Case Study:


VFW National Home

Donor-Centered Premiums Make a Measurable Difference

The VFW National Home in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, provides support to military and veteran families facing life’s challenges. Through a variety of services tailored to the unique needs of veteran and military families — including housing, education, transition counseling, and community-building opportunities — the VFW National Home empowers them to grow, thrive, and create lasting opportunities for success.

2025 was the 100th anniversary of the VFW National Home’s life-changing services to the families of America’s service members.

This presented H&J, their fundraising agency of 15 years, with a twofold challenge:

  1. Create a package that would use the anniversary celebration to further strengthen the relationship the National Home already has with its donors.

  2. Reverse the slight decline they were seeing in response rates.

H&J has a deep history with the National Home’s donors. We knew their donors were premium-receptive and that they consider themselves highly patriotic with an abiding love for the Red, White, & Blue. So, we developed a package that would address all those factors, and included premium offers tailored to fit their donors’ preferences.

The front of the outer envelope pictured an attractive young family literally wrapped in the American flag and a teaser promising “special gifts enclosed.”

The high value donors received a closed-faced outer envelope with a handwritten font.

The reverse for both had a specially designed 100th anniversary logo with a sentence of explanatory copy and a second offer, this time for a back-end premium.

The letter copy described an Annual Fund request that reinforced the key points of the National Home’s mission and thanked the donors for the irreplaceable role they play in helping to transform the lives of struggling veterans’ families. It also featured an endnote in a handwritten font drawing readers’ attention to the back-end premium, and a QR code to encourage immediate gifts.

The offers included:

  • A bounce-back “Happy Birthday to the National Home” card attached to the reply device. Donors could sign and return the card with their gift, implying that they would gain recognition as a loyal supporter. Note that the card was not perfed, so it had to be returned with the reply device which strongly encouraged donors to send a gift.

  • A sheet of peel-off U.S. flag stickers.

  • A 100th Anniversary Proud Supporter window cling.

  • The reply also held the back-end premium offer – a handsome lapel pin version of the anniversary logo. Directly under the pin image was an opt-out check box allowing the donors to show that they were especially loyal if they were willing to make the gift and decline the pin so their entire gift could support military families.

As you see, it was a loaded package. Its bulk, as well as the two offers on the envelope, likely boosted the packages open rate.

Results

As you see here, each element was carefully thought out to encourage giving while making donors feel their generosity was being recognized and used effectively.

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