The Kyra Awards – Inspiring Professional Fund Raising

The Kyra Awards – Inspiring Professional Fund Raising

The Fund Raising Congress is home to The Kyra Awards, the pioneer in celebrating the best practices in fund raising efforts conducted by Philippine non-profit organizations. The multi-category Kyra Awards was established to acknowledge the successes of creative resource mobilization, and to celebrate partnerships between the profit and non-profit sectors. The Kyra Awards was first launched at the First Fund Raising Congress in 2004, and has since been a highlight of each Congress.

Impressive Crop of Entries

An impressive crop of 19 entries were received for the 2008 Kyra Awards - almost triple that of the previous Kyra’s 7 entries! This number is inspiring, since it manifests the increased awareness and effectiveness of the fund raising efforts of non-profit organizations since the last Kyra Awards in 2006. 

Four entries were received for the Kyra-PhilPost Best Direct Mail Campaign Award. This award recognizes a project or program that raised funds to support the ongoing work of the organization from new or existing donors, or was seeking to renew or increase the level of giving from existing donors, or that raised funds toward a particular appeal - all through printed pieces sent out in the mail. The entries were:

For the second category, the The Kyra Best Special Event Award, 5 entries were received. This award recognizes the raising of funds through an event. The event may be in the form of a ball, a concert, auction, fair, breakfast, luncheon, dinner, marathon, bike-a-thon, walk-a-thon, fashion show, book sale, and the like. This may be an annual or one-off event. The entries were:

The third category, the Kyra-Shell Best NPO-Corporate Partnership Campaign Award, honors the non-profit that has partnered with a corporation to generate funds, not though requests of philanthropy and gifts but thorough a marketing campaign beneficial to both. The campaign should reflect the association of the non-profit with a commercial product, brand or service and is proven to have benefited both the funds of the non-profit and the sales of the for-profit company’s product or service.

For this award category, we received a total of 6 entries.  They were:

Our last category is the Kyra - Reconnect Award of Excellence in Fund Raising.  This award recognizes the organization that has effectively and creatively tapped diversified funding sources including but not limited to direct mail, special events, annual giving campaigns, capital campaigns, planned giving programs and overall advancement programs that have exhibited sustained improvement in fund raising returns. For this award category, we received a total of 4 entries. They were:

A Difficult Judging Process

All the entries were excellent examples of the best and most creative fund raising campaigns, and the most difficult task of evaluating and analyzing the entries rested on the shoulders of the KYRA Board of Judges. The KYRA Board was comprised of 5 women and men, all very good friends of Venture for Fund Raising:

Mr. Gulliver G. Go, is a Business Development Consultant and Venture for Fund Raising Fellow. Gully is involved in business development consulting for many for-profit institutions. He is a partner in a forum-based blog, Finance Manila that actively discusses Philippine equities and other fixed income investments, and is active in course development engagements for the non-profit sector with clients like Asia Foundation, Venture for Fundraising and United Nations Country Team (UNCT). Gully brings to the Board of Judges his hard-nosed business sense.

Ms. Cosette F. Romero is Senior Vice-President & General Manager of Fleishman Hilliard International Communications, the largest international PR agency with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. As such, she holds the double distinction of being the first local and first female to head the Manila office. A veteran PR practitioner with over 20 years of professional experience, Ms. Romero’s areas of expertise are in public affairs, corporate/financial, pharma/healthcare PR, consumer marketing, social marketing, lobbying, crisis/issues management and media training. Cosette brings her expertise in public relations and communications to the Board of Judges.

Ms. Marlene N. Ochoa, is Vice President for Corporate Communication of the Manila North Tollway Corporation. Marlene is among a select few accredited public relations practitioners, conferred by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP). Under her leadership, MNTC’s various advocacy and PR materials received acclaim from the PRSP. She also leads the company’s corporate social responsibility programs.  Marlene brings to the Board of judges her expertise in marketing communications, advocacy management, and public information, among others.

Ms. Fely I. Soledad, is the Executive Director of the Philippine Council for NGO Certification. A very good friend of Venture, Fely tirelessly works to enable NGOs to achieve transparency, legitimacy and accountability to the public through her work with PCNC.

And last, but not the least, is the Chairperson of the Board of Judges, who needs no introduction, Dr. Ned L. Roberto - Venture’s “Lolo Ned”, and social marketing and research mentor.   

The judges met for over 4 grueling hours last August 22, and the entire process was witnessed by a representative from Garcia, Luque, Vidal and Co., CPAs. The rating sheets were submitted in sealed envelopes to the auditing firm, hence only the Auditors knew who the winners were. The results of the day’s Awards Ceremony were as much a surprise to the nominees, the Board of Judges, and for us at Venture, as they were to the audience!

More about the Judges (link to Kyra Judges.pdf)

Inspiring Awards

Cheers and applause marked the awards ceremony proper, with the winners going onstage with stunned expressions on their faces.  Even Dr. Ned, the Chairman of the Board of Judges was speechless in anticipation of the results!

