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Prepared for:
Integrated Marketing
Communications
Plan
Presented to: Melanee Hannock
December 22, 2014
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Integrated Marketing Communications Plan prepared for: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. CONFIDENTIAL Copyright 2014 Yellow Cardinal
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Contents
Cover Letter ........................................................................................................................ 5
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 7
About Yellow Cardinal ....................................................................................................... 8
Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................. 10
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Background ..................................................... 10
ALSAC Background .................................................................................................... 11
Competitive Landscape ................................................................................................ 15
Competition .................................................................................................................. 17
Challenges and Opportunities....................................................................................... 24
Target Audiences .............................................................................................................. 29
Primary: Young Millennial Professionals .................................................................... 29
Secondary: Internal Constituents.................................................................................. 35
SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................ 36
Survey ............................................................................................................................... 40
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Brand ................................................................... 42
Brand Perception .......................................................................................................... 42
Brand Position .............................................................................................................. 43
Brand Personality ......................................................................................................... 46
Creative ............................................................................................................................. 49
Strategy Statement ........................................................................................................ 49
Creative Brief .................................................................................................................... 51
Communication Plan and Budget Summary ..................................................................... 52
Strategy ............................................................................................................................. 52
Marketing Objectives and Tactics..................................................................................... 57
Communication Plan Executions ...................................................................................... 65
Infrastructure ................................................................................................................ 65
Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Website.................................................................... 66
Millennial Donor Invitation.......................................................................................... 68
Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Newsletter ............................................................... 69
Meetings with Friends of St. Jude Chapters ................................................................. 70
Chapter Kick-off Events ............................................................................................... 71
Events ........................................................................................................................... 72
City Event Card Guerilla Campaign............................................................................. 75
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Fund ‘n Go and VIP Fund ‘n Go .................................................................................. 76
Display and Search Ads................................................................................................ 77
Employment Site Display Ads ..................................................................................... 78
Email Lapsed Millennial Donors.................................................................................. 79
Internal Communication Plan ........................................................................................... 80
Communications Schedule and Budget ............................................................................ 84
Schedule ....................................................................................................................... 84
Budget Detail ................................................................................................................ 85
Percent of Budget ......................................................................................................... 88
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 94
References ......................................................................................................................... 95
Figures............................................................................................................................. 101
Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 102
Telling brand stories. Solving marketing mysteries.
December 22, 2014
Ms. Melanee Hannock Sr. Vice President, Marketing St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, TN 38015-3678
c: Ms. Shelby Anderson and Ms. Katie Foster
Dear Ms. Hannock:
Thank you for the opportunity to submit the following campaign proposal to your team at ALSAC. Your recent efforts on behalf of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have produced impressive results:
Twitch/St. Jude team-up for St. Jude PLAY LIVE to raise a quarter of a million dollars in 12 weeks
$31 million dollars raised by Tri Delta since 1999 with a new commitment to raising $60 million in the next 10 years
Thanks and Giving campaign has reached its $100 million annual goal
Red Frog Events’ commitment to raise $25 million by the end of 2025 for the new PRT center
Those are motivating stories. The next chapter: build the young professionals audience into a $30 million segment over three years. Yellow Cardinal’s team of creative, strategy, technology, and business experts have examined St. Jude’s situation and researched the
target market. Using a strategic storytelling approach, we created an intriguing plan for winning back this traditionally lapsed audience and inspiring them to become lifelong St.
Jude supporters. The following pages explain how St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital can become the
elite fundraising program among young professionals. Please read through the strategy and share it with your team. I will call your office on January 5, 2015 to arrange a time to
discuss the proposal and answer your questions. Thank you again for your consideration. I look forward to connecting with you in the new year.
Sincerely,
Kim Martin
Kimberly Martin
Founder
YellowCardinal.com 115 Copper Street 704-904-3219 Princeton, WV 24739
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Executive Summary
ALSAC is challenged with positioning St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as the elite charity among young professionals. St. Jude has 8.8 million active donors, but only
303,000 of those are Millennials. Sixty-three percent are outside the target audience, so of the 303,000 Millennial donors, young professionals would make up less than one percent
of active St. Jude donors. Yellow Cardinal proposes a grassroots marketing strategy that starts with inspiring
current and lapsed St. Jude young professional donors to engage and re-engage with the charity they admire. Though they are currently small in number compared to the total
number of St. Jude donors, Millennials are passionate advocates for the causes they support. With a targeted effort of enlisting and uniting young professionals who are current and recent St. Jude supporters, ALSAC and Yellow Cardinal can cultivate
thousands of brand evangelists eager to advocate and fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and grow this constituency exponentially in the coming years.
Yellow Cardinal examined the background of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, ALSAC’s successful fundraising history, the competitive environment, and the target
audience to develop a strategy that positions St. Jude in front of young professionals in a unique and invitational way. This effort lays the groundwork for engaging young
professionals, strengthening those relationships for years to come, and providing a template for continuing engagement with future generations.
The Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 strategy leverages technology advantages to establish and maintain relationships with today’s digital natives. Using tools to monitor
actions and analyze behavior, ALSAC can deliver intriguing messages at the right time and through the right channels to the audience as well as develop the local opportunities for engagement with St. Jude that most appeal to young professionals. Millennials want
to be connected and involved with causes. Yellow Cardinal intends for Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 to be the cause of choice for today’s young professional and the
transitional platform for establishing life-long St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital supporters and advocates.
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About Yellow Cardinal
Yellow Cardinal is an international network of creative, strategic, technology, and business experts with unique talents, specialized
knowledge, and creative passion. This powerful collaboration uses the capabilities of today’s technology to work together no matter where we
or our brand partners are located. This means Yellow Cardinal is never limited to in-house resources only and you get solutions customized to your needs, not our resources.
Mission Yellow Cardinal brings CMO-level leadership to the entrepreneurs and nonprofits that are the foundation of our economy and communities. We solve business problems using
strategic marketing solutions designed for your singular situation.
The Beginning Nonprofits and entrepreneurs have two important things in common: an abundance of
passion for what they do and a need to use every dollar wisely. Throughout her career, Yellow Cardinal founder Kimberly Martin has recognized the need for nonprofits and small businesses to be heard through the chaos of big brands with big budgets shouting
their messages everywhere possible. She mobilized Yellow Cardinal in August 2014 as an endeavor to provide nonprofits and new brands with CMO-quality marketing strategy
and services.
Business Philosop hy Yellow Cardinal is client-centered and brand-driven. This means all of our marketing
messaging, strategies, and tactics are immersed in the flavor of your brand so that only your brand’s voice is heard and its personality shines. We develop ideas from your
brand’s personality so the message an audience receives rings true for the brand and results in an authentic experience between your organization and your customers.
We understand the challenges faced by nonprofits, small and mid-size business, and start-ups with deep passion and shallow pockets. You need sound marketing strategy rooted in
your business goals, effective marketing messaging that resonates both internally and with your audience, and communication tactics that easily fit your operation. Think of Yellow Cardinal as your virtual Chief Marketing Officer.
Approach Brand partnerships start by listening to your business situation and asking questions to
reveal the true source of a problem, the reasons behind your goals, and how Yellow Cardinal can help. Marketing problems and their solutions can often be a complete mystery. We solve those mysteries by thoroughly understanding your brand’s market
landscape and developing solutions you can successfully implement.
Yellow Cardinal views an organization as a whole entity. Business operations, technology, and marketing are inextricably entwined. We take into account the resources available to you before recommending a given strategy. We help you identify and bridge
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any gaps between existing technology or business capacity and the marketing strategy. Yellow Cardinal’s approach is not just to drive revenue but also to build a customer base
eager to buy and tell others about your brand.
Core Competencies Storytelling is the heart of Yellow Cardinal. Strategy is the brain. Storytelling makes and nurtures the connection between the brand and the audience.
Strategy is how your story is told. Strategy organizes all the characteristics of a brand into a cohesive and intriguing tale with your brand as the hero. Everything Yellow Cardinal
creates for our brand partners flows from the brand’s story and how that story is told.
Capab ilit ies Our capabilities are how we execute our core competencies. Yellow Cardinal’s team and
network of specialties can produce, execute, or source everything needed for your solution. Some of our services in most demand include:
Strategic planning Market research
Brand development Web presence Social media
Mobile marketing Online marketing and
SEO Event production Graphic design and print
Public relations Crisis management
Direct marketing Digital media
One key, unique capability is CMO leadership. This means an ongoing assessment of
your marketing efforts, execution and evaluation of your strategic plans, leadership for internal marketing communication, and advising for your brand’s future direction. It is like having a contract CMO.
Like your business, Yellow Cardinal is results-focused. We work with our brand partners
to strengthen market share, build brand equity, fortify customer loyalty, and expand your business. Our exhaustive capabilities combine to strategically tell your brand story and cultivate your audience into brand evangelists.
Uniqueness Yellow Cardinal is a diverse team of strategists, problem-solvers, businesses, and
creatives who use marketing strategy and communications to help brands achieve their business goals. We rely on technology to connect talents, knowledge, and resources from around the world. This exciting collaboration that is exciting is designed to incite unique
ideas and maximize creativity. The way we work is unique, and we use that to the advantage of our brand partners.
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Situation Analysis
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospit al Background
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® founder Danny Thomas had seen what life was like for children and families who could not afford medical care. He knew the
hopeless feeling of facing a hospital bill with no means of paying it. His conviction that no child should be denied medical treatment because of an inability to pay blended with his promise to honor Saint Jude Thaddeus for help
during desperate times. The idea for St. Jude was sparked.
Thomas worked to make his plans a reality, and the project grew as more people joined the cause. St. Jude became more than a hospital but also a place for research as well where doctors could do more than treat kids, they could find out
what makes them sick. It was decided the hospital would be built where it was most needed, and families would never receive a bill from St. Jude. In addition to
the medical costs, St. Jude would also cover the cost of travel, food, and housing because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. (St. Jude Facts, 2014)
What started with a promise and a little faith is now the second largest healthcare
charity in the US: a $2 million daily investment in saving children and advancing cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases. (FAQs, 2014) As Danny Thomas remained faithful to his promise to Saint Jude Thaddeus, St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital has remained faithful to Thomas’s vision. Their commitment to finding cures and saving children has led St. Jude from a staff of 100 treating 126 patients St. Jude’s opening year in 1962 through more
than 50 years of pioneering breakthroughs. Today St. Jude and its staff of more than 3,700 treat nearly 8,000 patients a year. (Spotlights, 2014)
It has always been about the children. An unwavering commitment to advancing cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through
research and treatment (St. Jude Mission Statement, 2014) is why St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats, and
defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. (St. Jude Facts, 2014)
“Where we’ve been feeds where we’re going.”
– Marlo Thomas, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital National Outreach Director & daughter of founder Danny Thomas (St. Jude and
West Virginia University Class Project, 2014)
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Highligh ts of St. Jude Accomplishments
Treatment breakthroughs at St. Jude have helped push the overall
childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent in 1962 to 80 percent today (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2011)
First to develop a cure for sickle cell disease with a bone marrow
transplant (Fifty Fabulous Years. In 1984..., 2014) 32,522 clinical trial enrollments in the last 5 years, of which 56 percent
were initiated by the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2014, p. 9)
Released the largest-ever compilation (4,200 billion pieces) of
comprehensive whole genome human cancer data in May 2012 for global scientific access (Downing, et al., 2012) and completed whole genome
sequencing of 800+ pediatric cancers (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University, 2014)
Invented a gene therapy treatment that allows adults with hemophilia B to
cease ongoing, expensive injections. This new treatment is being adapted for children and for other diseases. (Walker, 2012)
22 St. Jude International Outreach Program partner sites operate in 15 countries, significantly raising the level and quality of care in those regions and prompting the formation of other research coalitions like
POEM, the Pediatric Oncology East and Mediterranean Group. (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2014, pp. 41-42)
Four decades of influenza research led by St. Jude virologist, Dr. Robert Webster, the “flu hunter,” revealed crossover from animal influenza viruses does occur and can result in human pandemics like bird flu and
swine flu. (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2014, pp. 12-17)
ALSAC Background Fundraising to build St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital also coalesced the
Arab-speaking American community. Thomas formed the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) to unite second- and third-generation Arab-
speaking Americans in fundraising for St. Jude, a cause greater than themselves and one that would become greater than they could have imagined. (ALSAC: Grounded in Gratitude, 2014) It is the tireless work of ALSAC that allows St.
Jude to focus on its mission and achieve the invaluable scientific breakthroughs that have changed how the world treats childhood cancer.
ALSAC was hard at work years before ground was even broken on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They were busy raising the money necessary to
build and maintain St. Jude, a cost Thomas estimated a $1 million for building and $300,000 for annual maintenance. Now, St. Jude relies on ALSAC to raise
the majority of the more than $700 million required annually to operate. Decades of ALSAC’s nurturing of St. Jude supporters combined with St. Jude’s good stewardship of its financial donations have laid a solid fundraising foundation for
building future support.
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Successful Fundraising Efforts Since the beginning, celebrities have played an important role in raising awareness of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and soliciting financial
support. The successful show business careers of Danny Thomas and his daughter, Marlo, have provided St. Jude with connections to the most famous and loved celebrities, from Elvis to Sophia Vergara. The faithful support of stars like
the late Robin Williams and Jennifer Aniston have attracted more attention to St. Jude and helped Thanks and Giving grow to a $100 million campaign. (St. Jude
and West Virginia University Class Project, 2014) Corporate sponsors are key to any large nonprofit’s success, and St. Jude has
procured dozens of retail partners for its Thanks and Giving campaign and established a solid workplace giving program. StJudeatWork.org makes it simple
for a business to launch a workplace campaign, with easy downloads of a variety of materials to execute a smooth campaign and fundraising ideas to ensure success. (We make it easy, 2014)
Kay Jewelers has raised more than $40
million for St. Jude since 1999, contributing to many St. Jude campus expansion projects, including Kay Kafe
where St. Jude patients, families, and staff can all eat together. (Our partnership with
St. Jude Children's Research Center, 2000-2014). The jeweler also sells plush toys with a purchase each year during the
holiday season, an effort that can catch the eye of Millennials shopping for jewelry
gifts and engagement rings for those Christmas and New Year’s Eve proposals.
A successful partnership with Red Frog Events has
produced exciting events like the Warrior Dash that are Millennial magnets. In 2013
Red Frog Events pledged to raise $25 million through
2025 for St. Jude’s new Proton Therapy Center opening next year. (Giving
Back, 2014)
Figure 1 Kip, a stuffed puppy, and
his pal Kenny, a stuffed bear (Yellow Cardinal photograph.)
Figure 2 The Warrior Dash is the world's largest
obstacle race series.
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There are 35,000 fundraising events a year for St. Jude covering a spectrum of ages and interests. Millennial sports enthusiasts can choose from walks, runs, golf
tournaments, marathons, and even equestrian events and martial arts exhibitions. Fundraisers like Country Cares for St. Jude Kids and Promesa y Esperanza reach
music lovers while massive events like Red Frog Events’ Firefly Music Festival are an important part of Music Gives for St. Jude Kids. The annual Thanks and Giving campaign and Give thanks. Walk. appeal to adults of all ages, as does the
Dream Home Giveaway.
Recently St. Jude explored fundraising in emerging media by partnering with Twitch, the
world’s leading video platform and gamer community. (All about
Twitch, n.d.) The Twitch Quarter Million Dollar Challenge for St. Jude PLAY LIVE was a twelve-
week marathon fundraiser where kids earned community service
hours for playing their favorite video games. (aureylian, 2014) The ultimate prize was a
Twitch/St. Jude PLAY LIVE hoodie for the first 250 gamers to raise $1000.
This is an exciting fundraising venture because Millennials and those that come after them are digital natives, particularly adept at video games. In fact, Millennials apply gaming to everyday life. Half of Millennials see real life as a
video game, uncovering “Easter eggs” and leveraging their smarts, technical resources, and peer influence to quickly navigate to higher levels in their careers
and negotiate loopholes in purchase contracts. (Shore, 2011) When it comes to young
professionals, many are familiar with St. Jude
through youth fundraisers or Up ‘til Dawn in college. Many
Greek-life organizations hold fundraisers to
support St. Jude, and some have made long-term commitments. This
is ideal for maintaining connections as young
professionals transition through their early
Figure 3 The ultra-rare Twitch/St. Jude
PLAY LIVE purple hoodie prize
Figure 4 St. Jude honors the National Pan-Hellenic
Council for their support. (Picture used by permission of friendsofebonie.com.)
