Breathing new life into the annual white coat campaign
By blending creative messaging with a personalized, high-touch, cross-media strategy, the USF Morsani College of Medicine nearly doubled funds raised in its white coat campaign in two years to $107,096 in 2016, the highest of any U.S. medical school.
This campaign received the 2017 CASE Circle of Excellence Silver Award for Fundraising Communications Package and 2016-17 CASE III Grand Gold Award for Annual Fund Publication awards.
A comprehensive communications strategy applied consistent messaging distributed across direct mail, email, video, social media. Several email solicitations and a direct mail piece were redesigned with greater personalization, shorter and more powerful language, and a stronger emotional appeal. A video infographic and series of social media posts, including both organic and paid placements, completed the communications program.
Messaging was primarily segmented into six key demographics: MD alumni, non-alumni clinicians, and non-alumni non-clinicians, with all three groups separated by donors and non-donors to the 2015 white coat campaign. By using variable data printing, mass personalization was incorporated into the direct mail piece, which addressed the recipient by name on the front panel, with alumni and clinicians being asked "Dr. Lastname, do you remember your first white coat?" Since non-clinicians may not have ever had a white coat, their messaging focused on welcoming an aspiring physician to our community. Messaging for past white coat sponsors acknowledged their previous impact in supporting students, and the giving form prepopulated their information and listed their white coat campaign gifts from up to three previous campaigns. Testimonials from the previous years’ students demonstrated the inspirational impact of receiving a sponsored white coat. Since a portion of the funds supported student scholarships (the amount raised after paying for the white coats), the appeal also referenced that their gift would support the goal of reducing student debt. We also highlighted a special, discounted sponsorship level for alumni who graduated within the past five years.
