3 case studies of top performance in nonprofit comms
Check out a few of the grand prize winners from our 2024 Nonprofit Communications Awards.
No matter the cause, communications are key to rallying people to support the important work of nonprofit organizations. Each year, Ragan Communications honors the best of the best through the Ragan PR Daily Nonprofit Communications Awards program.
Ahead of this year’s edition, we’re taking a look at the three grand prize winners from the 2024 Nonprofit Communications Awards. Don’t forget to apply to the 2025 edition by clicking here.
Nonprofit Communications Campaign of the Year: The Motorcycle Safety Foundation, MSF 50th Anniversary
The background: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation launched a campaign to emphasize its overall mission of rider safety and education. However the MSF needed to engage more than just riders. The campaign aimed to reach three communities — riders, the general public they share the road with and government officials.
The riding community’s portion of the campaign featured RIDE days across the country to offer people a chance to try out a motorcycle from seasoned experts. Additionally, the MSF’s content team launched “50 Years of Riding”, which featured video stories from celebrities and notable figures including Ian Ziering discussing their relationships to motorcycling. The videos were hosted on YouTube and social media platforms to show the wide breadth of the motorcycling community while directing attention to the MSF and its campaign. This part of the campaign caused traffic to the MSF website to skyrocket to 1.3 million visitors in 2023, a 134% increase from 2021.
The general public’s part of the campaign was aimed at areas of the country with the highest concentration of motorcyclists, focusing on messages for car drivers and how they can most safely share the road with their motorcyclist neighbors. This included a mix of traditional media outreach, PSAs and social media advertising. In addition, the MSF sponsored a satellite media tour featuring comedian Alonzo Bodden that reached over 22 million people.
The efforts of the MSF also enabled the passage of legislation in both the House and Senate that honored the nonprofit for half a century of community-focused work.
The takeaway: Anniversaries are a good time to reach out to the major communities that support your organization to celebrate the past and look to the future. But they also provide a chance to put together
Corporate/Nonprofit Partnership of the Year: Learning Undefeated, PORT-able Learning Lab
The background: It’s easy to get behind an initiative that brings learning and educational opportunities to a larger part of the population. The PORT-able Learning Lab was developed by Learning Undefeated, a nonprofit that aims to increase gender and racial equity in STEM fields. Created in conjunction with the Port of Corpus Christi, PORT-able is a learning center based out of a shipping container that travels around coastal Texas to show students and the larger community that STEM and maritime careers are accessible.
Within the lab, students can engage with Breakout Box: Environmental Mission software, which uses augmented reality games. The lab also has a companion app that provides career information and activities related to the Port at the events where the lab travels.
During the 2023-24 school year, the learning lab traveled to 16 schools in Texas, engaging with 3,700 students. Teachers of these student cohorts recognized the positive impacts of the lab, with 79% new knowledge gained about the Port of Corpus Christi’s environmental efforts. Over half of these teachers said that the lab made them feel more comfortable discussing local career opportunities with their students.
The takeaway: Leveraging technology isn’t just a cool way to show off educational opportunities. It helps inform the educators who are charged with forming young minds, open up career opportunities for underserved populations, and show that hands-on learning has positive outcomes.
Nonprofit Communications Team of the Year: AARP Foundation
The background: The AARP Foundation’s main calling is to support the needs of older Americans. With poverty and hunger in this population on the rise, the AARP Foundation sought to increase awareness of the resources available for older adults. It aimed to point seniors to resources that improve food security, expand workforce initiatives and get volunteers on board for the Tax-Aide program.
The AARP’s campaign centered on telling stories that shared personal accounts and experiences of older Americans to increase audience relatability. The major media outreach push earned over 1,200 placements, up about 400 from the previous year. These placements were a major help in earning $1 billion in funding for needy seniors between federal grants and charitable contributions. This constituted a 26% year-over-year increase. In addition, the campaign push helped the AARP serve over 1 million seniors.
There was also a major advertising component of the campaign to get these important stories out to the wider world. With a pairing of cost-effective advertising and easy-to-use website resources with easily explained guides and graphics the AARP saw a 70% increase in visits to campaign landing pages. On top of that, an ad campaign in AARP Magazine generated nearly $30,000 with 7% of donations coming from new donors.
The takeaway: Communicating relatable stories is a great way to drive general interest in your campaign. Furthermore, making the materials related to taking concrete action to solve a given problem easy to use gives you a great chance of making a difference with your efforts.
Sean Devlin is an editor for Ragan Communications.