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careers. All nine of the black Greek-letter organizations have committed year-round support, and the organizations have collectively donated nearly $2 million
to St. Jude. (friendsofebonie, 2014)
St. Jude 2014 partner of the year Tri Delta Fraternity has been a strong St. Jude supporter and continues to challenge its
members to greater efforts. In 2010 they pledged to raise $15 million for St. Jude in
5 years, meeting their goal a year and a half early. Tri Delta’s next mission is to raise $60 million in 10 years. (St. Jude
milestones, 2012)
Tri Delta also holds one of the most successful fundraising events for young
professionals, the Gold Gala. ALSAC has identified this as one of the key events,
earning $108,000 through sponsorship, ticket sales, raffle, and silent auction. (St. Jude and West Virginia University Class Project, 2014)
Other Friends of St. Jude groups hold events to varying degrees of success. The Gold Gala is in New York City, a very different market from places like Austin
(Texas), Salt Lake City, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Denver, which are the top five markets with the highest concentration of Millennials. (Nielsen, 2014, p. 18)
Friends of St. Jude Houston holds an annual Crawfish Boil that attracts more than 1,000 people, double the attendance of the Gold Gala. (St. Jude and West Virginia University Class Project, 2014) A precedent has been set for high yield, high
attendance events. The next step is to replicate that success in other markets.
The marketing challenge extends beyond generating revenue through fundraising. ALSAC wants to build an affinity for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and position it as the elite fundraising program among the target audience. By
nurturing its existing and new relationships with today’s young professionals, St. Jude can foster lifelong commitment among Millennials.
Figure 5 Tri Delta is St. Jude’s 2014
Fraternity Partner of the Year.
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Competit ive Landscap e
Charitable giving in the United States Competition for donations is always fierce and the challenge intensifies during an extended recession. But things are looking up. Overall charitable giving in the
United States in 2013 was up 4.9 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase since the recession, and online giving grew 13.5 percent: (MacLaughlin, 2014, p.
1)
Large organizations grew 5.7% overall and 12.7% in online giving
Medium organizations grew 3.8% overall and 11.3% in online giving Small nonprofits grew 3.6% overall and 18.4% in online giving
“Large organizations” are classified as those raising more than $10 million annually, which would include St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and many
of its charity competitors.
Of the various nonprofit sectors: (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 4)
Healthcare went up 3.6% (middle of all nonprofit sectors)
▫ Online giving for the healthcare sector rose 14.5% (second highest of all nonprofit sectors)
Medical research rose 1.4% (lowest of all nonprofit sectors) ▫ Online giving rose 4.9% (lowest of all nonprofit sectors)
International affairs grew 13.2% (highest of all nonprofit sectors)
▫ Online giving for international affairs rose 12.9% (middle of all nonprofit sectors)
According to Blackbaud’s Charitable Giving Report, (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 8) healthcare nonprofits made gains by investing in fundraising capacity. During times of depressed giving, healthcare organizations concentrated on securing
major gifts and hiring new staff with specific skills. They then dedicated at least one fundraising professional to each program, such as major gifts or events. Like
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, healthcare nonprofits also addressed ROI. As a result, median net fundraising rose in sync with spending on fundraising: (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 8)
“There are already more than 1.8 million nonprofits out there competing for limited dollars, limited resources, and our limited attention spans.”
– Excerpt from Cause for Change
by Kari Dunn Saratovsky and Derrick Feldman (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 353-62)
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Spending $450,000 to $910,000 generated $2.2M median net fundraising
Spending $2M to $4.8M generated $9M net fundraising Spending $4.8M generated more than $18M median net fundraising
St. Jude classifies itself as a hospital, but some of its strongest competition are medical research charities. The medical research sector made the lowest gains in
both overall and online giving, but nearly 20 percent (18.2) of total donations are from online giving. This is double that of the next highest sector: international
affairs, which gets just over 9 percent of all donations online. (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 4)
Most of this sector’s contributions come through peer-to-peer fundraising for fitness events that fall into three categories: proprietary, endurance, and
independent. (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 16) Proprietary are programs managed and run by the nonprofit, like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Give
thanks. Walk. Endurance programs, like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, involve people training for various marathons and triathlons
unaffiliated with a nonprofit, like the New York City marathon. Participants raise money for their charity while training. (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 17)
Independent events generally approach the nonprofit. These groups offer support, but want to retain control over their own event, which could be anything from a
walk/run to a party. While the number of peer-to-peer programs of any category has grown, fundraising revenue for big proprietary events has remained flat. (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 17) Embarking on a new event, especially a proprietary
event where the nonprofit is responsible for all of the logistics, can take years to become profitable. The market is full of traditional 5K runs and walks, so any
new event would need to be unique and highly enticing. The international affairs category is worth looking at because its overall giving
gains were two and a half times healthcare and medical research nonprofits combined. International aid organizations made their gains through messaging
and the means of message delivery. There are lessons there to be learned. First, these groups focused their message on disaster planning and preparation,
educating the audience on the “full arc of disaster relief.” (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 11) Messaging emphasized preparation for the disaster in order to reduce its
overall impact and prepare for post-disaster recovery. Then, digital media let stories unfold real-time through daily field agent reports. These often used video to create a more personal connection between the audience and the area suffering
the disaster. Those images and videos also help show where the money is going and how it is being used while providing a realistic picture of the immense time
and effort it takes to recover from a disaster.
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Competit ion St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital must compete for support against many
other worthy organizations with long histories, proven success, and a global impact. It is important to examine how other large nonprofits in the healthcare and
medical research space are positioning their brands to young professionals, what messaging they use, and how they are delivering their messages. This can show not only potential gaps in St. Jude’s branding but also opportunities to stand out
from the crowd.
American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society has positioned its organization as life saver,
dubbing itself “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays.” (About us, 2014) Messaging centers on cancer survival and uses the feelings people have when they think of celebrating birthdays to create a connection with the audience. The ASC says,
“The American Cancer Society is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem.” (About us, 2014) Compared to the message, “St. Jude is working
to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. We won’t stop until no child dies from cancer,” St. Jude’s message is more specific and more passionate. Still, there could be confusion among an
unfamiliar audience wondering if the two organizations work in concert, separately, or at cross-purposes to cure cancer.
It raises the question, “Where is my donation of time and money going to do the most good?” It is important to differentiate St. Jude from ACS because they are
the second and first (respectively) largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in the US. (The 50 Largest U.S. Charities, 2014) [A note about Forbes’ list: it classifies
St. Jude as a medical charity alongside institutions like the Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In that category, St. Jude ranks well above the other organizations.]
The ACS website and mobile website are easy to navigate and full of images and
videos, including an Introduction Video aimed at Millennials on the Get Involved page. (Get Involved, 2014) Buttons provide ways for visitors to connect with ACS through Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and YouTube. The American Cancer
Society’s social media following is surprisingly low compared to the number of people affected by cancer. A million people get cancer every year, and there are
well over 14 million cancer survivors in the US. (Cancer Prevalence: How Many People Have Cancer?, 2014) Yet, the ACS has just over 1.5 million followers across all of its social media channels as of November 14, 2014.
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When it comes to marketing resources, the American Cancer Society named its first Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer in 2013, a couple of years behind St.
Jude. It uses an integrated marketing communications approach to spread its message consistently across all media platforms. The ACS married one of its core
values, saving lives, with having more birthdays, a concept with which people around the world could identify. (How the American Cancer Society uses integrated marketing to save lives, 2013) This gives ACS a connection for telling
more about what it does. It is a means of starting a conversation.
American Heart Association The American Heart Association’s “Life is why” messaging targets the
celebration of life as a “simple, yet powerful answer to the question of why” the AHA and American Stroke Association do what they do. (American Heart Association, 2014) The AHA is heavily focused on prevention and education
around heart disease and stroke, and has a website stuffed with information, images, video, and interactive modules on research, healthy living, and even a
section to keep the audience current on federal and state legislative issues. The AHA website a central resource for engaging an audience, as is the ASA
website. There are another seven AHA websites dedicated to various programs and audiences, which seem to tie in with AHA mostly through the logo and the
color red. When it comes to social media, the AHA shows little presence with less than 50,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter. It has several YouTube channels as well split out by program or fundraising campaign, like Go Red for Women.
Figure 6 The ACS is focused on cancer survivorship.
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Figure 7 The AHA uses the color red as an important brand element.
The main AHA website serves as an ideal hub for all AHA activity, but with no official marketing leadership on board, the Association’s messaging lacks the
integration necessary to drive an audience to the site to take action like registering for a program, sharing information, or making a donation. The site is mobile-ready, but the lengthy sign-up form to volunteer is not particularly appealing on
the full site version and would be less likely to be completed from a mobile device.
The American Heart Association holds many successful events and is a powerful charity both in size and mission. It has spent decades building a trusted,
recognized brand. However, there are few lessons to be learned from its current communication efforts.
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has an event-rich fundraising program. CMNHospitals has used telethons since its start in 1983 and continued with radiothons, dance marathons, and cash register donation programs at retailers like
Walmart, Costco, and Rite Aid. Much of its funding was earned $1 at a time through the Miracle Balloon program. Started in 1986, that program alone raises
$88 million a year for the network. (About us, 2014) One new program that has found particular success is Extra Life, a 24-hour video
game marathon where all money raised goes to the local CMNHospitals hospital of the gamer’s choice. (Doc, 2014) Since its 2008 inception, Extra Life has grown
nearly 2000 percent and raised $2 million in 2012. (About us, 2014) This could be a look at future success for St. Jude PLAY LIVE.
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Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has put dedicated marketing leadership in place that includes a chief programs and events officer, a chief concept officer,
and chief corporate partnership officers. These roles have targeted focus on fundraising events, brand awareness and visibility, and development of corporate
partnerships that are always so crucial to raising large blocks of donations. One word is common to each officers’ responsibility description: innovation. CMNHospitals has charged its fundraising and marketing groups with finding
new, exciting ways to engage supporters.
The charity has over 300,000 followers across its social media program that consists of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. Like St. Jude, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals uses images and stories of its children patients to
incite emotion in donor hearts. There is also a blog on the site, and while there are new posts on at least a bi-weekly basis, the comments portion is not activated so
there can be no dialog between the organization and the blog readers. While St. Jude has its Patient of the Month, CMNHospitals has its Champions
program. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Champions are chosen, one from each state, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, to “serve as ambassadors to the
millions of kids in need of critical funds at children’s hospitals.” (Edwards, 2014) The program has corporate sponsorship and is a way for the organization to connect to its audience through patients and their stories over a week of media
interviews and encounters with corporate partners, celebrities, and even the President. (Champions 2014, 2014) There are ample opportunities to generate the
kind of social marketing content that generates buzz. In 2011, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals underwent its first re-branding,
which included adding “Hospitals” to the title and updating the balloon logo to look more modern. Adjusting the brand name reinforces the agency’s mission of
funding and raising awareness of local children’s hospitals in the CMNHospitals network. (About us, 2014) Local impact could be an area for St. Jude to address because responses to a Yellow Cardinal survey of young professionals revealed
some people do not realize St. Jude has a local impact with its six affiliates and treating children from anywhere.
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ messaging encourages donors to “put your money where your miracles are.” (Home, 2014) The campaign tells the brand
story through CMNHospitals patients with a picture, age, name, and disease of the child. The message reinforces the idea that supporters are not donating to an
obscure national cause but rather supporting their local CMNHospitals hospital. The visual of the message, especially when children at CMNHospitals have the same diseases as St. Jude kids, is very similar to St. Jude, and this is an area to
target for differentiation.
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Make-A-Wish Make-A-Wish Foundation has a different mission from healthcare and medical
nonprofits, but because its focus is on sick and dying children, its messaging uses the familiar formula of the child’s picture, name, age, and disease. Its mission is a
great partner to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital because Make-A-Wish believes granting the wish of a child fighting a life-threatening disease, like the kids of St. Jude, can be a game-changer. (About us, 2006-2014) Granting a wish
can be what encourages a child to comply with treatment. Families can find comfort in knowing their child got to experience his dream before passing away.
For Make-A-Wish it is a way to “enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.” (Our mission, 2006-2014)
Though the visual presentation echoes that of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Make-A-Wish has a unique
mission. A donor would not have to determine which treatment facility to support; the decision between St. Jude and Make-A-Wish would be a matter of which purpose held the most appeal. From an emotional standpoint, giving kids their
wish – possibly their last, dying wish – tugs the heartstrings in a different way than treatment, research, or even relieving the family’s financial burden.
Figure 8 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals wants to connect with donors on a
local level.
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Like St. Jude, Make-A-Wish has fundraising opportunities for supporters in all
stages of life, from childhood to working adult. Wishmakers On Campus rallies college students to organize fundraisers for children in their communities, but
there is no transitional program for young professionals like Friends of St. Jude. There are only the Wishmakers at Work program and Walk for Wishes, a traditional fundraising walk held in local communities. (Ways to help, 2006-2014)
There is also a strong, successful affiliation with Macy’s department store that coalesces during the Christmas season and ties the Christmas wish lists of
children with the wishes of Make-A-Wish kids. (2014 Macy's Believe campaign, 2006-2014)
Around the time Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals was rebranding, Make-A-Wish was shifting its branding as well, from promotional with a heavy push for
donations to social that engages the audience on a deeper level. The social approach takes a human attitude, using storytelling to create entertaining, interesting content that entices the audience to learn more, share stories, and
support Make-A-Wish. Integrating social media into the marketing program quickly and significantly increased buzz around the agency. (Darby, 2011, pp. 10-
12)
Figure 9 The Make-A-Wish America home page uses a similar graphic and
layout to other children's nonprofits.
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The Make-A-Wish follows formula: (Darby, 2011, p. 13)
Figure 10 Make-A-Wish uses digital and social media to nurture long-term
supporter relationships.
Make-A-Wish has over 800,000 social media followers across Facebook, Twitter,
and YouTube, and its mobile website is well designed and easy to navigate. Of St. Jude’s five benchmark sister charities, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America
barely makes Forbes’ list of the 50 largest US charities at number 47, though Children’s Miracle Network does not appear there at all. (The 50 Largest U.S. Charities, 2014)
Susan G. Komen Susan G. Komen has built its brand into a powerhouse of awareness and fundraising that blankets the country in pink during the month of October. The
organization holds over 100 corporate sponsors, 11 of which donate $1 million annually. (Meet our partners, 2014) Not only does this raise funding, these sponsors are spreading the Komen brand, mission, and message to millions of
customers. The message is unmistakable that Komen is driven to find a cure for breast cancer, which means funding expensive medical research. It is here that St.
Jude would battle Komen for support.
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Komen is a cause marketing phenomenon. Businesses link sales of cause-branded products and services to donations to Komen. Businesses use their marketing
prowess to promote the cause, which is also promoting the businesses’ own sales. The effort generates positive feelings of doing good in the buyer, effecting a win-
win-win situation for Susan G. Komen, the corporation, and the customer. Millennials, in particular, are impulsive about supporting causes. (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 932-41) Komen and its partners make it easy for them to
“shop good” by offering products from yogurt to frequent flyer miles that benefit the cause.
Both Komen’s main and mobile websites are expertly designed and, like others in this examination, use the stories of real people fighting a deadly disease to
establish an emotional connection to the audience. Komen affiliates manage their local marketing, including their websites, where Komen volunteer opportunities
are housed. Not all affiliates, like Austin, Texas, have mobile-ready sites. This is important, particularly in the Millennial-dense city of Austin, because Millennials use smartphones for “learning about organizations, reading email, sharing
information, and (possibly) making donations.” (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 1571-79)
Challenges and Opportunit ies Nonprofits face many branding and marketing challenges. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has some particular challenges since it is charity, hospital, and research all in one. (ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2014) Three
general areas to overcome are perception, lack of resources, and complexity of messaging.
Figure 11 Komen uses beautiful imagery to invite web visitors to read survivor stories.
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Perception
Challenge: Nonprofits are held to a different standard from for-profit entities. While for-
profit brands enjoy increased marketing budgets as long as the sales figures continue to rise, nonprofits are continually graded on their fundraising efficiency. Many are concerned about the impression a branding effort would make on their
constituents. “They worry that the names of their organizations will be inflated beyond what the quality of their work alone would support, as the pursuit of
revenue becomes a goal in its own right.” (Kylander & Stone, 2012) A nonprofit undergoing a branding effort can be faced with criticism from both
inside and outside the agency. Often, people working in a nonprofit, particularly those responsible for directly executing the mission, do not even know what
“branding” is. They understand for-profit brands like Apple or Nike or Coca-Cola, but they may find it difficult to apply the idea to their nonprofit. (nonprofitpr, 2013) Likewise, when an audience is faced with the sudden uptick
of brand encounters in commercials, online advertising, mailers, etc., they may wonder how much money is being spent on marketing that could be going to
fulfill the nonprofit’s mission. It is critical, then, in building the St. Jude brand to concentrate messaging around
the mission in a two-fold approach. First, the brand needs a strong association to the human element: who St. Jude is helping. Then, it has to demonstrate success:
how it is helping. St. Jude already uses patients at the center of its messaging with images that convey the story of children fighting deadly diseases. But, so does Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Make-A-Wish. There is also less
prominence given to how St. Jude helps its child patients.
