in memoriam - Fleet Reserve Association

ing efforts. Staff has researched the most cost-effective advertising avenues with the best target audience for FRA.
Those ads will be placed in conjunction with the direct mail, e-newsletter and outreach campaigns to maximize effectiveness.
Membership solicitation mailings costs can be very high due to printing and postage costs and such an
initiative should be repeated several times to ensure a cost effective and reasonable response rate – hence we are
testing our direct mail programs before going to large numbers. Once the results are in for the test direct mail, the
full program can be rolled out.
We continue to work hard to ensure that going forward we’re able to commit consistent resources to membership
marketing initiatives per the marketing budget which is $220,000 for 2007. That budget is significantly less
than what Marsh used for marketing, so a targeted approach vice “shotgun” approach is key to success.
FUND RAISING PROGRAM UPDATE
The FRA hat fund raising program was the first such program that we ran in house and the program is
ongoing. This was also our first fulfillment type program which means we solicited donations via FRA Today (and
previously Naval Affairs) ads. Those contributing $35 or more received their choice of three sea service specific ball
caps which are made in the USA. Total cost to launch this program was approximately $45,000 and to date we’ve
received $34,951 in donations. A number of straight donations (no hat requested) have come in as well. As the program
is not time sensitive, we are letting it rest and will renew in the summer months to surpass the break even point.
The main advantage of this program has been reaching people who had not previously donated to FRA and adding
them to the donor list.
The FRA 2007 Calendar fundraiser launched in November 2006 and 50,000 FRA donors received the
calendar with a cover letter. Following receipt, one follow up notice was sent. Because of added control and up-todate
data, the follow up notice to those who had already donated included a thank you for the donation and indicated
the amount. Donations received to date total $175,897 and the cost of this project was approximately $92,000. (The
cost for the same program the previous year (prior to the donor list clean up) administered by Vantage was
$159,721.)
For both programs, more than 98 percent of our donors honored the request to use a stamp on the envelopes
returned rather than using the postage paid indicia, which greatly reduced the cost of the program.
The FRA 2007 Mailing Label fundraiser is launching in the next two weeks. Total cost for the printing and
mailing is approximately $20,000 plus postage. The same program through Vantage cost upward of $50,000 plus
postage. Cost savings come from staff writing the copy, maintaining the mailing list, and managing the project.
Noteworthy is the FRA case statement on the back side of the labels which reflects an 85% allocation of donations to
support Association programs – this is much higher than the non-profit organization average of 60-65% and reflects
the shift to in-house management of marketing and fundraising programs which has reduced our costs tremendously.
LA FRA MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATION
NHQ assumed responsibility for the LA FRA membership administration functions on 1 February 2007
utilizing the iMIS system per the FRA & LA FRA Mutual Services Agreement of 24 January 2007. Significant staff
time and resources were committed to start up efforts at no cost to the LA FRA, and significant unanticipated problems
with the data and a six-month backlog of unprocessed renewals resulted in delays in the initial processing of
reports and other admin functions. Unit membership reports from February and March were recently completed and
forwarded to Eileen Magnan, LA FRA Treasurer for distribution to individual Units. (Specifics detailed in my updates
to LA FRA National President Sandy Robbins on 29 March and 9 May 2007 which were copied to the FRA
NBOD.)
Information on the change and instructions for individual LA FRA members for iMIS functions and access
were published in the January and February issues of FRA Today. Additionally a PowerPoint briefing (or copies of
this) for use by LA FRA leadership was prepared by NHQ staff for presentation at regional meetings and first presented
by the East Coast Region Midyear Meeting in Carolina Beach, NC on 3 February 2007. This presentation is
available on the LA FRA Area for Unit and Regional Officers on www.fra.org.
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