Post by mattallangrizzle on Oct 9, 2014 21:59:11 GMT -5
The March of Dimes is a historic foundation that has experienced unique challenges in its past to keep active and relevant with fundraising efforts over the years. Originally March of Dimes was known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis associated with President Franklin Roosevelt. According to an article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, In 1928 President Roosevelt’s law partner Basil O’Connor headed the organization while Roosevelt pursued politics. During the early years of the foundation the goal was fundraising for research and preventative care of polio. O’Connor and Roosevelt led fundraising campaigns over early media such as radio and by 1938 garnered a unique nickname from vaudeville actor Eddie Cantor. Cantor coined the term March of Dimes describing the foundations campaign encouraging the public to mail dimes directly to the White House. This is a name that would stick with the foundation for years unofficially until it would later be adopted as the official name.
In fact a Forbes.com article describing the efforts of the March of Dimes foundation over the years credits the association of President Franklin Roosevelt to the unofficial nickname of his organization at the time leading to the president’s profile being granted to the obverse (front face) of the U.S. dime soon after he passed. In that same article, the March of Dimes would soon face an unexpected challenge in the 1950’s. With the spread of the polio vaccine, and success of the organization, March of Dimes was left needing to find a new cause and decided upon multiple issues to fundraise for. This came with a rebranding of the name of the organization to the National Foundation but this would not prove successful. The lack of a specific cause proved to lower fundraising turnout so in the 1960’s and 1970’s the organization changed its image once again to focus upon birth defects specifically and established its name for the first time as March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. By 2006 the organization changed its name to what it is known as today, The March of Dimes Foundation. The ‘birth defects’ aspect of the name was dropped to rebrand the same efforts for healthier babies with less focus on the grim nature of complications with birth. This long and tumultuous trial that the March of Dimes foundation experienced would prove to help the foundation work out the best method by which to fundraise.
As described by the google hangout videos this week with Sara Milston and Gloria Huang, the success of the March of Dimes, as well as the pitfalls that befell it, are all due to a very key aspect of its fundraising efforts and branding management. First lets discuss the challenges and pitfalls of the March of Dimes. As described in the videos it is important that new organizations don't jump onto social media just to ask for fundraising right off the back. Similarly it is important that the fundraising efforts are concrete and known to those who are donating to the organization. March of Dimes luckily is a historic foundation that has established itself over many years. It isn't just starting out but when it did the stress of reaching out through media back then was less of a challenge. The saturation of media was different and with President Roosevelt as a spokesperson the audience listened. Instead the March of Dimes foundation would experience another problem described in the google hangouts: it had trouble establishing itself with the intended audience. In order to stay relevant the foundation would change its name and message many times over the years. They found the more relatable the name (changing it to March of Dimes) and specifying the message (from a range of health issues down to birth defects to the rebranding to healthy babies) caused a rise in charitable fundraising. This is important for March of Dimes to establish who they are and what they plan on doing when fundraising. An audience needs to know who they are donating to and what their efforts are going to. The March of Dimes also has a wide variety of fundraising efforts ranging from walkathons to charity auctions of vehicles. If you check on the March of Dimes home page here, March of Dimes has a simple layout with a clear link to their donations page at the very top, a strategic layout mentioned in the google hangout. The website itself is designed for easy direction to related material and even includes a sign in feature for members. These are all aspects of successful modern fundraising to establish community with the intended audience. And that ultimately is why March of Dimes has proven successful; the establishment of a brand identity and fundraising community is now even further connected over social media platforms.
Article Links:
Forbes.com - www.forbes.com/2008/11/19/march-dimes-revinvention-pf-charities08-cx_wb_1119dimes.html
NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446742/?report=classic
March of Dimes - www.marchofdimes.org
In fact a Forbes.com article describing the efforts of the March of Dimes foundation over the years credits the association of President Franklin Roosevelt to the unofficial nickname of his organization at the time leading to the president’s profile being granted to the obverse (front face) of the U.S. dime soon after he passed. In that same article, the March of Dimes would soon face an unexpected challenge in the 1950’s. With the spread of the polio vaccine, and success of the organization, March of Dimes was left needing to find a new cause and decided upon multiple issues to fundraise for. This came with a rebranding of the name of the organization to the National Foundation but this would not prove successful. The lack of a specific cause proved to lower fundraising turnout so in the 1960’s and 1970’s the organization changed its image once again to focus upon birth defects specifically and established its name for the first time as March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. By 2006 the organization changed its name to what it is known as today, The March of Dimes Foundation. The ‘birth defects’ aspect of the name was dropped to rebrand the same efforts for healthier babies with less focus on the grim nature of complications with birth. This long and tumultuous trial that the March of Dimes foundation experienced would prove to help the foundation work out the best method by which to fundraise.
As described by the google hangout videos this week with Sara Milston and Gloria Huang, the success of the March of Dimes, as well as the pitfalls that befell it, are all due to a very key aspect of its fundraising efforts and branding management. First lets discuss the challenges and pitfalls of the March of Dimes. As described in the videos it is important that new organizations don't jump onto social media just to ask for fundraising right off the back. Similarly it is important that the fundraising efforts are concrete and known to those who are donating to the organization. March of Dimes luckily is a historic foundation that has established itself over many years. It isn't just starting out but when it did the stress of reaching out through media back then was less of a challenge. The saturation of media was different and with President Roosevelt as a spokesperson the audience listened. Instead the March of Dimes foundation would experience another problem described in the google hangouts: it had trouble establishing itself with the intended audience. In order to stay relevant the foundation would change its name and message many times over the years. They found the more relatable the name (changing it to March of Dimes) and specifying the message (from a range of health issues down to birth defects to the rebranding to healthy babies) caused a rise in charitable fundraising. This is important for March of Dimes to establish who they are and what they plan on doing when fundraising. An audience needs to know who they are donating to and what their efforts are going to. The March of Dimes also has a wide variety of fundraising efforts ranging from walkathons to charity auctions of vehicles. If you check on the March of Dimes home page here, March of Dimes has a simple layout with a clear link to their donations page at the very top, a strategic layout mentioned in the google hangout. The website itself is designed for easy direction to related material and even includes a sign in feature for members. These are all aspects of successful modern fundraising to establish community with the intended audience. And that ultimately is why March of Dimes has proven successful; the establishment of a brand identity and fundraising community is now even further connected over social media platforms.
Article Links:
Forbes.com - www.forbes.com/2008/11/19/march-dimes-revinvention-pf-charities08-cx_wb_1119dimes.html
NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446742/?report=classic
March of Dimes - www.marchofdimes.org