Opportunity St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has two advantages over other children’s medical charities. It covers the cost of treatment, travel, lodging, and food for the
family and it uses state-of-the-art science and technology to pursue cures and cultivate more effective, less damaging treatments. St. Jude can highlight patient success stories, survival rate improvements, and research breakthroughs all driven
by St. Jude efforts. It can show families that only St. Jude could help because of their financial circumstances or the difficulty of treating the child’s disease.
A patient photo with the child’s name, age, and disease paints a definite picture of who St. Jude is helping. The opportunity exists to draw a line showing how
individual support helps that child. St. Jude can show what the donor’s support has accomplished, and, more importantly, how the value of that donation is
beyond measurement in dollars. While all nonprofits like St. Jude and its sister charities must address fundraising
efficiency critics, both St. Jude and Make-A-Wish funding goes directly to the children they help. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals distributes its funds to
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local hospitals, which gives it a semi-direct connection to those it helps. The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and Susan G. Komen
have a tougher job of making a direct connection to those they help. Their funding is predominantly funneled to other organizations that conduct research or run
programs that help people. They are using human stories in their messaging, but it does not have the immediate, direct, and most efficient line from mission to recipient that St. Jude has.
Lack of resources
Challenge: Two business functions for-profit brands take for granted, many nonprofits do
without: information technology and marketing. At many small and even mid-size nonprofits, the IT department is just the person in the office most familiar with
computers. Marketing falls under the responsibility of the development department and communications are driven by fundraising cycles. Brand-building is not a skill found in many nonprofit job descriptions.
Yellow Cardinal understands first-hand that nonprofits, just like any business,
must have a reliable, consistent IT resource. The same is true for marketing, especially since technology and marketing today go hand in glove. The fact that online giving for small nonprofits grew nearly 20 percent in 2013 compared to
only 13 percent for large nonprofits (MacLaughlin, 2014, p. 1) indicates smaller nonprofits are harnessing IT and marketing resources to expand donation options
and make donating easier for their supporters. Nonprofits are charged with achieving maximum fundraising efficiency. A for-
profit brand of St. Jude’s size would have a full spectrum marketing resources and know that efficient marketing comes from understanding the attitude of both the
current customer as well as the non-customer. Effective marketing requires discerning what messages resonate the strongest and identifying the best channels to reach each customer segment. It can be a risk because of the perception
challenge discussed above to assign money to marketing research, but it is impossible to do without the right resources.
Additionally, large for-profit brands have a strong IT department working with marketing to ensure the technology resources exist to support marketing
campaigns and fundraising programs. IT is also critical to ensuring that sensitive donor information is protected and financial transactions are secure.
Opportunity: ALSAC incorporates marketing, including a Brand Strategy team, into its fundraising efforts and has invested in St. Jude’s future by commissioning a study
of their Millennial donors. (Ray, 2012) The effort is part of a structured initiative that includes follow-up studies and projects. ALSAC may have been a little ahead
of others in recognizing the importance of having in-house marketing skills, but many of its sister organizations are catching up.
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St. Jude has IT resources beyond those of an organization like Make-A-Wish or
the American Heart Association because it must meet the technology demands of both a hospital and research facilities. ALSAC should be able to access the
knowledge of IT experts in guiding current and future marketing efforts. If those resources are not currently present, the understanding should exist among St. Jude leadership of the importance of technology.
St. Jude’s website holds an opportunity to be the hub of St. Jude communications
and knowledge, much like the American Heart Association. The website warrants attention because it is an important part of a brand and a key means of communication.
Using existing marketing and technology resources, ALSAC has the opportunity
to advance online, mobile, digital, and social marketing and fundraising efforts. Like others in the healthcare industry, ALSAC/St. Jude built up is fundraising and marketing resources. As charitable giving begins to rise again, now is the time to
capitalize on those investments.
Figure 12 St. Jude has a text-heavy site that is not integrated with its social media
and contains a massive amount of information that is not always easy to find.
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Complexity of messaging
Challenge: All brands have multiple target audiences. There are internal audiences, investors,
the general public, regulatory agencies, and, of course, customers. Nonprofits like St. Jude also have donors, volunteers, medical and scientific communities, corporate sponsors, celebrity supporters, and various internal audiences.
Ultimately, for-profit brands have a single goal, which is to make a profit. Nonprofits have missions that can be complex to achieve, difficult to measure,
and may require a number of partners. (Kanani, 2013) Different stakeholders need different types and levels of messaging. For St. Jude
or any other complex nonprofit, how they communicate about the work, results, and ultimate impact is a core competency critical to success. “Relevance is the
heart of memorable, motivating messages.” (Schwartz, 2002-2014) The question is how to be relevant to such mixed audiences. All of the messaging must derive directly from the mission, but how it is said makes the difference.
Opportunity: St. Jude has many messages that resonate with different and multiple audiences.
Drawing on the research of marketing experts, ALSAC was able to test messages to know exactly what words and phrasing the audience responded to the best.
(Interim messaging, 2013) For-profit brands test messaging as standard procedure to know which audience responds best to which messages. Nonprofits do not normally have those resources, but it is vital for effective, efficient fundraising to
know what compels someone to learn more, tell others, volunteer, attend an event, or donate.
ALSAC already understands this. Others, like the American Cancer Society, have embraced integrated marketing communications for connecting with their
audience. As described above, international aid organizations have adopted today’s technology to get the right message to the right people at the right time,
which for them means real-time. Make-A-Wish uses social media as a main way of communicating with its audience.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is ahead of the curve among its sister charities when it comes to social media, having well over two million followers across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. Even Komen has less than half
of St. Jude’s attention with just over 900,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. However, affiliates with their own social media accounts would
likely drive that number higher. ALSAC can capitalize on St. Jude’s social media popularity in reaching and cultivating its target audience.
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Target Audiences
Primary: Y oung Millennial Profession als
Demographics The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey reports over 44.5 million Americans between 20 and 29 years old with gender nearly balanced between 51 percent male and 49 percent female. (U. S. Census Bureau, 2013)
Many research and marketing organizations report on this segment as part of the Millennial generation. Parameters of this demographic can vary, but usually it
refers to those born between 1977 and the early 2000s. This expands the demographic to those now aged between 14 and 37, with most research claiming the Millennial Generation is made up of around 80 million people, with about
10,000 Millennials turning 21 each day. (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 370-79)
For this profile, attributes prescribed to Millennials are applied with special attention paid to those specific to young professionals.
Education and Income Millennials are a well-educated group.
Fifty-four percent have at least some college education, (Pew Research Center, 2010, p. 10) though as many as two-thirds are worried about their student loan debt. (Morning Edition, 2014)
Salaries are traditionally lowest for those beginning their careers, though in 2012 college graduates earned a median full-time salary of $46,000,
nearly $4000 higher than the $42,693 US per capita income that year. (Zillman, 2014)
The median household income for younger Millennials is substantially
lower at $24,973, while older Millennials’ median household income is $47,854. (Cohen, 2014)
In 2012, 36 percent of young adults 18 to 31, 21.6 million people, lived at home with their parents. Fifty-six percent of those were age 18 to 24. (Fry, 2013)
“This generation is all about collaboration; wants to impact the greater good; and is not too interested in how things were done in the past.”
– Geil Browning, Founder and CEO of Emergenetics International
in a 2014 article for Inc. Magazine (Browning, 2014)
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Ethnicity Millennials are a racially diverse demographic.
Figure 13 Millennials are the most ethnically diverse US age demographic.
This diversity is reflected in St. Jude’s donor base as well. “There is a significantly higher percentage of Hispanic and Asian donors within the St. Jude Millennial donor base as compared to the total St. Jude active donor base.” (Ray,
2012, p. 8) Hispanic and Asian Millennials could then be addressed as a sub-segments, though this effort means much more than translating existing
messaging into different languages. Sub-cultures have behaviors and attitudes unique to them, and those must be incorporated throughout every step in the consumer decision making process. In fact, messaging that draws in the audience
could actually feel disingenuous later if subsequent communications or encounters do not match the initial contact.
Geography Millennials are as social in person as they are online. They prefer to live in
“dense, diverse urban villages where social interaction is just outside their front doors.” (Nielsen, 2014, p. 2)
According to Nielsen’s (2014) report “Millennials – Breaking the Myths:” 62 percent prefer to live in mixed-use communities in urban centers where
they can be close to shops, restaurants, and offices 40 percent would like to live in an urban area in the future High concentrations reflect Millennials’ desire for socially conscious and
creative environments Top three concentrations: Austin, Salt Lake City, and San Diego
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Figure 14 Millennials prefer the western US, compared to Baby Boomers
concentrated on the east coast.
Psychographics
Attitudes and Motivations A 2010 Pew Research Center (2010) study of Millennials summed up the group as confident, connected, and open to change. Havas Worldwide (2011) called
them the “Challenger Generation” in its study. Achieve (Achieve and JGA, 2011) sees them as engaging, collaborative motivators, and Nielsen (2014, p. 3) says they are diverse, expressive, and optimistic. This complex demographic does not
conform to a blanket description because individualism rules the day. Characteristics that do apply to most of the group are always connected,
collaborative, and seeking self-expression. (Pew Research Center, 2010) When it comes to self-expression: (Pew Research Center, 2010)
¾ have a social networking profile 1 in 5 have posted a video of themselves online 4 out of 10 have a tattoo, and more than ½ of those have at least 2
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“Millennials draw inspiration from creative design and solution-oriented thinking, not from already completed plans that they are expected to merely follow.”
(Saratovsky and Feldmann, 2013, loc. 793-801) Technology, networks, and social capital are all strong influences of this generation, (Saratovsky and Feldmann,
2013, loc. 814-825) and they represent an “epic shift in the way young people get involved, spend money, work together, and negotiate systems.” Saratovsky and Feldmann, 213, loc. 287-95)
Lifestyle and Values Dubbed the “me generation,” Millennials are actually more about “we.” They are
collaborative, look to their parents for advice as much as they are influenced by their peers, are eager to learn, and are conscientious consumers. (Havas Worldwide, 2011) Millennials are brand loyal, but will cheat if a competitor has a
bargain. (Fromm, Lindell, & Decker, 2011, p. 31)
Underemployment and high student loans have many Millennials living at home and others saving money where and when they can, yet their technology remains a high priority. Known for being plugged in and digital natives, Millennials are 2.5
times more likely to be early adopters of new technology than older generations. (Fromm, Lindell, and Decker, 2011, p. 13) When it comes to their computing
devices: (Atkinson, 2013) Millennials see their laptops as retail portal and catalog, their toolbox, information curator and also their preferred device for viewing TV shows;
their tablets as a luxury that falls somewhere between a downsized entertainment center and an iPhone on steroids; and their smartphones as a
fifth limb and fail-safe antidote to FOMO (fear of missing out). They use their devices to connect not only with each other but with the brands
they love through social media.
Contradicting their narcissistic stereotype, Millennials place high value on relationships and very low value on being
famous. Rather than being brazenly materialistic, Millennials see brands as a
reflection of themselves. They expect a product or service to: (Havas Worldwide, 2011)
1. Be useful in daily life
2. Allow for self-expression 3. Bring status 4. Inspire
As to spending habits, Millennials’
experience with “the great recession” and a struggling US job market has made them
Figure 15 Millennials are relationship-
driven.
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frugal shoppers. They are apt to buy in re-sale markets, purchase more durable goods than trendy ones, and be more intentioned with what they buy. (Suddath,
2014)
Philanthropy Millennials are the most generous generation today. In Cause for Change, Saratovsky and Feldmann (2013, loc. 894-1000) identify four profiles of Millennial philanthropists based on their level of engagement.
Figure 16 The four levels of Millennial engagement. (Saratovsky & Feldmann,
2013, loc. 909-13)
Level 1: The Inquisitor is exposed to a message that, ideally, intrigues them to
seek out more information.
Level 2: Content Consumers have moved beyond general information and seek out knowledge about the organization’s work and its people. More importantly, they are looking for opportunities to engage.
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Level 3: Activists engage with an organization in four roles:
Cause Champions leverage their real life and online social networks to
share content about their cause. This raises awareness among new groups of people.
Volunteers at this level usually participate with short-term assignments and attending events. This is the organization’s chance to make a great
first impression that encourages the volunteer to return.
Content Creators have moved beyond just consuming content to creating
and sharing their own, like blog posts, photos, and videos. They may even organize social events in support of their organization.
Financial Supporters among Millennials will contribute to an organization
provided it can articulate how the funds are spent and show how the donor’s support will matter.
Level 4: Peer Agents engage at the highest level. They recruit their friends and
family for their support. This is a committed supporter eager to champion the cause.
Engagement with young professional groups is usually led by Activists or Influencers, (Saratovsky and Feldmann, 2013, loc. 1027-35) and peer engagement
is key to success. With Millennials being so socially conscious and sensitive to the influences of their peers, they tend to move from organization to organization as different causes catch their attention. (Saratovsky and Feldmann, 2013, loc.
997) Additionally, as Millennials progress through the levels, the numbers of those engaged at higher levels grows smaller. It is important to find ways of
deepening relationships throughout the levels of progression. Ultimately, trying to segment Millennials on a micro psychographic scale could
be done, but it would require sophisticated marketing software as well as predictive analytics. Organizing the target audience geographically would be
simple and effective. St. Jude has regional offices that can be tapped as communication resources, and young professional groups not yet a part of Friends of St. Jude can be found through simple internet searches based on geography or
market.
St. Jude could use its existing databases of Millennials to refine engagement by level, such as one-time donor, regular event participant, event organizer, etc. This would allow for messaging tailored to the recipient’s engagement level.
Millennials are attracted to causes as part of their culture, so they will seek out opportunities through their friends or their own online searches. It is the
messaging in those encounters, like that of the Experience St. Jude website, that will entice and inspire young Millennial professionals to dig deeper.
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Secondary: Internal Constit uents St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has many internal groups to consider in
creating an internal communications plan like volunteers, leadership, research, medical, facilities, interns, administration, and affiliates. The groups are also
likely to contain many Millennials, which can be a real asset in encouraging adoption of an approach to reach their peers.
Millennials engage with nonprofits very differently than their preceding generations. Because they expect transparency and authenticity, embracing them
must manifest through encounters with St. Jude representatives. Otherwise, alluring initial communications will prove hollow. St. Jude leadership, faculty, and staff need not only to adapt to the collaborative and driven attitude of the
donor Millennial, but understand them as future staff and leaders of St. Jude and ALSAC.
Millennial volunteers want opportunities to meet and interact with leaders of their chosen charities. ALSAC can capitalize on this desire with the St. Jude internal
audience as well, using both leadership and Millennial St. Jude employees to drive adoption the new Millennial-aimed campaign.
In addition to on-campus internal audiences like leadership, administration, facilities, research, and medical, St. Jude has six affiliates in different cities and
regional offices from coast to coast. There are also multiple Friends of St. Jude chapters, which are central to this marketing strategy. Young Millennials in all
areas of St. Jude and ALSAC operations will need to be incorporated into the strategy itself as well as become communication leaders within the organization.
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SWOT Analysis
S
Strong brand recognition Well respected among target audiences Accomplished research program Global reach and local impact Strong internal resources Well established fundraising program Existing Millennial donor base
W
Known mostly for treating childhood cancer Lack of branding consistency across fundraising programs Website not fully optimized for today’s mobile devices Volunteer Opportunities/Events section of the website Common messaging with other children’s nonprofits High number of fundraising events but inconsistent ROI
O
Charitable giving is on the rise Target audience highly favorable to charities Emerging media Large social media following Target audience has strong peer and parental influence Millennial donors have high household incomes Hispanic and Asian donors Exploit existing collegiate relationships Target audience favorable to fundraising events
T
Fierce competition for donor dollars Millennials shift from one cause to another Target audience supports causes rather than organizations Lack of personal relevance to the audience Target audience unaware of St. Jude’s local and global impact Millennials expect to see impact of their support Potential confusion with other organizations Millennials feel their money, time, skills, etc. have the same
value
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Strengths St. Jude’s strong brand recognition and respect among Millennials means there is
an established trust among the target audience. Instead of having to build a reputation first, St. Jude’s messaging will come from a position of trust. Five
decades of research breakthroughs and patient successes provides a rich inventory for documenting St. Jude’s impact and demonstrating how donor support drives its mission. Because St. Jude helps children from across the United States and
around the world, it can use both a local and a global appeal.
Whatever the message, ALSAC/St. Jude have the internal resources in place to execute the campaign. Its established fundraising program and existing Millennial donor base along with new resources like Experience St. Jude provide a strong
foundation from which to launch a new campaign.
Figure 17 Experience St. Jude invites the visitor in for a close look at what St. Jude does.
