Providence, R.I.
Over the years, the Catholic Foundation of Rhode Island (CFRI) has proven that how you say something can be every bit as important as what you say.
The foundation is dedicated to helping hundreds of individuals, parishes, schools and institutions provide for the spiritual, educational and temporal needs of the Catholic community. Though its work is mainly in Rhode Island, it will support, depending on the wishes of a donor, any cause or charity that is in The Official Catholic Directory published by P.J. Kenedy & Sons.
In 2001, the foundation’s planned giving program was already fairly well established, but CFRI was looking for ways to reach out to its donor base and grow its endowment. So the foundation worked with Stelter to produce and mail custom-designed newsletters with response brochures and reply cards. The impact was encouraging, and today the foundation continues to send newsletters to donors and professional advisors four times a year.
Recently, the foundation worked with Stelter to produce postcards to supplement these mailings. Sandra Sebring, associate director for planned and major gifts, says that the postcards are a way to quickly touch base with donors and an opportunity to develop more contacts with its constituency. “The postcards are fairly simple in design,” she says. “The message comes across quickly. We get people to at least look at it for a few seconds, which I feel is important in such a competitive market.” And, as hoped, the postcards have proven to be quite effective.
Since 2002, the foundation has used Stelter’s planned giving Web site content and hosting to better inform potential and current donors and explain the intricacies of planned giving. “The most important thing Stelter does for me is the Web site maintenance,” Sandra says. “They’re my technical people online and are almost like planned giving consultants to the donors online. That’s really an important thing.” And it is especially significant because more and more of the foundation’s mailings are driving donors to the Web site for information.
Over the years, as its planned giving program improved, the foundation has grown and prospered, reaching a remarkable $65 million in assets in 2007. In September 2007, the foundation’s planned giving materials were recognized as truly superior. The International Catholic Stewardship Council honored the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and the Catholic Foundation of Rhode Island with the Award for Excellence for materials in the categories of Total Planned Giving Effort and Total Foundation Effort. It is a wonderful acknowledgement of the foundation’s dedication to producing materials that are consistently smart, attractive and motivating. We’re proud we could help.
