Case Study: Record Setting $1 million In-Room Donations Mid-South American Heart Association
Playing a video at a fundraising event isn’t anything new for the Mid-South American Heart Association. They’ve been hosting the Heart Ball and Go Red For Women events for many years. But they came to Forever Ready Productions looking for something new and different to reach their lofty fundraising goals.
”Our vision was to really take the work that American Heart Association is doing and be able to tell that story in a way that resonates with our audience. We were hoping to be able to not only spotlight the impact that heart disease and stroke has on the survivors, but on the family as a whole.” said Alyssa Johnson, the marketing and communications director with the American Heart Association.
Their audience is used to a typical and standard patient story that tells how a person overcame heart disease. But the real challenge was telling it in a way that connected it back to the national work that’s happening at American Heart Association.
“We featured the Lorenzi family and I am so excited to say that it was our biggest fundraising in-person giving that we've had to date. You can see the audience was engaged from the very beginning that the video started playing. I saw tears around the room, laughs in the right places, and it really showed in the amount of donations. We ended up having $40,000 and then an additional matching set that resulted in $80,000.” Johnson said.
The results speak for themselves. But Johnson said it was the total collaboration and intentionality of the Forever Ready team that really made the difference. Collaboration is a core value at Forever Ready Productions and it means that we enter a project equally invested in helping you achieve your goal.
“And it's that collaboration that you get with Forever Ready that you don't get other places. Oftentimes other partners will just check a box; they're creating a video and do whatever you say, almost to your detriment. Forever Ready is different.”
The story focused on a family whose infant underwent open heart surgery at 6 weeks old to repair a ventricular septal defect (VSD), a birth defect in which there is a hole in the wall that separates the lower chambers of the heart. After recovering from the surgery, Lennon grew stronger and gained back her energy.
American Heart Association of the Midsouth credits Forever Ready with helping connect this personal story to their overall work in advocacy and research. Today every baby born in Tennessee is now screened for heart defects before they leave the hospital.
“I'm not a video expert, so I know a story I want to tell, but I don't know the best way to tell it. And I think to be able to have that feedback and to know you're in a safe space to bring any idea and to really flesh it out with the team who is just as equally as invested in getting the results that you're looking for. That's where it really sets Forever Ready apart.”