Weaknesses Based on Yellow Cardinal research, St. Jude is predominantly known for treating childhood cancer, which is not a strong differentiator among other organizations
like Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Coupled with visual messaging similar to other child nonprofits, the distinctiveness of St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital is lost. Within St. Jude’s own marketing there is a lack of consistency other than the logo and tagline. St. Jude needs to not only stand out from the crowd but stand above it if it wants to be the charity of choice among
Millennial young professionals.
Millennials want to find volunteer and event opportunities quickly, but the St. Jude website does not have a simple, easy way for visitors to find how they can become involved. Both the online and mobile versions of the site need to be
simple and quick to navigate, keep visitor information secure, and make interactive elements easy to use.
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Overseeing tens of thousands of events a year is daunting. ALSAC took steps to scale back support of poor performing events, but both ALSAC’s and Yellow
Cardinal’s research showed Millennials favor events. Events are a key part of the fundraising program and offer a great opportunity to converge many elements,
like relationship building, raising brand awareness, education around St. Jude accomplishments, generating social media buzz, and raising money.
Opportunit ies Charitable giving is gaining momentum, and the target audience is the most philanthropic of all demographic segments. (Achieve and JGA, 2011, p. 5) As St.
Jude’s Millennial research showed, this cohort has higher median household incomes than of the average St. Jude donor (Ray, 2012, p. 7), which makes this a potentially rewarding target market because its members have both a propensity
and capacity for philanthropy. This group is also highly social and are likely to respond favorably to an invitation to a St. Jude event.
St. Jude enjoys a large and robust social media network, so it is already plugged in to the online world where Millennials spend much of their time. Emerging
media of video, gaming, and mobile marketing open up new communication avenues, and St. Jude has the technology, marketing, and online resources to tap
into them before other nonprofits. Millennials have strong influence among their peers and their parents, and using multiple communication channels can reinforce St. Jude’s messaging and influence the target audience to not only engage with St.
Jude but also talk about them with others.
Today’s technology let’s brands target specific audiences better than ever before, so it can tailor messaging to segments like Hispanics and Asians who are highly charitable and can also be important groups for sharing St. Jude’s mission.
Likewise, ALSAC’s existing databases of collegiate and Millennials supporters provides a door for sustaining existing relationships or reigniting those that have
lapsed.
Thr eats St. Jude faces the ever-present competition with other nonprofits for a share of the
young professional’s traditionally meager philanthropic wallet. To compound the threat, the Millennial Generation tends to support causes rather than individual organizations and then shift their support among different causes. This means
ALSAC could spend a great deal of time and money courting a group that is not interested in declaring loyalty to St. Jude, no matter how highly it is regarded.
Millennials invest in causes they are passionate about and those have a personal connection with, even if that connection is through a friend or work. This poses a
serious threat since the National Cancer Institute estimated a little less than 16,000 children would be diagnosed with cancer in the US in 2014, (Cancer in
children and adolescents, 2014) yet estimated more than 1.6 million total new cases of cancer in the US in 2014. (SEER Stat Fact Sheets: All Cancer Sites, n.d.) Therefore, it is more likely for a person to know an adult with cancer, like breast
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or lung cancer, than to know a child with leukemia or a brain tumor. Couple that with a target audience unaware of all that St. Jude does, and the penetration of
awareness and research nonprofits like the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen have the potential to smother St. Jude’s message.
Millennials have a high expectation of seeing the impact of their support. It can be fairly easy to show how a certain dollar amount buys a round of chemotherapy or
pays for the food and lodging of a family. However, the target audience levels the same value on all their assets: money, time, skills, social network, etc. (Achieve,
2014, p. 4) Stating the value of volunteering at an event or sharing a message in social media is not quite so straightforward.
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Survey
Yellow Cardinal conducted a survey of young professionals ages 21 to 30 using a brief electronic questionnaire. (See Appendix B) An invitation was sent through
Facebook accounts of Yellow Cardinal associates as well as direct emails to 2,644 people explaining the reason for the survey and asking them to visit
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/yourinvolvement to take it. We also asked recipients share the link with others in their peer network. The survey received 144 total responses, with 95 of those being in the target age range of 21 to 30 and
all either employed full-or part-time, unemployed but looking for work, or a student in higher education.
Respondents have a propensity for volunteering, particularly making a long-term volunteer commitment. They were less likely to commit to a long-term financial
commitment, which means invitations to events and opportunities to volunteer for St. Jude would be better received than requests for donations.
When it comes to learning about support opportunities, in keeping with the social nature of Millennials, 84 percent said word-of-mouth or word-of-mouse (social
media). Forty-four percent learned about causes or found support opportunities through a website. Surprisingly, email earned nearly the same (and slightly less)
than store displays. Since Millennials hold the opinions of both their peers and their parents in high regard, it makes sense to leverage existing connections to St. Jude supporters to reach out to new ones.
Nearly all respondents were familiar with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,
but more than half had not been involved with St. Jude in the last two years. Roughly a third of respondents had not engaged with any nonprofit in the past two years. Of those that had, Susan G. Komen topped the list with St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital coming closely behind. Using these results as an indicator, St. Jude has a strong brand awareness plus a high share of the market among its sister
charities. Two options present themselves. One, pursue those already engaged in nonprofit causes but are supporters of other charities, or, two, pursue those uninvolved in charitable giving with no existing cause loyalties.
Respondents were well aware that St. Jude treats children with cancer. Just over
60 percent most knew it does not charge families, and 56 percent were aware of the research it does. Areas for educating the target audience about St. Jude include:
How dependent St. Jude is on individual donations The goal of driving the overall cancer survival rate to 90 percent
Treating children with other deadly diseases like sickle cell disease and AIDS
Serving children from all 50 states and around the world and at six US
affiliates Freely sharing research with the medical community
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St. Jude has an inspiring goal to save more children and increase the cancer survival rate, which Millennials could rally behind. Coupled with St. Jude’s
dependence on individual donations to cover nearly $2 million a day in operating costs, it could create an urgency for a time-sensitive goal.
The best news from the survey was that despite a lack of engagement with St. Jude, all respondents but one would be interested in getting involved through:
Activity Interested Walk or run 66% Donate through work 54% Volunteer at an event 49% Attend a major event exclusively for young professionals (like a gala)
43%
Attend a networking event for young professionals 40% Donate through a retailer 38% Buy a raffle ticket 38% Encourage friends to volunteer or attend an event 35%
Though all options received some response, the least liked options were soliciting donations, organizing an event, participating in an athletic tournament, and
buying merchandise with the St. Jude logo on it. These responses align well with the four levels of engagement identified by Saratovsky and Feldmann (2013) in
Cause for Change. Advocating on behalf of a cause come at higher levels of engagement. Events or campaigns where others are participating give the disengaged Millennial an opportunity to participate at a low commitment level
while also getting personal, professional, and social benefits
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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Brand
Brand Perception
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the place Millennials most want to work,
and it has been on FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list four years in a row. (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ranked as the No. 1
preferred company to work for by millennials, 2014) People, including the target audience, respect and trust St. Jude.
Eighty million Millennials make up about 25 percent of the US population. (Fromm, Lindell, & Decker, 2011) When it comes to philanthropy, as much as 93
percent of Millennials give to nonprofits, (Achieve and JGA, 2011, p. 6) and half are interested in monthly giving (Achieve, 2013, p. 6) Yet, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has 303,000 Millennial donors (most of whom are older
Millennials in their thirties and outside the target audience), which is a decline from previous years. (Ray, 2012, p. 6) Despite being a valued brand in the
nonprofit marketplace and with young professionals in particular, not even one-half of a percent of donor Millennials support St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
Clearly there is a gap between the admiration young professionals have for St. Jude and their active engagement with the organization on a volunteer and
financial support basis. They want to work there, yet when they leave college, they disconnect from St. Jude. For whatever reason, young professionals appreciate St. Jude but are not mobilized to support them en masse.
“St. Jude's [brand] is such a powerhouse among charitable organizations that industry experts compare it to the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.”
– Natalie Zmuda, AdAge (Zmuda, 2011)
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Brand Position To someone unfamiliar with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the prevailing
theme through its messaging would be that St. Jude helps children sick children, particularly those with cancer. This is the brand position St. Jude emphasizes and
it permeates throughout its messaging.
Figure 19 Official Facebook timeline image in Spanish for the 2014 Thanks and
Giving campaign.
Figure 18 The current St. Jude web page for young professionals.
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Figure 21 Mae, 6, Wilms tumor, from St. Jude’s 2013
Annual Report.
The annual Thanks and Giving campaign receives the most national
publicity, featuring substantial television promotion through star-
studded commercials and a week of Today Show appearances by Marlo Thomas telling a patient story each
day. For 2014, the message is: Give. To help me live.
St. Jude tells its brand story primarily through the patients it helps.
Communications rely heavily on visual storytelling. A photo of a St. Jude child that includes the child’s name, age,
and disease tells a quick and immediate story at a glance. The tag line “Finding cures. Saving children.” is present in the preferred logo and generously used because it is a simple and straightforward way to tell what St. Jude does. Keeping
the children they help at the forefront of its messaging has helped St. Jude build a brand strong enough to:
rank among America’s greatest brands in 2006 (America's Greatest Brands, 2006)
earn a spot in the top 20 of Cone’s Nonprofit Power Brand 100 list. (Cone
Research & Insights, n.d., p. 9) receive the annual Golden Halo award for 2008 from the Cause Marketing
Forum (St. Jude receives Halo award, 2008) be named the 2014 Harris Poll EquiTrend Health Non-Profit Brand of the
Year (Harris, 2014)
Figure 22 St. Jude patient, Jaiden, is also
featured on the St. Jude website Home page.
Figure 20 Kayla, 8, ALL, from St.
Jude's 2013 Annual Report.
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St. Jude maintains a leadership presence among the medical and scientific communities through publishing its research findings and orchestrating the
International Outreach Program.
Figure 23 Cure4Kids.org provides medical education to scientists and health care
professionals around the world working in cancer, pediatrics, and oncology.
St. Jude shared its knowledge in 800 published articles in 2013. (ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2014, p. 24) Millennials are not likely to be aware
of most of those articles because they are written for scientific and medical professionals using industry language unfamiliar to the general public. This is the
lesser known side of the St. Jude brand. Research is what has made St. Jude the place where doctors send their most vulnerable patients and those with the hardest to treat cancers, but research itself does not necessarily evoke a passionate
emotional response that inspires someone to donate.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has remained true to the core values instilled in the brand by founder Danny Thomas more than five decades ago: no child should die in the dawn of life, and no child should be denied medical
treatment based on race, religion, or ability to pay. Being charity, hospital, and research in one makes having a single message that addresses all three difficult to
maintain without confusing the audience. “Finding cures. Saving children.” positions St. Jude as a brand fighting for the lives of children, but it does not address the financial burden it removes from the family.
Proposed Market Positioning Statement St. Jude saves children with catastrophic diseases through rigorous scientific research and innovative treatments provided free of charge to the family. All a
family should worry about is helping their child live. All St. Jude should worry about is finding cures and saving children.
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This position is rooted in St. Jude’s long-standing values and does not shift the primary focus from finding cures and saving children. It adds the charity aspect of
St. Jude. This position also expands on St. Jude’s philosophy that all a family should worry about is helping their child live because all St. Jude should worry
about is saving children. This position connects the dots from donor to patient. Millennials want to be a part of St. Jude’s mission; they want to lend their talent, knowledge, passion, and skills by working at St. Jude. Supporting St. Jude lets the
people of St. Jude focus their talent, knowledge, passion, and skills on saving children.
Danny Thomas knew caregivers should never be distracted by the financial worry of paying for care, and he formed ALSAC so St. Jude could focus on its mission.
The caring medical staff at St. Jude can concentrate on getting sick kids well and researchers are free to pursue cures and the means of preventing catastrophic
childhood diseases rather than applying for grants. The advances in survival rates and pioneering treatment breakthroughs only happen because of the generous financial support of St. Jude donors.
Brand Personalit y St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Director and CEO Dr. William Evans
credits Millennials’ strong interest in St. Jude to its culture of compassion, collaboration, and innovation. (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2013) In the marketplace, St. Jude is known as being trustworthy. It is a leader in treatment
and research of pediatric cancers and other deadly diseases. Millennial constituents tend to engage and affiliate with organizations when they see others
involved who “look like them.” To captivate and hold this audience they must see themselves “as part of the organizational shift, not just as recipients of a new approach.” (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 914-30)
ALSAC is striving to make St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital the elite
fundraising program for young professionals. The established brand position and dedication to its mission has earned St. Jude respect as a credible organization worthy of the support it receives, so any shift in position should not erode the core
of St. Jude’s character. Millennials crave collaboration and information, and St. Jude has four personality traits that, if brought to the forefront, could foster
connections with young professionals.
Singular Only St. Jude undertakes innovative research, administers treatment tailored for each child patient, and relieves the child’s family of the financial burden of
treatment, travel, lodging, and food while they help their child get well. St. Jude has always carved its own path and stood on its own.
In the 1960s in the south, only St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – a new nonprofit heavily dependent on financial support from businesses and individuals – stood up against prejudice at a time when racial tension was
fierce. (Fifty Fabulous Years. In 1962..., n.d.)
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In 1970, St. Jude hospital director, Donald Pinkel, “electrified the medical community” by declaring, “Leukemia can no longer be considered an
incurable disease.” (Saving the lives of future generations, 2012) In 1984, only St. Jude made medical history when patient Kimberlin
Wilson-George underwent a bone marrow transplant for ALL and the procedure also cured her sickle cell anemia. (Fifty Fabulous Years. In 1984..., 2014)
In 2010, only St. Jude partnered with Washington University for the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project to mine what scientists once regarded as
DNA “junk” for clues to understanding diseases like cancer. (Gene sequencing project mines data once considered 'junk' for clues about cancer, 2013)
Young Millennials are enamored with authentic self-expression. They are
determined to make their mark on the world, confident in their abilities, and unafraid to buck tradition in pursuit of a goal. They can identify with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as one-of-a-kind.
Driven St. Jude has made tremendous gains in understanding and treating childhood cancer and other diseases. Past success is channeled into present and future
efforts. St. Jude has a bold goal: to drive the survival rate of childhood cancer to 90 percent in the coming decade. For over 50 years St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has been in relentless pursuit of more effective treatments of cancer and
other diseases, diminishing the negative effects of treatment, and understanding the causes of deadly childhood diseases. Its work incorporates important research
of influenza, a potentially fatal disease that threatens patients of all ages with suppressed immune systems and could erupt at any time into a deadly pandemic.
St. Jude develops pioneering treatment protocols followed by doctors around the world to save children fighting deadly diseases. They will not rest until no child
dies from cancer. Like St. Jude, Millennials take up a goal and will carve a new path if the existing one does not get there fast enough. Millennials believe they can change the world for the better, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has
spent over 50 years doing just that.
Collaborative St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was designed for collaboration between
research and treatment. St. Jude’s bench-to-bedside approach exemplifies medicine and science working together to save the lives of more children. By
working together, doctors and scientists at St. Jude have helped raise the childhood cancer survivor rate from 20 percent in the 1960s to over 80 percent today. (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 2011)
That collaborative attitude extends beyond the St. Jude campus to include the
world. St. Jude freely and immediately shares its research with the medical and scientific community and “provides educational content to more than 40,000
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doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals in more than 160 countries” free of charge through Cure4Kids.org. (St. Jude Cure4Kids: An International
Medical Education Web Site and Online Collaboration Center, 2002-2014) One thing the Millennial generation understands best is collaboration. Emphasizing St.
Jude’s collaboration approach to its mission provides the opportunity to show how critical donors are in the mix. St. Jude depends on the financial support of individuals to meet the nearly $2 million a day operating demand.
Innovative Here is where the research aspect of St. Jude can shine. With hundreds of
articles released each year, a skilled curator can organize the material and translate it into attention-grabbing
headlines with summations that the average reader can understand.
Translating complex medical jargon and scientific concepts into layman’s terms can help any audience see St.
Jude’s innovative thinking. Young, professional Millennials see their brand
choices as an expression of themselves, so they want innovative brands with a solid reputation. (Havas Worldwide,
2011, p. 29) Research that leads to pioneering breakthroughs and
treatments demonstrate St. Jude’s innovativeness.
Figure 24 Millennials worldwide want brands that
make them feel good about themselves.
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Creative
Strategy Statement Rational Emotional
Overlap Lots of events/Opportunities to meet people
Significant medical progress/Desire to make a meaningful impact Great place to work/Skills, education, and desire to work there Both local and global impact/Change the world
1. Supporting St. Jude means I could see cures for childhood cancers and
other catastrophic diseases in my lifetime. 2. Supporting St. Jude lets me meet people and have fun while making a
difference in the lives of children with deadly diseases.
3. Volunteering for St. Jude could help me get a job there where I could help children fighting cancer and other diseases.
