THE CHALLENGE: Regarding attitudes towards healthcare, 2021 was a much different year than 2020. The daily horn-honking, pan-banging demonstrations of appreciation and support for healthcare workers and their organizations were largely replaced with sighs of exhaustion and divisiveness. Our job was to develop a fundraising campaign for Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation that could push through this giving-fatigue, and we knew we had our work cut out for us.
THE WORK: Enter James, a pizza-loving, salad-hating, karate-chopping 12-year-old. James has multiple sclerosis, but with help from Mary Bridge Children’s, he doesn’t let that define him. By featuring James in the advertising, we avoided the sick-kid-in-the-hospital-with-melancholy-music-behind-a-weepy-voiceover-imploring-us-to-do-it-for-the-children, and instead, delivered a positive and powerful message about a kid who, with help from your donation, isn’t about to let his condition stop him from doing whatever the heck he wants to do.
THE RESULTS: We helped raise $440,000 dollars, an increase of 42% over 2020. We helped increase the average donation amount to $336, an increase of 59% over last year. We had more total donors, and drove down the average age by 3 years, to help ensure we’ll get more donations in the years to come. Overall website traffic was up 166%, and traffic from Facebook increased by 1,237%, contributing heavily to the donation campaign and raising awareness for Mary Bridge Children’s. Last but hardly least, we helped make James look like Jackie Chan (not coincidentally his hero) to his friends.
