Just days after Hurricane Harvey ripped through Texas and Louisiana, I was sitting in a session at the DMA Nonprofit Federation convention. A couple of folks were talking about how they were able to quickly produce an emergency response mailing within 10 business days to raise support for the organizations impacted by the storm. I thought to myself: “WOW, 10 days is a long time!” In times of urgent need, time is not on your side.

After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the work of one of our partners was affected and they were in desperate need. We knew we needed to mail an Emergency Gram as soon as possible. The earthquake occurred on April 25th; by 5:00 pm on April 28th we were able to send over 61,000 pieces to donors via first-class mail. Donations were already being received by our partner on May 1st, just seven days after the tragedy occurred.

Accomplishing this feat was no easy task. Due to our flexible nature at Douglas Shaw & Associates, and our commitment to our partners, we came together and were able to strategize, write, and design the project within four hours. Our client was able to approve the project within two hours. And we were off to the presses.

Our strong partnerships with our vendors allowed us to turn the project in record time:

• Both Carrier and Reply Envelopes manufactured and printed within 8 hours of approval
• 8 x 14 60# Canary offset text for the letter and reply device ordered and delivered to the lettershop within 2 hours
• The lettershop duplex lasered the letter and reply device within 4 hours of approval
• The lettershop perforated and folded the letters within 3 hours, and inserted and stamped all 61,000 packages within 3 hours

We were able to deliver the full mailing to the Post Office a half hour before they closed.

This project was a great example of how Douglas Shaw & Associates works closely with our ministry partners and vendors to produce emergency mailings to help those in need. By working as a team, our Ministry Partners, vendors, and the team at Douglas Shaw & Associates were able to help raise almost $250,000 to aid our Ministry Partners team in Nepal. Times like this remind me that we are part of what is right with the world.

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