letter was a reply form. The package also contained a return envelope on which the recipient would have to pay postage.

Before 2004, the Salvation Army in Chicago ran general image ads showing drug addicts and single mothers to whom it was giving help. It also did some direct mail.

But the messages were “not integrated,” because direct mail and advertising were being handled by different agencies, Buckley said.

She added that the integrated campaign with a single message helped boost response over the past two years.