The Goal
From the moment our partnership began, we knew that growing UT MD Anderson’s direct response pipeline would require keeping a close eye on representing their brand, first and foremost. This means making sure that every piece of content we produce is sensitive to the varying and complex role that cancer may play in each audience member’s life.
As we set out to optimize their efforts to engage, cultivate, and fundraise with their audiences, our guiding light was to meet donors where they are: by channel, and by life experience. We’ve brought this approach to life across their initiatives, from tentpole campaigns and major moments to their regular cadence of messaging and newsletters.
THE STRATEGY
To effectively mirror and communicate the urgency and hope of UT MD Anderson’s work, our team worked closely with theirs to build a campaign framework designed to reach supporters in surround-sound, engage them more deeply with the UT MD Anderson’s mission and impact, and inspire supporters to take action and drive powerful growth in fundraising.
Integrating Across Channels for Cohesive Storytelling
As UT MD Anderson’s digital and direct mail partner, our work with their team spans audiences and channels, aligning online and offline teams to elevate key stories cohesively across all audience touchpoints.
MissionWired’s integrated and aligned online and offline teams build connected growth programs for our partners by prioritizing clear visibility and communication across our full team. With creative brainstorms, weekly strategic discussions, client meetings that include the entire team, and collaboration between online and offline experts built into our processes, we can ensure our messaging is cohesive across messaging streams that have historically been siloed.
Increasing Cadence Through Engagement & Cultivation
To deepen the audience’s connection with UT MD Anderson’s work and mission, we built a campaign framework that balances the urgency of fundraising messages with the authentic connections engagement messaging provides. To support this balance, we increased their email volume, and we ran a cadence test to determine its impact. The more engagement and cultivation we put in the mix, the stronger their fundraising results. These test results served as a powerful insight for our strategic planning – and reinforced the importance of brand engagement in their fundraising pipeline.
Among these engagement messages, one deeply powerful campaign leveraged our proprietary user journey tool, Sign For Good, to invite supporters to answer the question, “Who Will You End Cancer For?” This campaign humanized UT MD Anderson’s cause, fostered a sense of shared purpose, and elevated the impact of their work by reminding supporters that their commitment is a part of something larger than themselves. This campaign drove engagement rates that were 17% higher than other messages sent in the same month and won a 2026 DMFA award for Best Stewardship campaign
Test Into Top-Performing Messaging, Creative, and Tactics
The campaigns that resonate most with supporters – and drive the highest fundraising results – are often supported by a deep understanding of what moves a donor to act. We ran rigorous tests of a wide range of creative tactics to determine which approaches would drive top-performing content in our campaigns. From messaging to donation form tactics to graphic approaches, we leveraged the insights gained from testing each campaign we executed to optimize the next messaging effort.
Bring Tentpole Digital Moments to Direct Mail Campaigns
A powerful benefit of working as a single, integrated team is the opportunities uncovered when digital and direct mail strategists compare calendars. We worked with UT MD Anderson to increase their direct mail cadence by expanding their Doctors’ Day campaign from digital-only to include direct mail appeals. While Giving Tuesday has traditionally been a digital-centered campaign, we added direct mail touchpoints into the calendar to drive surround-sound messaging and lift results across channels.
MissionWired has been instrumental in integrating our direct mail and digital programs. They’ve brought exciting new creative approaches to UT MD Anderson that has helped improve engagement and fundraising across the entire direct response program. We’re grateful for their continued partnership!
