Parable & World Vision Partner for National Promotion

Each Customer Sponsoring a Child Receives a $30 Retail Gift Certificate

San Luis Obispo, California—The Parable Group and World Vision have partnered together in a unique charitable partnership to increase sponsors for underprivileged children worldwide. This promotional partnership marks the first time World Vision has worked with a retail chain to solicit new sponsors.

Starting in April 2001, any Parable customer who signs up to sponsor a child through World Vision will receive a $30 gift certificate good for merchandise in the same store. More than 160 Parable member stores will include a letter from the award-winning singing group Avalon in the April 2001 catalog. The popular group shares the impact World Vision has made on their lives and invites customers to come in-store and sponsor a child.

World Vision will provide a full-color custom POS counter display for each participating Parable store. World Vision will also send each new sponsor comprehensive information about the child being supported. In April, participating Parable send will send more than 1.3 million catalogs with the letter from Avalon. Each of these catalogs will have a customized ink jet message on the back cover mentioning the promotion.

Both World Vision and Parable see this relationship as the first of many new cross-promotional opportunities. “We are so excited to work with World Vision,” said Parable founder and president Steve Potratz. “The program they created is a win-win-win—a win for the child, the Parable member store and World Vision. How exciting to be able to support a program that will impact lives in such a major way. Parable stores have embraced this program strongly and we anticipate a long and fruitful relationship with World Vision.”

“World Vision sincerely thanks The Parable Group for partnering with us in our ministry to serve children in desperate need,” said Martin Lonsdale, Vice President of Child Sponsorship for World Vision. “This truly will be a life-changing opportunity for thousands of children as well as thousands of new sponsors. We’re excited about how Christ’s love will be magnified through this relationship.”

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World Vision/Parable Partnership, page two

World Vision is an international, Christian relief and development organization working to promote the well being of all people, especially children. Established in 1950 to care for Asian orphans, World Vision has grown to embrace the larger issues of community development and advocacy for the poor in its mission to help children and their families build sustainable futures. World Vision serves 85 million people in nearly one hundred countries.

Parable Interactive is one of a family of companies under the Parable umbrella. The Parable Group is a California-based marketing and retail services company representing over $400,000,000 in annual sales of Christian products to consumers. Parable Christian Stores consists of more than 300 independently owned Christian retail outlets located in North America. The Parable Group provides diverse marketing tools for its member stores such as e-commerce sites, in-store merchandising kits, exclusive products, weekly bestseller lists and catalogs. In 2000, Parable distributed more than 29.7 million catalogs, newspaper inserts, and other promotional mailings in 25 marketing campaigns.

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March 13, 2001