4. Helping St. Jude means I can join with people like me to help the world fight pediatric cancers and other catastrophic childhood diseases.
5. I am united with others and St. Jude in finding cures for pediatric cancers
and other catastrophic diseases. My contributions are needed, appreciated, and make a real difference.
St. Jude… continues to raise the overall childhood cancer survival rate
is the #1 place Millennials want to work
helps kids from all 50 states & around the world
treats children regardless of the family’s ability to pay
treats children with conditions that are
the toughest to treat
is one-of-a-kind; charity, research, and hospital all in one
is a respected, trusted brand
holds a variety of fundraising events every year
I… feel proud and confident knowing my support really makes a difference
am passionate about helping others
want to change the world
enjoy working together to help others
feel good about helping sick kids
feel useful when I use my skills to help a nonprofit
like volunteering because it helps me meet people who care about the
same causes I do
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Strategy Statement Evaluation Statement 1 has sense of urgency and it conveys a feeling of excitement along with setting a goal. But, how overreaching it is this goal? There are cancers with
survival rates over 90 percent, but could cures for those really come in the next sixty years?
Statement 2 is too much of a juxtaposition: having fun while little kids undergo difficult treatments for cancers and tumors and other diseases.
Statement 3 is too narrow. Not all 80+ million Millennials want or could work at St. Jude, and the idea is too self-serving.
Statement 4 speaks to several points. Millennials are a collaborative generation.
They like working together and are solution-oriented. (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, location 288) They also like connecting with organizations that “look like them.” (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, location 982) Additionally, Millennials
support causes they are passionate about, rather than institutions. (Achieve, 2013, p. 5) This statement has a focus on the global cause of fighting childhood cancer
and other diseases, which transcends race, gender, political views, wealth, etc. Statement 5 draws on two main emotional needs of Millennials: to feel part of
something bigger than themselves and to feel appreciated. Millennials want to know their contributions, whether that is time, money, or social influence, are not
wasted. That happens in two ways: demonstration from the organization of how its efforts are furthering the cause and confirmation from their peers. Seventy percent of Millennials feel more excited about doing something when their friends
agree with it. (Fromm, Lindell, & Decker, 2011, p. 24)
Final Statement It feels good to unite with others and St. Jude to find cures for pediatric cancers
and other catastrophic diseases because my contributions are needed, appreciated, and make a real difference.
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Creative Br ief
Yellow Cardinal Creative Brief
Client: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Date: November 17, 2014
What is the IC Strategy Statement?
It feels good to unite with others and St. Jude to find cures for pediatric cancers and other catastrophic diseases because my contributions are needed, appreciated,
and make a real difference.
What is the marketing communication objective?
Build an affinity for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that stimulates a lifetime connection.
Whom are we talking to?
Young professionals ages 21 to 30
What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey?
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the best charity to support. What do we want the target audience to think?
I must support St. Jude now.
Why should they believe/think it?
Finding cures and saving children is a constant race against time. St. Jude has helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate above 80 percent. Its goal
is to drive that rate to 90 percent in the next decade.
What are the creative and media guidelines? Must contain a digital media component because the client wants to build a stronger digital presence.
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Communication Plan and Budget Summary
Business Goals Position St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as the elite fundraising
program in the young professionals market Stimulate that experience into a collection of lifetime connections with St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Business Objectives Test at least 25 young professional events throughout the country starting
in August 2015 and ending August 2016 Increase the average event revenue to $100,000 for a total revenue of $3
million for events completed between August 2015 and August 2016 (year
one) with the potential to grow to $30 million raised in three years
Market ing Goals Build an affinity among the target audience for supporting St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital Create opportunities for the target audience to interact with St. Jude
through local event volunteer opportunities Boost sharing of information in a social media environment
Develop advocates for the cause within the primary target’s own sphere of influence
Arouse eagerness to become active in fundraising that leads to a lifetime
commitment to St. Jude
Strategy Yellow Cardinal believes that it will be ineffectual to compete directly with other nonprofits for the attention of this target audience because it is part of a generation adept at tuning out marketing messages. Instead, Millennials tune into
their peers, parents, and social networks for information and recommendations. Cultivating new supporters should derive first from those who are already
activists and peer agents for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Second, ALSAC must outflank the market with guerilla tactics that position the St. Jude brand outside the mainstream and expected communication channels.
To accomplish the marketing goals, the plan will use an integrated marketing
communications approach that hinges on collaboration and communication with the target audience. The driving force of the campaign will be Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025. The Project capitalizes on St. Jude’s goal of driving the overall
childhood cancer survival rate to 90 percent over the next 10 years. For efforts starting in 2015, this makes 2025 the target year.
Using a goal and timeframe injects a sense of urgency that demands immediate action. Forming Project 2025 invites the audience into partnership with St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital in seeing their goal through. In evokes a sense of
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trust and shows that St. Jude recognizes the value of the ideas and talents the audience has. This is an acknowledgement Millennials eagerly crave.
Project 2025 will unite the target audience and engage them in furthering the
mission of St. Jude through fundraising and awareness efforts. Additionally, it provides a way for young professionals to network nationally with people who share a common interest: supporting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They
will be helping St. Jude eliminate childhood cancer and other catastrophic diseases while meeting new people from around the country.
Year one is a building year. We do not have to attempt to reach millions of young professionals in hopes of coaxing them to an event. We have to establish a cult of
St. Jude supporters who fiercely believe they can help raise the overall childhood cancer survival rate to 90 percent in ten years and, like St. Jude, won’t stop until
they reach 100 percent. This force will drive communications through their own networks to reengage
lapsed supporters and recruit new ones. Year one requires building an infrastructure with the technology and tools necessary to maximize the data
obtained on young professionals to tailor messages and calls to action that have a better chance of earning a positive response.
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There are multiple influences along the path to purchase, or donating. Yellow Cardinal plans to capitalize on the most influential: word of mouth, social media,
and brand website.
Figure 25 Google Think path-to-purpose infographic
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Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 The hub of the strategy is a dedicated website where members join Project 2025 to gain access to networking opportunities, information, and fundraising tools.
This is a place to collaborate, share ideas, schedule hang outs or meet-ups or conference calls. It is a place for information and to house ideas, track budgets for events and submit reports on them. Most importantly, it is a place for inspiration.
It is the virtual Project 2025 headquarters where stories, case studies, clinical trial results, and other information is dispatched to keep members intrigued and
encouraged. It is where members inspire each other in their efforts to raise money for St. Jude.
Members complete a profile that includes a picture, ways to contact them, professional information, and why they support St. Jude. The site shows them
how they to connect to Friends of St. Jude young professional groups in their region, lists all the young professionals events and volunteer opportunities, and lets individuals launch their own online fundraising campaigns for St. Jude. When
a member logs in, he/she is presented with someone else’s profile that is either new to Project 2025 or has something in common with the member, like
geography or profession. The profile is introduced with the words, “There’s someone you should meet.” That phrase is also carried through on other communications, like monthly emails, that feature a profile of someone connected
to St. Jude. Members can send welcome messages to new members or start conversations about other topics to further the virtual networking.
Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 includes St. Jude Millennial employees, leadership, members of the Young Professionals Board, and those of existing
young professionals groups with the intention of acquiring thousands more members. There are scheduled online meet-ups for networking and sharing ideas
as well as means to share best practices for producing successful St. Jude fundraising events. The site is the main source for the latest information on St. Jude, like research breakthroughs, funds raised, and how the Project’s support
efforts have furthered the St. Jude mission, so there are quick buttons for sharing information through social networks and email.
The Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 exemplifies the four personality traits that will position the St. Jude brand as the elite charity of choice among young
professionals.
Singular No other major charity has made such a concerted effort to embrace these future leaders and cultivate the means of passing the torch from one generation to the next. Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 has a defined timeframe that gives the
effort a goal, ensures a decade of ongoing engagement with young professionals, and has the potential to impact the lives of supporters both personally and
professionally. It eagerly invites this group “inside” St. Jude and engages them in driving the mission more than just supporting it.
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Driven Fighting cancer is a constant race against time. The faster we can get to a 90
percent overall survival rate, the faster we can get to 100 percent even prevention. In 50 years St. Jude helped raise the survival rate 60 percent, which was even before it began the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project with Washington University.
How far will today’s technology take us in the next 50 years? Could the Millennial generation usher in a world where pediatric cancer is curable, maybe
even preventable? St. Jude has never wavered from the critical commission issued by founder Danny Thomas. Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 is enlisted to drive Thomas’s vision to the next level and continue passing the torch to the young men
and women who come after them.
Collaborative Project 2025 is a coalition of St. Jude and ALSAC staff from all departments, volunteers, existing Friends of St. Jude groups, corporate supporters, and young professionals from all walks of life. Project 2025 networks supporters across the
country or even around the world. Groups can operate in their own communities and join forces to impact a larger region or even lead national campaigns.
Involving Millennial St. Jude staff provides non-employees a window into how St. Jude accomplishes what it does; likewise, St. Jude staff can see the work others do to keep St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital going.
Innovative Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 wants to fill its ranks with creative, innovative
thinkers who can help ALSAC find new means of supporting St. Jude and sharing its story. Just like St. Jude is innovative in treatment protocols and uses cutting
edge technology to achieve research breakthroughs, Project 2025 brings out-of-the-box thinking to fundraising and communications. With a presence in so many different markets, Project members can share their best practices with each other,
test new ideas on a local scale, and grow small ideas into something exciting, viral, and even game-changing. Ask them to create a new way to fundraise for St.
Jude, and they will deliver. The Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 strategy builds from the existing program of
young professional events. It draws on the networking benefits members of these groups already recognize and amplifies it nationwide. By natural extension, it can be used to raise awareness and attract interest in areas where other charities are
not and appeal to the urgent emotional concerns of many young professionals. Once ALSAC has attracted their attention with professional and social networking
benefits, St. Jude can win their hearts through passion for the mission.
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Marketing Objectives and Tactics
To implement this strategy and achieve St. Jude’s business and marketing goals, Yellow Cardinal will use the following objectives and tactics.
Objective 1 Reach 90 percent of the active St. Jude Millennial donors ages 21-30 with the
strategy message six different times between August 2015 and August 2016 and cultivate 5,000 sign-ups for Project 2025
Database, CRM Solution, and Predictive Analytics Yellow Cardinal will manage the selection and implementation of a database and
CRM system to track sign-ups and other actions along with demographics for segmenting the audience. Accumulating data on donor and volunteer actions will
allow ALSAC to employ predictive analytics and message donors based on anticipated actions.
Website Yellow Cardinal will lead a project to deploy a website specifically for Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025
Millennial Donor Invitation Converting existing St. Jude Millennial donors, especially those aged 21 to 30, is
the foundation of this strategy. This is the group that will drive grassroots and underground efforts to build Project 2025 because their peers will respond more
favorably to them than to a request from St. Jude, especially if they are unfamiliar with the organization. It is far more costly to obtain new donors with no connection than it is to retain and nurture existing donors.
The initial invitation to this core group must be exciting, inspiring, attention-
grabbing, and compelling. It must entice the recipient to want to learn more by accessing the Project 2025 site. Then, the website takes over the courtship and nourishes the relationship once the donor has become a Project 2025 member.
Invitations to these active supporters should be distributed four times between July 2015 and August 2016.
Rationale Combining a database, CRM solution, and analytic software is the best way to effectively manage communications and fundraising efforts with a large donor base. It is critical that the right message get to the right person, particularly with
Millennials. Sending multiple emails reminding someone to sign up when he already has signed up leaves a negative impression and could lead to a complete
withdrawal from St. Jude. Tracking the behaviors of constituents can also indicate when someone is ready to progress to a higher level of support, which means ALSAC can present them with the right opportunities at the right time and nurture
deeper engagement.
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Project 2025 must be seeded quickly with lots of profiles and activity. The best place to start for adoption is with those already engaged with St. Jude. The
website will need to be highly sophisticated to attract and hold the audience’s attention and deliver real collaboration. It must have a responsive design so that it
is functional and readable from whatever device the visitor is using. It is an extensive, expensive undertaking that must be robust enough to maintain its momentum for many years, which means expanding its capacity and functionality
to remain exciting, useful, and innovative.
Having an interactive events section is imperative. Above all else, “Millennials are trying to find an opportunity” and the “biggest drop-off occurs when Millennials fail to see the ways to involve themselves in an organization.”
(Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 949-59) These opportunities must also be designed so there are opportunities in all four roles at the Activist level of
engagement. A way to attract Inquisitors and Content Consumers will be incorporated with the site content and the messaging managed through the database and CRM system. Building this sound infrastructure will enable ALSAC
to sort constituents by level of engagement and target messages to each segment.
Budget $1,380,000
The Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 website will be robust, so Yellow Cardinal is allotting $1,000,000 for design, build, test, launch, and updates for the site. The
database, customer relationship management system, and predictive analytics software are allocated $380,000 for deployment, training, and licensing and
support for three years.
Objective 2 Produce 12 messages about Project 2025 that are shared by 20 percent of
recipients through email or social media channels
Newsletter Send monthly emails to Project 2025 members that cover three topics and include
a profile. Yellow Cardinal will schedule the email content, film video, assemble graphics, and tailor content to incorporate all St. Jude’s social media channels throughout the year. Content will be predominantly video.
Rationale This effort is to keep Friends of St. Jude supporters aware of how their efforts are making a difference for St. Jude and drive sharing in social media. These
messages should be effective for all levels of engagement. Each email will feature a piece on fundraising, the hospital, and research along with a profile of a St. Jude
patient, family, employee, volunteer, or donor. Most of the content will be a video because Millennials are most attracted to video.
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Each mailing will have a list of upcoming events with links to their information and sign-up pages along with reminders to forward those links to people they
know who would like to attend. Content will be designed to inspire the recipient to share it. The heavy use of digital content can help drive St. Jude’s social media
presence. A content marketing program will need to be established so messaging can be scheduled and necessary new supporting content, like pictures or video, can be obtained.
Social Media Tracking Solution A robust social media tracking application is mandatory if ALSAC wants to enhance St. Jude’s social media presence. Only with reliable tracking metrics can
we understand what St. Jude’s social presence is and learn the keys to amplifying it. Yellow Cardinal will lead the effort to select and implement a reliable system to assess, measure, and monitor St. Jude’s social media presence.
Budget $360,000
This total includes $180,000 for evaluating and implementing the social media tracking solution and $180,000 for establishing a content marketing program that
will curate all the articles and images used in newsletters, messages, social media posts, website updates, etc. It includes filming new videos, taking new photographs, and writing and translating new articles and messages for years one
through three.
Objective 3 Involve at least one member from every Friends of St. Jude young professionals association in a leading role with Project 2025 and cultivate sign-ups from 10 percent of each group. This effort needs to begin before the August 2015 launch,
so it should start in April 2015 and be completed by the end of August 2015.
Meetings with Friends of St. Jude Chapters In-person meetings with the leaders of current Friends of St. Jude young
professional groups will show St. Jude’s sincere interest in building an active, enthusiastic leadership team of young professionals. This is the opportunity for ALSAC and St. Jude to listen to their target audience and understand from them
how to grow the Friends of St. Jude network. For this strategy to take root in year one and rapidly expand raise a total of $30 million, current Friends of St. Jude
groups must be eagerly on board and lead the charge.
Chapter Kick-off Events Hold kick-off events in each city with the Friends of St. Jude young professional group.
Rationale Gaining buy-in from current young professional supporters is crucial to the success of this strategy. This objective is aimed at identifying St. Jude Peer
Agents and enlisting them for active duty. Friends of St. Jude chapter leadership
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must understand why this is a good avenue for them and how it benefits their group because it requires more effort and involvement from them than their
current levels.
ALSAC will need these Peer Agents to petition their members to join Project 2025 and identify Activists who will also play a crucial role in executing this strategy in year one and beyond. Friends of St. Jude leadership needs to believe in
the benefits for their members and see how it expands engagement opportunities with St. Jude. Friends of St. Jude members need to understand they are not just
being invited into a special movement but are being recruited because of their skills and knowledge to lead support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital into the future.
Whenever and wherever possible, leadership from ALSAC and St. Jude need to
meet in person with leadership of the young professionals groups, especially those who have a long and successful history of supporting St. Jude, like Friends of St. Jude Houston and Twin Cities. Project 2025 is a deep investment in St. Jude’s
future and requires tight collaboration with currently disparate groups. Emails are a less personal choice. In person meetings and conference calls with St. Jude and
ALSAC, not just local volunteer coordinators, shows a sincere commitment to these young Millennial professionals.
If a face-to-face meeting is not feasible, then web conferencing where participants can see each other would be second-choice. These can also be used for subsequent
discussions on how to proceed. The effort requires the cooperation and leadership of St. Jude regional offices, so ALSAC and Yellow Cardinal team members will need to indoctrinate those offices with the plan and provide them with exciting
visuals, including a demo of the site and examples of the communication tools that the groups can access to make their work easy.
