A successful fund-raising catalog combines a wide range of specific products with higher-priced appeals for money that can be used for a broad range of needs, said Robbin Gehrke, senior vice president and executive creative director at Russ Reid, a fund-raising consulting firm, at a session of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference, in New Orleans.

Charitable “gift catalogs” — which either sell merchandise associated with an organization’s cause or request more symbolic donation-type gifts, such as an opportunity to adopt an animal or sponsor a child — have grown in popularity and sophistication in recent years.

They have the advantage of appealing to younger donors, while also helping to raise additional, incremental gifts from existing donors, said Ms. Gehrke, who has helped design and test gift catalogs for organizations like World Vision and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

First time donors who give through a catalog usually give far larger amounts than single gift-givers acquired through more traditional sources such as direct mail, she added.

The key to a successful catalog, said Ms. Gehrke, is being able to offer a wide variety of tangible products with prices from $25 to $25,000.

Often, she said, catalogs are helpful in reaching midlevel donors, who are ready to respond to larger appeals than usual direct-mail solicitations but who don’t give at high enough levels to attract the attention of major-gifts fund raisers.

That’s why, she said, in addition to a number of items priced at the “sweet spot” of either $50 or $100 — which are usually the most popular in a gift catalog — catalogs should also include high-dollar products that go to pay for broad needs.

The World Wildlife Fund, for example, includes in its gift catalog a category of “extraordinary gifts,” such as an appeal to help Bolivian and Brazilian families start sustainable forest-based businesses, priced at $20,000, which appears on the same page as a $25 adopt-a-toucan gift.

When designing a gift catalog, Ms. Gehrke said, charities need to think like retail-catalog designers and pay careful attention to the catalog’s length and layout, and the quality and appeal of photographs. She suggested using an enclosed order form that lists all the booklet’s offerings on one page, which encourages people to add on a few more items as they complete their order — and can spur some donors to take the form to work or church groups for group giving.

Gift catalogs may not be a good choice for groups like advocacy organizations, which may not be able to parcel aspects of their programs into specific salable “products,” she said.

But, she said, they can be particularly effective for groups that already have a well-known brand and can quantify their programs by how much it costs to provide services per beneficiary.

She estimated that it takes about four or five years for a catalog program to reach peak performance. One client who started an integrated online and print catalog program in 2004 and raised about $8-million in its first year was able to bring in $20-million through its gift catalog during the 2008 holiday season, she said.