Healthy Fundraising

In part one of our three-part series of successful fundraising case studies from the past year, we focus on health-oriented organizations CaringBridge and HealthConnect One.

CaringBridge put the emphasis on its constituents in its annual campaign, highlighting the importance of donors for an organization that relies almost entirely on individual donations for its funding. And while HealthConnect One gets a good chunk of funding through foundational grants, it tapped its board of directors to help ignite its year-end fundraising campaign to grow individual giving.

You Are Powerful

When a nonprofit organization relies almost entirely on individual donations for its funding, it puts a lot of pressure on the fundraising team to come up with engaging, relevant and, most importantly, successful campaigns.

CaringBridge, which provides free websites that connect people experiencing significant health challenges to family and friends by chronicling their health journeys, is such an organization. Nearly all of its funding comes from individual donors so it can continue to work on its mission to amplify the love, hope and compassion in the world to make each health journey easier through community. So each year, CaringBridge embarks on two annual campaigns — one in June and another at year end. And while the bulk of donations typically come in during year-end campaigns — it's not called the giving season for nothing — CaringBridge found tremendous success with its midyear "You Are Powerful" campaign in 2011.

Acknowledging just how vital CaringBridge's donors and supporters are to its mission, the organization decided it was time to center an entire fundraising campaign around them. Thus, You Are Powerful was born.

"It was one of the first times that we really switched it around and instead of featuring all the great things about CaringBridge, we turned it around and made it be more about our authors and our visitors and our donors," says Senior Development Specialist Kelly Espy.