American Heart Association
Using the Internet to Raise Awareness and Generate Funding for Heart and Stroke Research
Heart disease is the number-one killer in America. Even with this startling fact, NIH invested only 7% of its budget in 2003 on heart research and a mere 1% on stroke research. Tuvel Communications worked with the American Heart Association to launch an online effort in 2003 to dramatically increase NIH funding for heart and stroke research.
"The principals at Tuvel Communications took our online advocacy campaign and gave it the strategic direction and execution it needed."
— Suzanne Pechilio Polis: Grassroots Advocacy Manager, American Heart Association
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
Goals — The American Heart Association (AHA) wished to make a high-impact statement about legislative funding for heart and stroke research and prevention. Goals included developing a database of advocates who could be mobilized for future campaigns.
Strategy — To achieve the campaign goals, Tuvel Communications leveraged the organization's most passionate supporters to build the database, generate a letter-writing campaign and build awareness. Tuvel also integrated an online campaign with offline legislative efforts to deliver a strong and consistent message to Congress.
Tactics — Tuvel identified and reached the organization's most passionate supporters through grassroots marketing and viral networking techniques; located supporters through blogs, online community groups and other online channels; targeted audiences with appropriate messaging; and created a microsite to facilitate the letter-writing campaign.
Results — The campaign reached 150,000-plus supporters through coordinated, targeted grassroots efforts. The total number of grassroots advocates in the American Heart Association network jumped 25 percent. Phone calls, e-mails and signatures to Congress requesting increased heart and stroke research funding nearly tripled—from 5,038 in 2002 to 14,158 in 2003.
Achieving Similar Success
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