jdrf communications study

JDRF: A Communications Case Study – Timothy Blotz 1

JDRF: A Communications Case Study

How to effectively move a $1.9 million dollar fundraiser and build a better branding message

By Timothy Blotz


JDRF: A Communications Case Study How to effectively move a $1.9 million fund raiser and build

a better branding message

By Timothy Blotz

Hopes and dreams don’t just live in our minds, they sometimes

hang in picture frames. At the Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter of the

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation the hopes and dreams of a cure for diabetes spill out dozens of frames sitting on desks and

hanging on walls. Almost all of them are of children. Walking past the

pictures is like walking through a crowd at the ballgame, each one

shouting a story, each one begging for someone to listen. But the

picture that doesn’t yet exit is for the empty frame still boxed in the

corner. That’s the frame waiting to hold the picture of a cure. Kim

Bailey, a corporate fundraiser living with diabetes for more than 30

years envisions the frame as a picture of nothing. “Let’s get rid of it.

It exists no longer. Lets get it done and put ourselves out of a job.”

The job at hand is to raise money to pay for research to find a

cure for type-1 diabetes, also referred to as juvenile diabetes. For nearly forty years, the search for a cure has been supported with a lot

of dollars and a lot of prayers. The dollars buy research, the research

buys hope. In 1970, a small group of parents pinned their own hopes

on a cure and formed the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Today JDRF is the world’s leading funder of diabetes research having

spent more than $1.3 billion in the search for a cure.1 In 2008, JDRF

funded $158 million in research projects including the groundbreaking

Spring Point Project at the University of Minnesota headed by world

renowned diabetes researcher Dr. Bernhard Hering. Finding a cure or

several cures for diabetes has never been more critical.

Situation: Raising Money for Diabetes Research

Diabetes in American today is a tragic and ever changing landscape in terms of people, costs, and healthcare. Here is the scope

of diabetes in America:

A new case is diagnosed every 30 seconds

15,000 children are diagnosed with type-1 diabetes each

year—nearly 40 each day (CDC)


Diabetes is the single most costly chronic disease

$174 billion in health care costs in 2007 (CDC)

Kills one American every 3 minutes

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and new cases

of blindness (CDC)

Diabetes today is the single most costly chronic medical disease.2 At more than $174 billion, the medical and life threatening

costs of both type-1 and type-2 diabetes are staggering. According to

the Centers for Disease Control, diabetes accounts for nearly half of all

new cases of kidney disease in the United States.3 In 2005 alone,

more than 178,000 Americans were living with end stage kidney

disease brought on by diabetes. The disease is also the leading cause

of non-traumatic limb amputations. The CDC reports that in 2004

alone there were 71,000 lower limb amputations brought on by

diabetes. People with diabetes are also more susceptible to many

other illnesses including the current Novel-H1N1 Influenza pandemic.4

Additionally, new research from the University of Chicago indicates the number of Americans with diabetes will nearly double to

44 million by 2034.5 Health care costs are expected to soar.

Spending on diabetes care will swell to more than $336 billion (2007

dollars). Lead researcher, Dr. Elbert Huang says that if nothing is

done about the growth of diabetes, particularly type-2 or what’s called

adult-onset diabetes, it will have profound impacts on our society.

“Without significant changes in public or private strategies, this

population and cost growth are expected to add significant strain to an

overburdened health care system.”

At JDRF, finding the cure for diabetes is a multi-million dollar

enterprise. Minnesotans can take a certain amount of pride that they

make a significant contribution toward the funding stream. The Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter is charged with raising roughly $2.5

million. By far the largest fund raiser for the Chapter is the annual

Walk for Diabetes held each winter at the Mall of America in

Bloomington. It is without question the largest single day fundraising

walk in the Twin Cities. In recent years the Walk has consistently

involved roughly 500 family teams and packs the Mall of America with

15,000 people. In 2009 the Walk for Diabetes raised $1.6 million.

Only the Susan G. Komen 3-Day event for cancer raises more money

at $3.6 million.6


Over the years the Minnesota JDRF chapter has seen steady

growth in revenues from the Walk for Diabetes.7 The chapter achieved

an impressive 100 percent growth rate in its second and third years,

and continued strong growth through 2001. However, for much of the

past decade revenue has flattened. In fact, revenues in 2008 were

slightly behind as the economy entered the recession.

