The document describes a case study for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America's (CCFA) efforts to raise awareness and engagement around Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) during Awareness Week. It notes that about 1 in 200 Americans have IBD but it is not widely known or understood by the general public. To reach new donors and educate the public, the strategy involved encouraging patients to share their personal stories on social media using a branded hashtag, reposting these stories, and creating shareable infographics. This user-generated content approach helped increase social media engagement for CCFA compared to their previous advertising campaign.

1. Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
of America Case Study
CHALLENGE
Raising awareness and donor engagement
around lesser known digestive diseases
called Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD)
during Awareness Week.
WHAT I DID:
• Social Media Strategy
• PR Activation
• Website Content Strategy

2. Understanding the Audience
INSIGHT:
With 1 in 200 Americans suffering from the pain and
embarrassment from inflammatory bowel diseases, chances
are you know someone with the disease—and you don’t know it.
TARGET:
New donors and the general public who
are unfamiliar with these horrible diseases.
STRATEGY:
• Encourage patients to share their unique
stories using a branded hashtag on social
• Repost patient stories on social
• Share patient stories on vanity URL on website
• Create highly shareable infographics in a way
the public will understand
• Create app showing potential supporters
the different ways they can help patients

3. The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
of America (CCFA) is the premier
non-profit foundation focused on
finding cures and educating the
massesaboutthesefairlyunknown
chronic conditions.

4. The Solution
STORYTELLING WITH
USER GENERATED CONTENT
CCFA originally rolled out Phase 1
of an advertising campaign, but
received backlash from the patient
community for not telling the full
story of the diseases. So I came
up with a new social media strategy
that reintroduced the campaign
and let the patients share their own
stories with vivid imagery.
We retitled the campaign
“Someone You Know,” as there is a
chance everyone knows someone
with one of these diseases. I was
responsible for the ad placement in
Times Square, strategizing the
campaign video, and running the
campaign across all social media
using the patient stories generated
from the branded hashtag I created.

5. The Result
• 63% increase in
engagement rate year to year
• 84% increase in daily reach on
Facebook year to year
• Helped make CCFA one
of the top nonprofits
with highest user
engagement penetration
on social media that year
• Increased positive brand
sentiment for CCFA