Once the initial group of leaders have been identified, they should be included in the official kick-off events at the St. Jude campus in Memphis. Seeing St. Jude
first-hand is an awe-inspiring experience that powers endearment for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They can meet St. Jude employees, patients, and
families. This is an important opportunity for these key supporters of St. Jude who will return to cities from coast to coast to be the hands and feet and voice that motivates their groups back home.
Subsequent kick-off events will be held in each Friends of St. Jude city and
include St. Jude leadership and employee representatives. This lets the rest of the young professionals group, particularly any new recruits, meet the people of St. Jude and see their commitment to Project 2025. The events are to rally each
chapter in taking the lead on informing others about St. Jude’s mission, recruiting other young professionals into Project 2025, and developing exciting fundraising
events that will draw large crowds and, ultimately, earn over $100,000 each for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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Budget $500,000
Objective 4 Generate $3 million from young professional events held from August 2015 through August 2016 and a total of $30 million by August 2018
Events Use the Project 2025 network to schedule at least one event in every city with a
Friends of St. Jude chapter and start new events in targeted markets. For any city with a St. Jude chapter but no Friends of St. Jude young professionals group, visit
with area groups to discuss a partnership and affiliation that would include an inaugural St. Jude event. Each city will have to determine the event that would draw the most attention, and the group can develop new fundraising event ideas as
well. Each city should have Project 2025 members in leadership and organizational roles with ALSAC coordinators providing guidance.
Fund ‘n Go Promote an attend-through-fundraising option through Project 2025 messages and in event advertising. In drafting content for communications outlined above from both ALSAC and Friends of St. Jude groups, Yellow Cardinal will include
reminders that in lieu of buying a ticket to a networking or fundraising event, like the Gold Gala in New York for $125, Project 2025 members can conduct an
online fundraising campaign. By raising $500 for St. Jude, the member can earn a ticket to the event of his/her choice.
VIP Fund ‘n Go Promote the VIP attend-through-fundraising option with 10 Friends of St. Jude successful events held from August 2015 through August 2016. Use special VIP options to encourage attendees to raise $1000 for St. Jude through individual
campaigns.
City Event Card Guerilla Campaign Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 members in each market along with St. Jude
volunteers and employees there will receive “There’s someone you should meet” cards for their city. They will distribute cards to potential members and event participants to raise awareness of Friends of St. Jude and entice the recipient to
visit the website to learn more.
Distribution should be done discretely to create intrigue. A member could casually drop a card by the table of a fellow young professional sitting in a coffee house. A volunteer could place one on the bus seat next to him/her. The card
could be left on a co-worker’s desk or dropped into a friend’s open gym bag. The cards can be distributed at any time, but would have a concentrated effort as a
promotion for an upcoming event. Members will write the event date on the back of the card, which adds urgency and should pique the recipient’s curiosity.
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Budget for these cards are included in the Friends of St. Jude chapter kick-off events because that is when they will be distributed for year one and used for
recruitment as much as event promotion. Subsequent distributions for replenishment and newly formed chapters should be aligned with the event
budgets for each market.
Rationale As Marlo Thomas pointed out in the opening to the conference call outlining ALSAC’s intentions with this marketing strategy, charitable giving traditionally
declines among young professionals because they have little discretionary income in the early years of forming their careers. However, they still want professional
and social networking opportunities. For those, especially those who are out of work and could not otherwise afford to attend a Friends of St. Jude event, the option of fundraising in exchange for a ticket could be very appealing.
This is especially true when the fundraising goal is very achievable. Reaching a
goal of $500 requires as little as $10 from only 50 people or $25 from 20 people. If 25 people at 25 events choose the attend-through-fundraising option, it means 625 people raising $500 for a total of $312,500. If those 625 people were to buy a
$100 ticket to an event, it would only raise $62,500.
Some events are hallmarks of success, like the Gold Gala in New York that sells out at $125 per ticket. Test how adding the VIP attend-through-fundraising option raises revenue earned without increasing event expenses for a better ROI. Perks
added that are appropriate and desirable for each event may lure regular ticket purchasers to raise funds instead so they can get the VIP benefits. If only 10
people chose this option at 10 events, it would mean a total of $100,000 in additional event revenue. This is a way to enhance events and make them more successful.
For events themselves, this is the opportunity for Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025
members to work with each other to develop new event ideas, uncover ways to make existing events more successful, and share best practices in maximizing event ROI. They can also collaborate to develop and execute regional events or
solicit sponsorships. The goal for Project 2025 members from the outset is to develop events that earn at least $100,000 and to improve ROI for each event
every time it is executed.
Budget $6,000,000
Raising $30 million through events over three years means executing a total of 300 events that earn $100,000 each. Allow for an average budget of $20,000 per
event, using the best practices of successful events to lower the costs of new events. Starting a new Friends of St. Jude event in cities without one, especially
cities with existing young professionals groups that support other causes, will require additional promotion through social media and local advertising. The new
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national network of Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 members should work to find ways of combining efforts to leverage any media buys and business
sponsorships. A regional business in Texas, for example, may be very interested in sponsoring multiple Friends of St. Jude events in different Texas cities.
Year # of Events Cost @ $25k avg Revenue Goal 1 30 $600,000 $3,000,000 2 100 $2,000,000 $10,000,000 3 170 $3,400,000 $17,000,000
Totals 300 $6,000,000 $30,000,000
Objective 5 Generate a 1 percent click-through rate from display ads to the Project 2025 site
and convert 5,000 sign-ups by August 2016
Display and Search Ads Yellow Cardinal will manage a display ad program that uses both online and mobile ads across the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing, both
online and mobile) and video ads on Google Video for YouTube and the Google’s Display Network to drive an audience to the Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 site
or to specified landing pages for each ad. Ads can be tailored by age and geography and filtered with keywords. For example, an ad can be targeted for Washington, DC searches and written to promote an upcoming event. Links take
the viewer to a landing page for that event where they can see images and video of past events, buy tickets, and learn about Project 2025 and Fund ‘n Go
opportunities.
Employment Site Display Ads This is an online guerrilla tactic to take St. Jude where other charities are not and
to capture the attention of young professionals who had not thought of the benefits networking around a cause. These ads will appeal to the professional networking desires of young millennial job hunters and be placed on popular job
seeker sites CareerBuilder and Monster. Video ads will be used on LinkedIn. Yellow Cardinal will manage this program as well.
Rationale Google has a superior re-targeting program that could be very effective in reminding visitors to the Project 2025 site to return. The budget is controlled and many ads can be tested using any variation of criteria, such as using event
keywords and placing ads during the push for ticket sales for a Friends of St. Jude event. Using Yahoo, and Bing expands the audience beyond Google, even though
that is the dominant search engine. An online guerilla tactic takes St. Jude where other charities are not: in front of
young professionals searching for work. The effective unemployment rate for 18 to 29 year olds is nearly 15 percent as of November 2014, and 90 percent of those
who are employed do not intend to stay in any given job more than three years. When they look for work, 94 percent turn to online job sites like CareerBuilder
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and Monster. This tactic capitalizes on both the young professional’s desire for professional networking as well as the popularity of St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital as the top place where Millennials want to work. It is a flanking tactic that draws on benefits of supporting St. Jude other than philanthropic desire.
Budget $5,000,000 Every display ad campaign will have its own pay-per-click cost that varies with
keywords and other filters. Daily, weekly, and monthly monitoring will reveal what combinations of timing, keywords, and ad wording produce the most
productive clicks: those that result in Friends of St. Jude site visitors who explore the site and join as members. Budgets can be adjusted accordingly to produce the necessary click through rate that results in new members. Budget allocations for
each ad campaign are included in the Communications Schedule and Budget section.
Objective 6 Reach 25 percent of lapsed Millennial donors between 21 and 30 years old with the strategy message four different times between August 2015 and August 2016
and convert 20 percent to Project 2025 members
Email Lapsed Millennial Donors Email and track messages sent to this group. Messages should be enticing and
mere nudges to learn more rather than a bold sell. They are crafted with high intrigue and aimed at informing the lapsed donor of what St. Jude has “been up
to” lately and letting them know of the new Project 2025 movement.
Rationale This group has lapsed for any number of reasons. This effort is to lure them back to St. Jude by introducing them to the Project 2025 movement, which is very
different from a regular donation ask or event notification. With an emphasis on the benefits, the lapsed donor has an incentive to learn more. Frequent
communications may push the audience away, while distance between emails gives them a bigger impact.
Budget This effort is included in the content marketing program.
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Communication Plan Executions
Statement of Idea Millennials want to be included. They do not want to be talked at or given a
regimen to follow. They want to be creative and collaborative with each other as well as the leadership of the organizations they support philanthropically. The
only way to make them feel engaged is to engage them. Giving them a volunteer role or asking them to fundraise may be all that is needed for those who want to engage at a lower level, but there must be more for people who want more and for
those with low involvement to grow into.
Infrastruct ure Technology offers exciting opportunities to understand the brand environment to a depth and at a pace never before possible. Organizations can see the competitive
landscape in real-time and also know when an individual customer is ready for a new purchase opportunity. Instead of one-size-fits-all marketing, organizations can tailor messages and experiences to best fit a target audience and the audience
of one.
Advantages of a Sophisticated Customer Relationship Database and Management Solution
Integration of multiple databases into a single source
Coordination and tracking of cultivation efforts Relationship building tools
Actionable analytics to identify prospects and activate supporters Cull bad, out-of-date data
Advantages of Predictive Analytics
Development of actionable profiles for highly engaged, active donors Improve cost efficiency and effectiveness of fundraising efforts
Identify predictors than can be triggered for desired actions Lift charts to show the effects of a particular model
Improvement of program effectiveness Resource optimization
Advantages of Social Media Tracking
Real-time brand monitoring Competitor and industry monitoring
Finding potential followers with search and prospecting tools Find and respond to conversations Consolidated monitoring, messaging, and reports
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Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Website This website will be the hub of Project 2025 connectivity and have both an online
and mobile version with a fun, tablet- and mobile-friendly layout. The site is video- and image-heavy and kept current with new information. Features of the
site include:
Professional member profiles with picture and means of contact, age,
location, any Friends of St. Jude affiliation, profession, and interest areas for involvement with St. Jude. Each member is asked why they support St.
Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and their answer is prominently displayed with their profile because supporting St. Jude is the common ground all members share.
Member profiles are searchable based on geography, interests, and profession.
Forum to ask and answer questions and threads are archived and searchable
Complete list of events that can be sorted by date, city, state, region, and
type. Designated leaders can add, modify, and delete events. Members can sign up or click links for more information. The list is accessible to the
public, so anyone searching for events can find those for St. Jude in a single, convenient place.
Web meeting capability is available for members to interact real-time to
organize events, brainstorm, etc. “There’s someone you should meet” is a unique feature that provides a
virtual introduction of members using criteria like profession and geography. St. Jude employees are also cycled through the introduction, and new members are introduced to everyone as well. On the first day of
every month, the St. Jude Patient of the Month is introduced. Once the member has viewed or closed the profile, it is not posted again.
Video feature on Danny Thomas that tells how St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital came to be and why. It is a story that incites an emotional reaction and is especially powerful when told by Marlo
Thomas. On the home page would always be: Meet Danny Thomas, founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Logo This effort uses a logo that draws from the official St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital logo. It retains important brand elements while still being distinguishable
as a special effort.
Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Home Page
Friends of St. Jude Project 2025 Member Profile Example Melanie, there’s someone you should meet:
Michael Mills
Charlotte, NC Analyst with Accenture
I support St. Jude because: “I did Up ‘Til Dawn in college, and it was great! Want to stay involved because they are awesome!”
Say hi and make a
connection!
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Millennial Donor Invit at ion Recipients will receive an email with a link to click to play a video. The video
will be of Friends of St. Jude members explaining Project 2025 and inviting the recipient to join. Each subsequent invitation will use a different video and
different image in the invitation. There are Millennial St. Jude survivors now working for St. Jude who would be perfect Project 2025 ambassadors. Also, there are Millennial survivors and Millennial parents of St. Jude kids who have tattoos
as a memorial to their struggle. A photograph of the person and his/her tattoo would be an excellent image because tattoos are a form of self-expression that
Millennials identify with. The picture alone would show there is a story worth hearing.
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Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Newslet ter This is a key component for building St. Jude’s digital content library and
generating social media buzz. A brief email will be distributed at the beginning of each month to Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 members. The current month’s
email will also go to new members who join later that month. Each mailing will include a profile of a St. Jude employee, volunteer, or donor along with the patient of the month headed with, “There’s someone you should meet.” Every
time possible the profile should include a brief video of the person introducing himself/herself and saying why he/she supports St. Jude.
The newsletter will always cover three topics: fundraising, hospital, and research. The fundraising topic includes funds raised by Project 2025 and what impact it
has made or it could be a call for a special fundraising drive that asks members to help figure out how to raise the money. These are opportunities for Project 2025
to do its job and bring leadership and creativity to solve a fundraising problem. An article about the hospital can be on anything from a special patient case to a
breakthrough treatment to a video on the proton therapy center to an interesting happening on the St. Jude campus that gives the audience a feeling of being
included. The purpose is not to relay another patient story but rather bring to life the daily experience of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The research article can be a summary of a recent published article or a description of current research being conducted. The topic just needs to be
intriguing, show the hope of finding cures and better treatment, and be easily understood by a general audience. The research is one of the advantages that makes St. Jude so different, and keeping the audience appraised of what is
happening not only makes them feel included, as though results are being reported to them, it is something other research charities do not do.
Millennials like brief content they can click to access more information and prefer video to text and images. Video will be the go-to medium for the newsletters and
always carry links to more information. There is a library of videos already on St. Jude’s YouTube channel that can be used to start, but more will need to be
created. The emails must be mobile-friendly and they will always be archived for public reference later. These communications must be content-rich to provide multiple sharing opportunities and to keep these young professional donors
motivated by the difference their support is making.
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Meeting s with Fr iends of St. Jude Chapters Talking points will include:
Goals and ambitions of each market’s young professional group
Ideas these local leaders have for extending their networking opportunities Proposal of the Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 Explaining why St. Jude wants to engage young professionals this way
Goals of Project 2025 Opportunities for Friends of St. Jude members to participate
Next steps in rolling out the program to all Friends of St. Jude chapters and extending that roll out to other young professionals
Example of Presentation Slide
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Chapter Kick-off Events Each chapter will have its own kick-off of Project 2025. These events are an
opportunity for members to create their profiles, explore the website, and post their questions and topics for discussion to the Project 2025 website forum to get
the conversation going among Project 2025 members nationwide. The group can also conference with other Friends of St. Jude chapters holding their kick-offs at the same time using a program like Skype so members can introduce themselves
to those in other cities.
Members will receive a branded tote bag filled with Project 2025 business cards for members to hand to their peers as an invitation to join. The budget allows for 100 bags for 30 year one markets with the expectation that there will be a supply
left over for later years or to give to members of the internal communications team.
Tote Bag Example
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Events Yellow Cardinal has organized 25 markets that should have at least one large
annual Friends of St. Jude event based on concentration of Millennial population, job markets favorable to Millennials, and the presence of a St. Jude office. Some
of these cities already have multiple Friends of St. Jude events or have high-yield events, and they can be used as models for roll outs to other markets.
Year 1 Markets Market Population* Employment** St. Jude
Presence Washington DC 6 26% Office Houston, TX 7 22% Office Los Angeles, CA 4 N/A Office Las Vegas, NV 8 N/A Office San Francisco, CA 9 N/A Office Dallas, TX 10 N/A Office Boston, MA 25% Office Seattle, WA 22% Office Denver, CO 5 N/A Office Minneapolis, MN 23% Office Columbus, OH 14 (Forbes) N/A Office Pittsburgh, PA 15 (Forbes) N/A Office Phoenix, AZ 16 (Forbes) N/A Office Charlotte, NC 18 (Forbes) N/A Office Indianapolis, IN 22 (Forbes) N/A Office Atlanta, GA 25 (Forbes) Office Memphis, TN N/A Campus Chicago, IL N/A Office New York City, NY N/A Office Miami, FL N/A Office Nashville, TN N/A Office Austin, TX 1 N/A Salt Lake City, UT 2 N/A San Diego, CA 3 N/A New Orleans, LA 19 (Forbes) N/A
*Population number is taken from a Nielsen study citing the top ten markets with the highest concentration of Millennials. (Nielsen, 2014) No number means the
city was not in the top ten markets. Numbers marked with (Forbes) were taken from a 2014 Forbes list of the best cities and neighborhoods for Millennials. (Dill, 2014)
**Employment shows the percentage of the market’s workforce made up of
Millennials, where available. (Column Five, n.d.)
