wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Mission drive is 'on target' with new emphasis on

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9045 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05651
Dec. 6, 2005

Mission drive is 'on target'

Hearts & Hands campaign is putting a new emphasis on marketing

by Toya Richard Hill

LOUISVILLE - The second half of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts &
Hands (JHH) fund-raising campaign for foreign mission and new church
development will be all about target marketing.

	Already the effort to raise $40 million by 2007 has passed its
halfway mark in money and pledges. Now campaign staffers and the JHH steering
committee, which met last week in Newport Beach, CA, say tailor-made
promotional materials fitted to donors' needs will help bring in the rest. 

	"The committee really felt that this was a good focus for the
future," said the Rev. Jan Opdyke, the JHH director. She said target
marketing will be a "cornerstone" of the rest of the campaign.

	According to Opdyke, the campaign will continue its current approach,
which includes steering donors with specific interests - ranging from mission
in Cameroon to new-church developments along the U.S. Gulf Coast - to related
needs.

	But now the campaign is also using a video produced by the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Media Services Team, and retrofitting it to
suit donors' needs, Opdyke said. 

	Earlier this year, the video won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for
excellence.

	"We can now really be very specific with people, and really
tailor-make some opportunities," Opdyke said. "That's the future."

	The first re-mixed video was made for the Presbytery of North Central
Iowa to use to help raise $250,000 to send an agricultural mission co-worker
to the Democratic Republic of Congo. George and Jan Beran of Ames, IA, have
made a "lead gift" toward the goal.

	The "targeted" video "works wonderfully, because it requires not as
much staff involvement at the national level," Opdyke said, adding that
re-mixing can be done "at a very, very reasonable cost."

	A companion brochure also is personalized to the presbytery's needs. 

	"It's a package," Opdyke said.

	The tri-fold brochure includes information about the agricultural
mission co-worker position and a detachable pledge card imprinted with logos
from the presbytery and JHH.

	The Presbytery of North Central Iowa has "created more awareness of
the mission initiative and this particular position than we probably could
have gotten any other way," said Suann Nichols, the campaign's associate
director. 

	When the presbytery markets the campaign, it's a "peer-to-peer
approach," she said. "From a professional fund-raiser's point of view, it's
the very best way to raise money."

	Opdyke said JHH plans to use what's happening in Iowa "as a model."

	As other presbyteries make pledges, campaign leaders "will be able to
say, 'Here's the video we've done,'" Opdyke said - which is exactly why it
was made.

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