Children’s Oncology Group Foundation’s First Donor Stewardship Strategy
Children’s Oncology Group (COG) is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. They’ve also flown under the radar. Raising money to support new and essential research for the 10,000 physicians, scientists and clinical providers is the Children’s Oncology Group Foundation. The COG Foundation came to us to help increase awareness of their work, and to create content that better stewards existing donors and inspires new donors to give.
As we got to know the COG Foundation, three things rose to the surface: They wanted to share meaningful stories of gratitude and research progress with their donors. They wanted to communicate the impact giving has had on COG researchers’ ability to increase survival rates and quality of life. And they wanted to start with a well-defined test project: A quarterly newsletter.
The Solution
- We designed a newsletter strategy that prioritizes building COG Foundation donors’ affinity for the mission and sharing the latest research discoveries.
- Our team came together with COG Foundation’s leaders to understand their research priorities, the progress and outcomes they’re making, and their role in supporting pediatric cancer providers across the globe.
- Our writers interview, write and publish stories about clinical trials and research, grateful patient stories that showcase the impact of COG’s work, and articles that recognize key COG Foundation donors.
- Our stories can easily be repurposed for proposals, personalized thank yous and reporting. These stories also establish an online “library” that gives new and existing COG Foundation supporters easy-to-understand information about the disease areas and research they care about.
The Results
In 2023, we sent the first COG Foundation newsletter to more than 2,000 donors highlighting the discoveries their gifts have made possible. With four annual editions, we are helping the COG Foundation steward and cultivate donors, and build a stronger community of physicians, families and donors.