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Expansion Markets Market Population* Employment** St. Jude
Presence Virginia Beach, VA Office Louisville, KY Office Albany, NY Office Tallahassee, FL Office Tampa, FL Office Detroit, MI Office Oklahoma City, OK
Office
St. Louis, MO Office Peoria, IL Office Baton Rouge, LA Office Philadelphia, PA Cincinnati, OH Des Moines, IA Kansas City, MO Reno, NV Boise, ID
New Event Options Solicit ideas for new events from Project 2025 members as a means of jump starting collaboration and conversation among members. This is an easy and fun
topic that can generate excitement and participation early on and a conversation to be continued and revived throughout the year with polls or questions. New event
ideas to propose can include:
GeoCache Participants sign up for a fee and receive coordinates for a location somewhere in the area. Players use a GPS navigation system to drive, walk, or hike to the location and search for the hidden cache. Once found, they enter the code given
with the cache to claim their prize. There are multiple cache locations, each with a different prize provided by a local sponsor. The event can run for a weekend, a
week, or even perpetually.
Scavenger Hunt: Done in conjunction with area business sponsors, this event pits teams against
each other to decipher clues in a race to the ultimate prize. Clues can lead them to various places around the area or even take them to online locations. Prizes are
sponsored, and there are rewards for finding each clue.
Lunch and Learn Series: Participants make a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to attend a lunch and learn event featuring topics relevant to
young professionals. The events would be sponsored to minimize budget, and each session could have its own sponsor or there could be a sponsor for the entire
series.
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Un-Gala: For young professionals, buying a ticket to a fundraising gala, purchasing raffle tickets or bidding on auction items, and buying a cocktail dress or renting a
tuxedo is too much for their budgets. An un-gala provides the same formal experience in a casual dress atmosphere. Attendees can buy their tickets and play with a raffle or auction without the added expense of formal attire.
Leap Year The year 2016 is a leap year, and February 29 falls on a Monday. This can be a
unique opportunity for special fundraising activities involving the number 366. Individuals can aim to raise $366 by February 29. Teams of people or Friends of
St. Jude chapters could hold events in February to raise larger amounts of money for things like 366 chemotherapy treatments and 366 end of chemotherapy parties.
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City Event Card Guer illa Campaig n These cards should show up as a surprise for the recipient. The card is light
enough that the date of an upcoming event can be written on them. This adds a touch of urgency for the recipient to learn what the card is all about. The
background image on the front should be specific to each city. The example card uses a photograph of the downtown Houston skyline. Images can be obtained through royalty-free websites like Fotolia or iStockPhoto. A small budget is
allotted to the imaging for the cards, but it should be kept to a minimum.
City Event Card Example
Front
Back
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Fund ‘n Go and VIP Fund ‘n Go In important fundraising feature of the site is the ability to create an individual
online campaign. The member shares the link through email and social media channels and recipients click the link and make a donation. With each
contribution, the amount needed is updated and shows how close the member is to reaching his/her goal. Messaging and reminder tools are available to make the fundraising easy.
Example of Fund ‘n Go
Michael Mills
Fund ‘n Go Campaign $500
by January 31, 2015
60% to goal!
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Display and Search Ads YouTube video ads will feature Project 2025 members speaking about why they
joined this movement, focusing on the benefits of fulfilling St. Jude’s mission as well as fun of uniting with other like-minded individuals across the country. The
ads are a storytelling device where the young professional and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are (figuratively) a superhero team fighting against deadly childhood diseases. Each video will speak to a key St. Jude brand characteristic:
singular, driven, collaborative, or innovative. The action prompt for the viewer is always to visit the Project 2025 website.
ALSAC already uses search ads with Google, but this effort would also include Yahoo and Bing and the mobile search engines for each site. Ads would focus on
Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 and draw on searches with keywords like “events” or “young professionals” with geographic limitations for areas that hold
Friends of St. Jude events. The ads would target users on any device: desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
Search Ad Examples Networking Events www.FriendsofStJude.org
There’s someone you should meet in Houston on [DATE].
Young Professionals www.FriendsofStJude.org
There’s someone you should meet in the Twin Cities on [DATE].
DC Social Events www.FriendsofStJude.org
There’s someone you should meet in DC on [DATE].
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Employ ment Site Display Ads LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and Monster will be used. LinkedIn has the option of
using video ads, which can be a brief message from a Friends of St. Jude young professional inviting the viewer to visit the site or attend an upcoming event.
Spanish-speaking or other language videos can be used to target sub-segments. CareerBuilder and Monster will link to landing pages that play a brief video.
LinkedIn Video Ad
There’s someone you should meet Network with a purpose. Join Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025.
CareerBuilde r Banner Ad
Monster Display Ad
There’s someone you should meet…
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Email Lapsed Millenn ial Donors The same initial invitation sent to current donors can be sent to lapsed donors.
This will also provide a good comparison between actions taken from the invitation by current supporters versus lapsed supporters. Subsequent invitations
will look different and have updated content so recipients do not see the same image and message every time. The communication will invite the recipient to Project 2025 and also let them know of recent exciting happenings with St. Jude
and Friends of St. Jude.
Invitation for Lapsed Donors Example
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Internal Communication Plan
Market ing Goals Ensure all employees are aware of Project 2025
Involve Millennial employees in Project 2025 Establish communication agents for every area of St. Jude and ALSAC
operations
Strategy Implement the principles in the book Cause for Change (CITE) for implementing
the infrastructure for long-term Millennial engagement. As much as Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 is meant to launch a movement among young Millennial professionals to join St. Jude in the fight against deadly childhood diseases, the
Millennial Engagement Platform is an internal movement for navigating the generational shift happening right now.
There is no change to how St. Jude operates, and the strategy is not meant to be a distraction to employees or add to their regular responsibilities. This is an
awareness of how Millennials engage very differently with nonprofits than previous generations. They do not know who Danny Thomas is or even Marlo
Thomas, and they are unimpressed with celebrity advocates. They want to know exactly what their support means to an organization and how it is making a difference. This means the way ALSAC communicates with this group about St.
Jude must be more substantial and extend beyond patient stories.
Staff and volunteers need to keep their minds open for opportunities to engage young professionals and for interesting stories or information that this group would be interested in hearing. They can identify a family or Millennial survivor
who could be potential ambassadors for St. Jude. The staff who interact with St. Jude patients, families, volunteers, and visitors are the first to uncover an idea,
story, or opportunity that can engage this disconnected young professionals audience. The internal communications plan is meant to drive that understanding through the St. Jude organization and help all employees understand how to put
this new way of communication and engagement into action.
“The best movements start with ideas created by one, strategies developed by a team, and the commitment of a group of people.”
- Excerpt from Cause for Change
by Kari Dunn Saratovsky and Derrick Feldman (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 382)
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Objective 1 Immerse St. Jude and ALSAC leadership in the strategy and structure of the
engagement platform
Meetings ALSAC communication team leaders will meet with St. Jude leadership to
explain the marketing strategy, the engagement platform, and the internal communications plan for involving all St. Jude employees. Leaders have the opportunity to ask questions and even play devil’s advocate. There should be one
group meeting and then individual meetings once leaders have had a chance to think over the concepts. Plus, each area or department will have its own
communication needs and specific talking points that should be discussed one-on-one.
Rationale Information is only half of communication. Communication creates meaning with both information and interaction. Employees look to their leaders to explain organizational changes, not just what is happening but why and how it affects
them and their job. Leaders must not just understand but embrace this new engagement platform and understand how it will help St. Jude adapt to the
present, transition to the future, and help ensure the continuation of the St. Jude mission in the next generation of donors. Face-to-face discussions are the best way for leadership to absorb, question, and relate this new strategy to their own
roles, their departments, and their employees.
Talking is employees’ preferred method of communication. (Quirke, 2008) This is how information is given context, and leadership will need to work with the communications team in giving context to their direct reports.
Objective 2 Structure a communication team with strategy champions and immerse members in the strategy, why it is important to St. Jude, and where it fits with other
initiatives.
Cause for Change The team, first staffed with ALSAC strategy champions, will be given a copy of
Cause for Change along with other materials, like the St. Jude Millennials Study and other Millennial studies, to familiarize themselves with the landscape of the
Millennial donor. These champions should be experts at knowing the Millennial audience, its various segments, communications, world view, etc. so they can explain why this strategy is being deployed and what ALSAC plans to accomplish
with it.
Rationale The principles in Cause for Change and information culled from Millennial
studies is clear that this generation, massive in number, is changing both the nonprofit and for-profit landscapes. Today’s young professional sees his donation,
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volunteer time, and social network as all having the same value. This demands nonprofits change in how they engage this group and build future relationships. It
also means change in the workplace.
Objective 3 Involve St. Jude employees in the communication team.
Fill Out the Communication Team Leadership and strategy champions will solicit additional members through conversations and meetings with employees as well as internal written
communications. These members need to have the skills for communicating ideas and answering questions, not just be enthusiastic about the strategy idea. They
should also be able to recruit Millennial St. Jude employees to join Project 2025.
Rationale St. Jude employees will be engaged in marketing efforts more extensively and in
different ways than in the past. It will take good, thoughtful communicators who understand and embrace the marketing strategy to convey not just what the strategy is but why it is important for St. Jude and for what it means for
employees.
Pushing a strategy with a timeframe on it for achieving a major medical accomplishment invites scrutiny from medical and scientific communities as well as the public. One major question or concern will be why 90 percent instead of
100 percent. St. Jude employees and volunteers as well will get questions from family and friends, and they will need to coherently explain that St. Jude will
never stop working to erase diseases that kill children. If they could cure and prevent those diseases tomorrow, they would, and, with their continued focus on uncovering scientific breakthroughs, one day they can.
Now, they have to keep pushing. Eighty percent survival is not enough. Ninety percent is not the end but only the next milestone. The purpose of Project 2025 is to make sure people continue to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
over the next decade, then there will be another effort after that for the next phase, and another until no child dies in the dawn of life.
Objective 4 Ensure all St. Jude employees and volunteers are aware of Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025
Intranet Include an overview of the strategy on the St. Jude intranet with a place to pose questions. It should direct employees to the Project 2025 website to see for
themselves what it is about and for Millennial employees to become members. The site needs to have a schedule that shows what marketing content pieces
ALSAC is working on and where, like recording employee profiles. This is also a place for an internal St. Jude forum as well and a way for employees to keep up with happenings in areas of St. Jude outside their own.
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Kick-off Week Hold a week-long kick-off event with activities across the St. Jude campus, at St. Jude affiliates, and at St. Jude chapters for Project 2025. St. Jude leads the way
the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. This week should be a rally cry that ushers in the next wave in this battle. Employees and volunteers need a cache of information to keep them up-to-
date on breakthroughs and progress as well as St. Jude events happening in their area.
Rationale ALSAC needs the people on the front lines of the fight to spread awareness and encourage others to join through volunteering and donating, particularly among young professionals. The initial effort needs to be prolonged and focused and
extend to every corner of St. Jude operations. Employees and volunteers need to always be thinking of new ways to involve young people with St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital. The Millennials who work at St. Jude are ideal communication leaders for this strategy, and a week of gatherings and mixing of employees and departments echoes the networking and communication focus of the overall
marketing strategy.
“There’s someone you should meet” includes employees and volunteers of St. Jude, too. A week of events along with an intranet that encourages interaction sets the tone that this is an ongoing effort, not a single fundraising campaign. It is to
instill throughout all of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital operations the habit of thinking that a story, a co-worker, a research effort, or even a success story
from overseas needs to be introduced to an audience eager for information and willing to share it with others. Relationships are built by getting to know someone and sharing experiences with them. This concerted effort from beginning to end is
about showing the people of St. Jude how to build relationships with a very new, and very large generation.
The in-house kick-off week needs to be driven by the St. Jude employee members and communication team. They will reach out to their fellow employees for ideas
and questions to help everyone feel included and understand this effort is not just a pep rally for a fundraising campaign but the ignition of a movement into a
modern phase of supporter engagement. Including the strategy advocates who then include employees will create internal cohesion and willing participation more than issuing memos or planning events employees are not interested in
attending.
Budget $250,000 St. Jude already has an intranet and established means of employee
communication. There will be a cost for obtaining copies of Cause for Change and the remainder of the budget is applied to the events for the campus kick-off
week.
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Communications Schedule and Budget
Schedule
2015
2016
Jan
FebMar
AprMay
Jun
JulAugSepOctNovDecJan
FebMar
AprMay
Jun
JulAug
Infr
astr
uct
ure
Web
site
Lau
nch
Dat
abas
e &
CR
M s
yste
m
Pre
dic
tive
an
alyt
ics
Soc
ial m
edia
tra
ckin
g
Tar
get
Au
die
nce
Com
mu
nic
atio
ns
Mee
tin
gs w
ith
Fri
end
s ch
apte
rs
Mil
len
nia
l don
or in
vita
tion
Lap
sed
Mil
len
nia
l don
or in
vita
tion
Pro
ject
20
25
new
slet
ter
Mon
thly
Ch
apte
r ki
ck-o
ff e
ven
ts
Cit
y ev
ent
card
cam
pai
gns
In c
onju
nct
ion
wit
h e
ven
ts o
r as
a r
ecru
itin
g p
ush
.
Dis
pla
y ad
s
Eve
nts
As
sch
edu
led
Au
gust
20
15 -
Au
gust
20
18
Inte
rnal
Com
mu
nic
atio
n P
lan
Sec
ure
inte
rnal
com
mu
nic
atio
n t
eam
Dis
trib
ute
Cau
se fo
r Cha
nge
Rec
ruit
Mil
len
nia
l em
plo
yees
for
Pro
ject
20
25
On
goin
g ef
fort
Com
mu
nic
ate
stra
tegy
inte
rnal
ly
Inte
rnal
kic
k-of
f eve
nts
Au
g 2
-8
Eva
luat
e ef
fort
s
Mea
sure
men
t &
Eva
luat
ion
Pro
fess
ion
al s
urv
ey
In-h
ouse
mea
sure
men
tsO
ngo
ing
as n
eed
ed
Dis
pla
y ad
eva
luat
ion
Con
tin
ual
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Budget Detail
Item Budget
TOTAL BUDGET $15,000,000
Infrastructure $1,740,000 Website $1,000,000 Database, CRM solution, and predictive analytics $380,000 Social media tracking solution $180,000 Content marketing program $180,000
Friends of St. Jude Onboarding Efforts $500,000 City event cards $123,000 Tote bags $37,500 Travel, meetings, supplies, other $360,000
Events $6,000,000 Year 1 $600,000 Year 2 $2,000,000 Year 3 $3,400,000
Display Ads $5,000,000 Yahoo $400,000 Yahoo Mobile $400,000 Google $500,000 Google Mobile $500,000 Google Video $500,000 Bing $400,000 Bing Mobile $400,000 LinkedIn $847,500 CareerBuilder $500,000 Monster $500,000 Extra Budget $52,500
Internal Communication Plan $250,000 Cause for Change books $87,500 Meetings, events, supplies, other $162,500
Measurement and Evaluation $160,000 National surveys $160,000 In-house reports $0
Yellow Cardinal Fees $1,350,000
Infrastructure ALSAC has a beautiful and modern website with ExperienceStJude.org. As long as the platform used to build this site can support the necessary and complex functionality of FriendsofStJude.org, then it can be used to build the new site.
Because a website is such a critical part of an organization’s communications, they can often cost $1 million or more to develop and maintain.
The database, CRM solution, and predictive analytics can spread a wide range of costs depending on licensing, hosting, and functionality. There may only be a
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need to upgrade existing donor management software, which would be less expensive than implementing a completely new system. Several systems offer the
necessary functionality needed to manage a vast constituent base, like DonorPerfect Online, eTapestry, The Raiser’s Edge, Salesforce Nonprofit, and
SuiteDonor. Annual costs for licensing and support for systems such as these range from
$5,200 to $8,000 for three users and 20,000 donors. Just to manage 300,000 young professional donors for a year could cost as much as $120,000. See
Appendix C for function and pricing comparisons assembled by NTen and IdealWare in partnership with NPower (2014, p. 28-29), all experts and leaders in nonprofit technology.
Adding predictive analytics can be expensive up-front, but the long-term insight
will mean much more efficient and effective fundraising in the future. According to a pricing investigation by Information Week, (Henschen, 2011) predictive analytics for big data can run as much as $100,000 a year for 20 users, but a
system for the needs of a nonprofit like St. Jude should be a quarter of that, or around $25,000 annually.
Social media tracking software is a trickier selection and investment because tools are still being developed and the social media landscape changes at a very rapid
pace. Digital marketing company, Dragon Search, assembled a detailed matrix of functionality and pricing for 11 social media tracking tools, (Drewes, 2012) and
costs range from $500 to $5,000 per month.
Friends of St. Jude Onboarding Figures for the city event cards are based on 2,000 cards for 25 markets. Whenever possible, the images for each card should be obtained through royalty-
free image sites or other no- or low-cost methods. A budget of $100 per market is allotted for obtaining the images for a total of $2,500.