The Kyra-PhilPost Best Direct Mail Campaign Award was won by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for their “Kuya Bill” Direct Mail Campaign for their Program on Children in Conflict with the Law. The trophy and Php 50,000 cash award was presented to UNICEF’s Michelle Borromeo and Gina Sales by Atty. Froilan Tejada, Jr. and Luis Carlos of the PhilPost Corporation, the sponsor of this award.

The “Kuya Bill” direct mail pack is unique and innovative inasmuch as it utilizes brown craft paper designed to look like an old sheet of newsprint, folded into an envelope, with the teaser question “Will you be able to sleep on this sheet of paper?” printed on the front. This statement was most effective in prompting the receiver to open the pack and read through the rest of the material. The campaign resulted in raising over Php 5 million pesos for the campaign, acquire 1,240 one-time donors and 291 pledge donors, and achieve a return on investment of 1.72. These figures all surpassed the organization’s targets for the 3 factors.  

More importantly, the campaign was effective in bringing the story of Bill to our attention, who, with the assistance received from Unicef, turned from a once wayward child who was living in sheer poverty and parental neglect, living a life of petty crime at a young age in order to survive in the streets. He is arrested for snatching a purse, was sent to a UNICEF-assisted center instead of an adult jail, where he was given schooling and vocational training, and was taught life skills and values. This turn-around inspired Bill to continue his education and he eventually became a model policeman, also serving as a “Kuya” to other children in the center during his spare time.

The Kyra Best Special Event Award and a cash prize of Php 50,000.00, was presented to the Philippine Science High School Foundation, Inc. for their campaign entitled “Aruga”, Handog ng Sining sa Agham, an art exhibit/sale of works by noted painter Joven Ignacio. The exhibit also featured the works of Myra Ruth Picart, a PSHS student and art prodigy, with a mini-concert featuring the musical talents of the PSHS students. The project, which benefited the school’s Godparent Program, raised funds to provide needed financial assistance for scholars, as well as support for their emotional and social development programs.

The project was a shining example of a collaborative effort of the PSHS Foundation’s trustees, teachers, students and their families in raising a sizable amount for the Godparent Program, stating that “Lahat nagtulungan, para mag-“Aruga””!  

The third award category is The Kyra-Shell Best NPO-Corporate Partnership Campaign Award was won by Haribon Foundation, for their partnership with GMA Network in the campaign entitled “Breathing Life through Innovative Media”. Mr. Chito Maniago, from the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, the sponsor for this particular award, presented the trophy and Php 50,000.00 cash prize to Haribon’s Ms. Christine Cenal.

The Haribon-GMA partnership was one of a series of awareness-generating activities in a national environmental conservation movement entitled “Road to 2020” or Rainforestation Organizations and Advocates to Year 2020”. The campaign promotes the planting of native tree species in a million hectares of rainforest by 2020, in order to recover and conserve biodiversity, optimize our supply of forest benefits and ecosystem services, reduce the risk or natural hazards, and enhance options for sustainable livelihood. The campaign consisted of the airing of TV plugs during tree-planting season, using catchy images over television, the most potent media to reach a wider public. This resulted in tree-planting partnerships with large and small corporations, schools, funding institutions and individuals, in both volunteer time and monetary support.

And finally, the ‘mother of all awards’, The Kyra - Reconnect Award of Excellence in Fund Raising was awarded to World Vision Development Foundation, Inc., for their entry entitled Fund Raising Best Practices 2007. The trophy and Php 75,000.00 cash prize was presented to World Vision’s Mr. Boris Joaquin by Mr. Ernest Custodio, representing Reconnect, the award sponsor. 

In its 2007 fiscal year, World Vision focused on 3 of its strongest fund raising campaigns: corporate engagement, direct mail and face-to-face marketing (mall campaigns, face-to-face acquisition in various professional and church assemblies and conventions, etc.).  

The campaigns yielded an average of 6,000 new child sponsorships for 2007, a donor retention rate of 92%, a 34% growth in total donations from the previous year, and a 5.55 rate for every peso spent for fund raising. But more than the numbers, keeping true to its framework of win, build and send, World Vision effectively built relationships through “hard work, good marketing and fund raising skills, innovative ideas, exceptional relational skill, right connections, good timing and access to information”. Truly, “holistic public engagement can lead to effective public transformation”!

Congratulations to all our winners! Venture would like to thank Dr. Ned and the members of our Board of Judges, as well as our auditors, for their inspired work on the Kyra Awards. Our heartfelt thanks as well to our sponsors, Philippine Postal Corporation, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Reconnect, without whose support, the KYRA Awards would not have been a rousing success.

We hope this year’s awards will serve as an inspiration to all NGOs to work toward submitting their own entries for the 4th KYRA Awards in 2010! So start working on those campaigns!