Non Profit / Foundations Case Studies

Client: American Heart Association

To increase levels of interest, commitment, and participation in advocacy activities supporting American Heart Association initiatives.

Triad discussion groups, focus groups, nationwide phone surveys and values interviews with survivors, volunteers, advocates, nurses and physicians.

The research served to segment the target audiences and profile the motivations—both rational and emotive—and preferred activities for each segment.

The study provided a unifying positioning for the American Heart Association’s volunteer and advocacy efforts, embodied in their new tagline—Heart Disease. You’re the cure. It also provided direction for moving individuals through the spectrum from casual participant to committed advocate, with priorities for best returns on the Association’s efforts.

Grassroots volunteer network revitalized through new People with Heart name and programs. Our team provided a series of nationwide communications workshops for regional chapters to provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to apply the communications framework in their daily work. Fulfillment center has seen overwhelming demand for the templates and materials developed from the strategy.

Client: Other Non Profits

Harris Interactive serves as a strategic consultant to two of the leading non profit and foundation leadership groups in the United States: Independent Sector and The Council on Foundations. Harris Interactive has worked with these sister organizations since the 1990’s to conduct various types of research about communications, positioning, fundraising, issues and legislation facing non-profits. Most recently, our work with these groups has focused on enhancing the image of foundations and non profits among elite audiences, including Capitol Hill and other beltway influentials.

Since early 1998, Harris Interactive has been a strategic research partner to America’s Promise –The Alliance for Youth. This national organization, led by Collin Powell, is dedicated to improving the lives of the nation’s youth, by mobilizing corporate partners and other organizations to fund and carry out youth-centered programs. We have conducted research and provided direction on how to increase public awareness, most effective positioning and advertising messages, use of their "brand name" and logo, and how to more effectively persuade executive and community leaders to lend their support to the mission of America’s Promise.

Junior Achievement (JA) acts as a liaison between the education system and the corporate community by fostering "real life" business education programs for young people. Our most recent assignment from JA was a series of focus groups to help them select among various proposed advertising taglines, to find which one most effectively appealed to their target audience made up of parents, business leaders, and educators. Our study produced a clear recommendation for the tagline that is now featured prominently on their website (www.ja.org) and in advertising.

Easter Seals called on Harris Interactive to help them with several mission-critical "marketing" initiatives. One was to build the equity of Easter Seals by increasing awareness of the organization and the services they provide. We conducted qualitative research to give them a baseline for their efforts. Second, they are introducing "adult day care" as a new service and we helped them explore people’s reactions to the concept. We also conducted satisfaction interviews among Easter Seals’ largest corporate contributors, to help the organization improve its relationships with contributors.

The Welfare to Work Partnership supports efforts by American businesses to help move people on public assistance to jobs in the private sector. To succeed in the long run, it is critical that they sustain momentum by raising awareness of the success of welfare to work efforts, to encourage wider participation by the business community. Harris Interactive has played a key role in this mission by conducting annual tracking studies among business partners (company executives) regarding their accomplishments and challenges. Results of our studies have received wide distribution at national press conferences, on the Internet, and among the media.

The American Red Cross has been a frequent client of Harris Interactive through the years. Our work has included qualitative and quantitative opinion research among many of the American Red Cross’ most important stakeholder groups, including volunteers, blood donors, the general public, ethnic minorities, financial contributors, military personnel, course instructors, and healthcare professionals.

Most recently, we have led the research effort in support of an upcoming national advertising campaign designed to re-positioning the entire Red Cross organization. We used a combination of values research, advertising assessment focus groups, and telephone surveys to develop and validate the positioning. 

We also helped develop a positioning for the organization’s Biomedical Services division, and studied user needs for the American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services (AFES).

For the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), we conduct the annual National Survey on Crime Prevention. The survey measures public attitude towards crime, personal safety behaviors, community involvement, and awareness of crime-fighting programs such as NCPC’s "McGruff the Crime Dog." An annual report in pamphlet form is published to increase awareness of the need for crime prevention and to support the Council’s mission of providing a national focus for crime prevention activities.

We helped the Covering Kids initiative, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to develop the strategy and messages for its current public service advertising campaign. Our national surveys revealed that millions of eligible children in the U.S. are not receiving health care because their parents are unaware or do not believe they qualify for Medicaid or State Children’s Health Insurance Programs.

We conducted values research to frame a communications strategy that would reach and motivate these parents to request information and enroll their children in these programs. Further research provided direction on what would be the most effective messages to raise awareness and overcome barriers to participation. We assessed the impact of ads aired in test markets, which were then turned into public service announcements and distributed for use by state programs across the country. We even conducted a phone survey of people who responded to the ads by calling a toll free number for information.

Harris Interactive will continue to provide guidance as the campaign moves into its second phase in 2001. Incidentally, our survey about the number of uninsured kids received widespread publicity, giving the Covering Kids initiative a big boost in awareness and a benchmark against which to measure its future success.

The AARP regularly calls upon Harris Interactive for strategic and communications guidance. We have worked closely with them to assist in their positioning and brand strategy efforts among both current and potential members nationwide. Other studies have explored attitudes among seniors toward public policy issues to guide lobbying efforts, measured member satisfaction, gathered opinions about what role the organization should play in the face of turbulent changes in U.S. healthcare, and tracked the success of advertising campaigns.

We consulted with The Nature Conservancy to develop the foundation for a long-term branding and communications strategy that will provide compelling rational and emotional reasons for supporting the organization. Our values-based strategic assessment methodology provided insights into how to motivate potential members and donors. Advertising assessment was conducted before the campaign launch to make sure executions were on target, and we are now doing follow-up studies to measure the success of the campaign.

To learn more, call 1-877-919-4765 or email info@harrisinteractive.com.