Ian Joyce showed up at Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation after a robust and distinguished career in corporate marketing and communications. He brought that mindset to his new work in social good. But he found there was a missing piece—a pipeline.  

He also found employees ready to make a pipeline happen. Emily Clark, Director of Digital Engagement and Fundraising at PBTF, was in the midst of executing a pivot when Ian joined the organization in March of 2022. The Starry Night campaign, a traditional walk program, was moving online in response to the pandemic.   

Together they formed a plan to grow revenue via online community-building under the Starry Night brand. One way they did that was by creating Facebook Challenge Groups. But they also did something almost no one else did—they left the challenge group open after the challenge was over.  

“We left the Facebook Challenge Group up after the challenge was over.” 

Something new was happening. The Facebook Challenge Group became the place the community met. PBTF decided they could not and should not shut the challenge down. Emily said, “We had created online hubs. Challenges operated under the Starry Night brand. Impact rather than the activity drove these challenges. [Previously, our vendor] let activity drive. We revamped and pushed it with the mission in places with larger incidence rates—among newly diagnosed families, for example.” 

Emily continued, “COVID was our opportunity for change. We knew we could grow our ability to reach new families in places we didn’t have staff. But beyond that, we’d never really been able to engage at the levels we wanted. The pivot online with Starry Night and the challenge was the opportunity to do that.”  

Emily’s efforts spawned a community, and Ian found his pipeline.  

“Time and talent were here, not just treasure.” 

Ian explained, “We would have looked at this like a transactional campaign in the past. Family acquisition (new) was rising fast, and they continued to engage and raise their hands. In the past, we would have shut that community down after the revenue campaign. But instead, now it is the most vibrant group we have. Our family support team uses the group for recruitment. We pay attention to this metric. Time and talent were here, not just treasure.” 

Some of the metrics Ian and Emily track are:  

• Number of constituents engaged 

• How many are connected to each other 

• Engagement data within the community. It tells them if it’s “worth continuing to nurture.” (The next step is how to create more formal pathways for people to get involved meaningfully.) 

• How many made a one-time versus multiple gifts 

• How many opted into other things beyond the challenge group  

• New families that connected to PBTF (huge growth here over last six months due to ad engagement) 

At the heart of the decisions of PBTF is a belief that the path to revenue is through community building. PBTF had come to believe that “if we don’t focus on revenue, revenue shows up. If we focus on providing the constituents with connection and service INSIDE our revenue products, revenue shows up. If we focus on the top of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel takes care of itself.” 

Hear more from Ian and Emily on June 14th at 2:00 PM ET with Otis Fulton, PhD, a social psychologist from Turnkey providing psychological analysis and interpretation. The conversation will be hosted by Katrina VanHuss, CEO & Founder of Turnkey.

See related webinar here.