Merkle, www.merkle.com, the nation's largest and fastest growing independent customer relationship marketing agency, today announced that it has been chosen by the US Olympic Committee (USOC) as its agency of record (AOR) to provide marketing for its national direct response fundraising program.

The USOC chose Merkle as their strategic partner to provide analytic, strategic, creative positioning, mail production and product management services for the organization's national direct response fundraising program. The USOC will initially retain Merkle's services for a 26 month period encompassing the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

"In Merkle, we found a partner who not only understands our message and our needs, but can tell our athlete's stories in a fresh, new creative way that will resonate with supporters and produce results," said Janine Musholt, chief development officer at the USOC. "This along with Merkle's long track record of providing a range of quality solutions to the nonprofit sector were major reasons why we chose to work with Merkle."

Merkle's partnership with the USOC follows the company's past success working with other nonprofit groups. The company's nonprofit division has provided direct marketing, response management, strategic, analytic and creative solutions to organizations such as the Salvation Army, Feeding America, and Susan G Komen for the Cure. Merkle continues to explore new strategies and technologies to help its nonprofit clients connect and develop long lasting relationships with their supporters.

"We are eager to work with the USOC and draw upon our wealth of experience in the nonprofit space to meet their objectives," said Angie Moore, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Merkle's Nonprofit Group at Merkle. "We are proud to work with an organization with such a storied history and dedicated staff."