Printing for the cards was priced using the online printing site Moo.com. Using Moo’s square business cards at a quantity of 2,000 cards, printing would cost
around $2 per card for each market for a total of $100,000.
Each market will have 100 tote bags carrying the Friends of St. Jude logo. The St. Jude Shop now carries tote bags, so using that same provider would allow for good quality and pricing. Using VistaPrint, single-sided printing for a deluxe 19”
x 15” x 6” tote bag in quantities of 200 is around $15 per bag for a total of $37,500.
The balance of the budget allows for $14,000+ per market for recruiting visits, kick-off events, and member visits to the St. Jude campus. Budgets for each
market will need to be allocated based on travel, timing, number of people attending kick-off events, etc.
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Events Each event is allocated a $20,000 budget, and events are expanded year over year to reach the full revenue goal by the end of Year 3. The budget for each event
may be higher than current budgets, but for these formative years, particularly in new markets with a small or no Friends of St. Jude presence, promotion may be necessary through mass media or other means. Even successful events with less
budget can experiment with additional promotion or embellishing current events in order to attract more sponsors and attendees. The schedule for events for three
years is: Year 1 30 events @ $20,000 each
Year 2 100 events @ $20,000 each Year 3 170 events @ $20,000 each
Display Ads Yahoo and Bing budgets are set lower than Google because keyword bidding on those sites is less than keyword bidding for Google. It is impossible to predict what combination of factors will produce a one percent click through rate or
which clicks result in new Friends of St. Jude members. Budgets will have to be adjusted and managed throughout year one and beyond in response to results. A
small extra budget is available for allocation where needed to boost results or test different campaigns.
LinkedIn has a more constant audience than CareerBuilder and Monster, and its members are known to want to network. A test of targeting the LinkedIn audience
based on age and limiting geography to the 25 markets identified for year one exposed an audience over 11 million. Current rates vary from $5.50 to nearly $8. Achieving a one percent CTR would mean 113,000 clicks. Using a bid of $7.50,
the cost is nearly $850,000. Yellow Cardinal believes this cost is justified because it should generate high-quality prospects. However, budgets can shift between the
employment-related sites based on each campaign’s results.
Internal Communication Plan St. Jude has a relationship with Amazon that could possibly be leveraged in
attaining copies of Cause for Change. However, paperback copies of the book are extremely limited. For employees who would get a copy of the book who also have Kindle’s, the Kindle edition of the book can be issued. Otherwise, copies
will need to be obtained from other sources or ordered from the publisher to meet the 3,500 estimated copies needed. Paperback and Kindle editions of the book are similar in price, and allowing for shipping and handling costs, the price is
estimated at $25 per book.
The remainder of the budget provides for costs of communication team meetings, food, kick-off week events, and other needs for deploying the strategy to St. Jude’s employees and volunteers.
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Measurement and Evaluation The addition of new software and applications brings reporting in-house at no additional cost. Surveying the general public for changes in sentiment requires an
outside research agency. Research efforts range from $25,000 to $50,000, depending on the size and scope. A high estimate of $40,000 for four surveys, one before the strategy launch to establish a baseline and then one every August
through the first three years. This means a budget of $160,000.
Agency Fees Yellow Cardinal’s fee is set at nine percent of the $15,000,000 budget.
Percent of Budget
Events40%
Display Ads27%
Infrastructure(Website & Software)
17%
Agency Fees9%
Friends of St. Jude Efforts
3%
Internal Communications
2%
Measurement & Evaluation
2%
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Measurement and Evaluation
Investment in marketing technology solutions like a robust database, customer relationship management software, predictive analytics software, and social media
tracking allows ALSAC to produce its own measurement reports and evaluate every marketing effort in-house for years to come. Engaging young professionals
in their twenties is an ongoing effort that must change as generations transition from one to another. The Millennial generation (and the generations that will follow them) is so digitally connected, sophisticated solutions are mandatory to
have any insight into the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Objective 1 Evaluate the overall impact of Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 on positioning St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as the elite fundraising program among young professionals and building an affinity for St. Jude
Professional Survey Yellow Cardinal will enlist a professional research firm to assess the attitudes of young professionals toward St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and gauge their
propensity for donating to and volunteering for St. Jude, attending Friends of St. Jude events and other St. Jude fundraising events, participating in Project 2025, and telling others about St. Jude, its mission, and its accomplishments. A survey
will be conducted prior to the launch of Project 2025 and repeated annually for three years.
Rationale ALSAC must measure sentiment not only with St. Jude young professional donors but also the general population. A survey of the general population
conducted prior to the launch of Project 2025 can be the baseline for measuring progress within the general population and sub-segments of young professionals as Project 2025 advances year over year. Each year’s assessment should show an
increase in propensity for young professionals to engage with St. Jude over other charitable organizations. It means a total of four surveys: June 2015, August 2016, August 2017, and August 2018.
Budget $160,000
Professional research firms charge $25,000 to $50,000 for a survey like St. Jude needs, depending on the size and scope. A high estimate of $40,000 per survey for
four surveys means a budget of $160,000. This is the only objective with a budget since all other evaluation and measurement will be done through in-house tools.
Objective 2 Use in-house tools with CRM, predictive analytics, and social media tracking to evaluate the effect of Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 to:
nurture long-term commitment to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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evaluate the success of 25 events held between August 2015 and August 2016
ascertain if Project 2025 encourages an affinity for supporting St. Jude among young professionals
inventory opportunities to connect with St. Jude at a local level assess St. Jude’s social media standing and monitor surges and lulls develop advocates for the cause
arouse eagerness to become active in fundraising for St. Jude
Retention Rates The range of three years is too short a term to predict a “lifetime commitment” to
St. Jude. ALSAC can, however, monitor retention rates of young professionals. What percentage of those who are St. Jude supporters in year one remain supporters through years two and three? Future monitoring of supporter retention
will show if the length of time constituents remain involved as volunteers, event attendees, donors, fundraisers, and advocates increases.
Retention Cause and Intentions Conduct annual internal surveys of young professional St. Jude donors and volunteers to learn what they say keeps them involved with St. Jude year after
year and why. The survey can also ask the constituent’s intentions for involvement in the coming year. Correlate the results to the CRM and predictive analytics data to understand what role events play in keeping young professionals
engaged with St. Jude.
Event Attendance and Revenue Track the number of attendees per event and how much money was made through
donations, ticket sales, raffle drawings, auctions, and sponsorships. Also track the rate of ticket sales, volunteer sign-ups, and starts of Fund ‘n Go campaigns to gauge the eagerness people have for attending the event.
Event ROI Calculate ROI for each event and compare similar events and events in the same market. Determine the successful ROI for each event and market and use those as
targets to beat for future events.
Event Particip ant Survey After every event issue a simple survey to event attendees, organizers, and
volunteers for their opinions on how enjoyable the event was, if they would attend it again, if they would volunteer or organize the event the following year, and what could make it better. This feedback not only shows how well received an
event was, it reveals if the volunteer had a good experience (which is critical to retention), and can spark ideas for ways to increase participation.
Social Media Buzz Using social media analytics, monitor any online buzz around an event throughout its cycle to gauge anticipation before, satisfaction after, and even during an event.
Correlate online discussion around St. Jude with website visits, Project 2025
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member sign-ups, event participation, etc. Monitor the use of hashtags and St. Jude social media post comments, likes, favorites, and sharing. Ascertain what
content users are generating on their own. Understand St. Jude social media position before the launch of Project 2025 and monitor social activity in-house
throughout years one, two, and three to learn what boosts sharing of St. Jude information within online social networks.
Engagement Progression Use the CRM system in conjunction with predictive analytics to track Project
2025 members’ activities and their movement between engagement levels, from Inquisitor through Peer Agent. There should be progressive engagement from one
level to the next or deeper and longer engagement at the same level if the elements of Project 2025 work. Do new Project members get involved and stay involved? Is there regular activity in the discussion forums? Are members making
connections among themselves and are they participating in website polls and surveys? What information are they sharing from the site to their social networks?
Are Friends of St. Jude chapters growing in numbers and seeing more involvement?
Volunteer Opportunity List Every event should have a list of volunteer roles needed so organizers know when they have adequate support and coverage. Those are opportunities to recruit new members at a local level, giving people unaffiliated with St. Jude or Friends of St.
Jude the chance to engage with a low level of commitment.
Objective 3 Evaluate the success of the IMC strategy objectives
In-house Measurement and Evaluation Use the Project 2025 website, CRM software, predictive analytics, and social media tracking to:
determine what percentage of St. Jude Millennial donors and lapsed
donors ages 21-30 were reached with the strategy message, how many times, and when/if they became Project 2025 members or otherwise engaged/re-engaged with St. Jude
ascertain what actions recipients take when they receive a message: open, delete, click links, share it with others, etc.
monitor what visitors do when they reach the Project 2025 website track current Friends of St. Jude members to see when/if they sign-up for
Project 2025, what actions they take, if they step into leadership roles, and
how they recruit other chapter members to join track the revenue generated from Fund ‘n Go campaigns and individual or
group online fundraising campaigns track event expenses and revenues assess conversions of visitors from display ads, email messages, social
media, or other sites into Project 2025 members
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Rationale The investment in infrastructure gives ALSAC extensive insight into the behaviors of St. Jude supporters. Using in-house tools to evaluate everything
possible in year one can give ALSAC a revealing picture of young professional donors and show them in real-time what messaging receives the most productive actions.
Objective 3 Monitor the display ad campaigns and their progress in achieving a one percent
click through rate
Vendor Reports Each vendor listed for display ads provides reports on reach, impressions, and clicks for each ad at no cost. Results can be viewed real-time in the search engine
programs and adjustments to wording, timing, geography, bidding, etc. can be made until the CTR goal is reached.
Rationale Conversions will be seen through in-house monitoring. Google Analytics provides the most robust monitoring of its ad campaign offerings, and all search engine campaigns can be compared against each other to see what is the most effective.
Likewise, the reports from the employment-related sites can be compared to each other and against the display ad campaigns.
Objective 4 Evaluate the effectiveness of internal communications in instilling an understanding of and eagerness for Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025
Employee Sign-ups Account for enough communication agents in each area of St. Jude by designating agents in a database specific to the internal communication effort. Monitor
Millennial employee sign-ups for Project 2025 through the Friends of St. Jude website.
Status Meetings Use regular meetings with the communication team to understand how employees are receiving the strategy and their response to it. Identify and answer common questions and concerns as well as areas for additional communication.
Department Assessment ALSAC and St. Jude leadership will periodically visit each area of St. Jude to talk with employees about Project 2025 and the new way of including and engaging
Millennial donors. The week of kick-off events is a great time to discuss with groups of employees what they think of the strategy, if they have told the young professionals they know about it, and what ideas they have for engaging in the
strategy.
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Rationale As with the internal communication strategy, the evaluation needs to be as hands-on and face-to-face as possible. This is an opportunity for St. Jude leadership and
all employees to adjust to the changes in communication, workplace expectations, and donor relationships that come with the Millennial generation. Above all, the employees need to understand why this change is so important to St. Jude:
transparency, authenticity, inclusion, and openness are no longer optional. Only conversations with them, hearing what language they use in talking about Project
2025 and what questions they ask can reveal how deeply the strategy has penetrated through the organization.
Budget Any assessment will be done in-house and there are no items that require a
budget.
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Conclusion
Young professionals want to be included. They have ideas they want to share, and they choose brands as a way of expressing themselves. When they involve
themselves with a cause, they want to know how their support is making a difference. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital exemplifies traits today’s
generation of young professionals value: singularity, drive, collaboration, and innovation. Demonstrating those traits in a way that is exciting, engaging, and shareable can forge deeper relationships with current young professional donors,
reacquire lapsed donors, and ignite interest in non-donors.
The Friends of St. Jude: Project 2025 strategy integrates disparate pieces of St. Jude’s current program into a single united effort. In one place, participants across the nation and around the world can access the latest information about St. Jude
research, meet other like-minded young professionals, find opportunities to engage, manage fundraising campaigns, and share opportunities and articles with
their online social networks. Yellow Cardinal appreciates the opportunity to know St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital better. This is an organization with many valuable tools to out-pace other charities by embracing technology and aligning itself with the
innovative, highly connected, and rapidly changing digital landscape. Connect and involve the target audience. Unite young professionals and make them a part of the St. Jude story.
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Figures
Figure 1 Kip, a stuffed puppy, and his pal Kenny, a stuffed bear (Yellow Cardinal photograph.) ...................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 2 The Warrior Dash is the world's largest obstacle race series. ............................ 12 Figure 3 The ultra-rare Twitch/St. Jude PLAY LIVE purple hoodie prize ...................... 13
Figure 4 St. Jude honors the National Pan-Hellenic Council for their support. ......... Error!
Bookmark not defined. Figure 5 Tri Delta is St. Jude’s 2014 Fraternity Partner of the Year. ............................... 14
Figure 6 The ACS is focused on cancer survivorship. ...................................................... 18 Figure 7 The AHA uses the color red as an important brand element. ............................. 19
Figure 8 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals wants to connect with donors on a local level. .................................................................................................................................. 21 Figure 9 The Make-A-Wish America home page uses a similar graphic and layout to
other children's nonprofits. ................................................................................................ 22 Figure 10 Make-A-Wish uses digital and social media to nurture long-term supporter
relationships. ..................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 11 Komen uses beautiful imagery to invite web visitors to read survivor stories. 24 Figure 12 St. Jude has a text-heavy site that is not integrated with its social media and
contains a massive amount of information that is not always easy to find. ...................... 27 Figure 13 Millennials are the most ethnically diverse US age demographic. .................. 30
Figure 14 Millennials prefer the western US, compared to Baby Boomers concentrated on the east coast. .................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 15 Millennials are relationship-driven................................................................... 32
Figure 16 The four levels of Millennial engagement. (Saratovsky & Feldmann, 2013, loc. 909-13) .............................................................................................................................. 33
Figure 17 Experience St. Jude invites the visitor in for a close look at what St. Jude does............................................................................................................................................ 37 Figure 18 The current St. Jude web page for young professionals. .................................. 43
Figure 19 Official Facebook timeline image in Spanish for the 2014 Thanks and Giving campaign. .......................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 20 Kayla, 8, ALL, from St. Jude's 2013 Annual Report. ...................................... 44 Figure 21 Mae, 6, Wilms tumor, from St. Jude’s 2013 Annual Report. ........................... 44 Figure 22 St. Jude patient, Jaiden, is also featured on the St. Jude website Home page. . 44
Figure 23 Cure4Kids.org provides medical education to scientists and health care professionals around the world working in cancer, pediatrics, and oncology. ................. 45
Figure 24 Millennials worldwide want brands that make them feel good about themselves. ........................................................................................................................ 48 Figure 25 Google Think path-to-purpose infographic ...................................................... 54
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Telling brand stories. Solving marketing mysteries.
Appendix
Appendix A: Y ellow Cardinal Press Release
For Immediate Release August 1, 2014
YELLOW CARDINAL BOUNCES BIG BIZ, ALLIES WITH “THE LITTLE GUY”
Marketing network becomes virtual CMO to small business and nonprofits
Princeton, WV (August 1, 2014) – Entrepreneurs, small and mid-size businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits have a new ally in today’s fierce global marketplace. Yellow
Cardinal, a new kind of marketing agency, is bringing the CMO-level leadership of big brands to the entrepreneurs and nonprofits that are the foundation of our economy and core of our communities. Yellow Cardinal understands the challenges faced by
organizations with deep passions and shallow pockets. Their mission is to solve business problems with strategic marketing solutions that elevate their clients’ brands to
marketplace favorites. Yellow Cardinal recognizes the need for nonprofits and small businesses to be heard
through the chaos of big budget brands trying to out-shout the competition. Founder Kim Martin has leveraged the power of today’s technology to assemble a diverse network of
creative wizards, technology experts, and business resources capable of solving complex marketing mysteries.
Yellow Cardinal is hosting a virtual launch party all day Monday, August 4, 2014. Visit the website from 8 am to 8 pm eastern time to view live streams of the team members.
Chat with the team, register for prizes, explore the library of free marketing content, and learn how Yellow Cardinal champions small business into big brands.
###
Contact Kimberly Martin, Founder – Yellow Cardinal
704.904.3219; [email protected]
About Yellow Cardinal is an international network of creative, strategic, technology, and business experts with unique talents, specialized knowledge, and creative passion. This
powerful collaboration uses the capabilities of today’s technology to work together no matter where they or their clients are located. This means Yellow Cardinal is never
limited to in-house resources only and clients get solutions customized to their needs .
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Appendix B: Y ellow Cardinal Survey
Design
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Appendix C: Donor Management Systems Funct ionality and Pr icing Comparisons
Functionality Comparison
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Pricing