Objective: Raise More Money

For 2010 the chapter has an ambitious goal of raising $1.9

million—a 13 percent increase from the previous year. It’s a high

challenge for an organization which hasn’t seen that kind of growth in

seven years, especially with an economy that is still stagnant. One

possible way of achieving this year’s goal is to give families and

sponsors more time to fundraise.

In analyzing the external factors affecting the Walk, one of the

glaring issues that stands out is the positioning of the Walk date at the

end of January. Since its inception in 1994, the Walk has always been

held during the last Saturday in January. There were several

important reasons for the timing. First and foremost, there is little


competition from other events in the Twin Cities and from the many

commitments facing families. Positioned just after the start of the

New Year, families can still participate and not have to worry about

juggling schedules between sport leagues and family vacations. And,

since it’s held inside the Mall of America, the weather is rarely a factor.

However, many families over the years have reported that the Walk is scheduled too close to the holidays. Many walk team captains

have found it difficult to recruit members during the weeks leading up

to the Walk and even participants have found it hard to solicit

donations during the Christmas and Hanukkah season. Likewise, even

donors have sometimes found it challenging to write another check

during the holidays, and even after the New Year when all the bills

from the holidays come due.

The Chapter staff typically rolls out the recruitment process for

the Walk eight weeks before the event. The rollout includes mailings,

and a family team event to help walkers and team captains recruit

colleagues and friends. The eight week schedule puts the rollout during the first week in December. The staff has increasingly found

the messaging and communications campaign was getting lost in the

competition for time during the month of December. Additionally, the

Chapter’s corporate sponsors have found it hard to schedule

promotional time to recruit team members when employees were

taking off for the holidays and using up end of the year vacation time.

A final factor is the reality that the kick off for the Walk was very close

to the end of the annual United Way campaign.

Strategy: Moving the Walk

There comes a point in every organization where it has the

opportunity to take a step back and look at possible barriers to

success. The Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter has clearly reached

that point and has concluded that the January walk date has become a significant barrier. Therefore it has formed a new strategy by moving

the Walk to the end of February. For 2010 the Walk is set for

February 27. This new strategy will allow the Chapter to avoid the

holidays altogether and begin its rollout during the first week in

January. In theory, team captains and families can have a more

realistic time frame in which to recruit and raise donations.


Issues: External Factors While the new strategy helps create a number of fundraising

opportunities, it also faces a number of clear threats. Foremost is the

state of the economy. Wall Street may have seen a bit of rebound,

but it has yet to translate into jobs and wages. While Minnesota’s

unemployment rate is dropping, it’s still at level not seen since the

early 1980s. Fortunately, the state unemployment rate of 7.6 percent

is below the national average. In the Twin Cities where the

Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter JDRF chapter draws its most support,

the unemployment rate is 7.1 percent.8 In terms of real people, that’s 131,149 unemployed workers. If even one in four of those are a

potential donor, they’re highly unlikely to be in a position to make a

substantial financial donation to JDRF.

Equally as challenging is the drop in charitable donations across

the country brought on by the recession. Philanthropy as measured by

the Giving USA Foundation has measured a substantial drop in both

personal and corporate giving in terms of year-to-year dollars, even

more when inflation is taken into account.9


People aren’t just giving less to others, they’re spending

less on themselves, too, and they’ve been doing it for more than a

year. Daily consumer spending as tracked by the Gallup organization

is down more than 20 percent from a year ago.10 Historical tracking

polls show that while spending tends to increase during the holidays, it

quickly falls after the first of the year, the very time in which JDRF walk teams will be soliciting their contacts for donations.

These economic factors are clearly well outside of the control of

the Minnesota/North Dakota JDRF Chapter, but as a whole they clearly

represent a set of challenges they would have had to met whether it

had moved the event date or not.

As this study has already outlined, the Minnesota/North Dakota

Chapter also has a unique set of opportunities. As a means of

measuring how the chapter is meeting both its opportunities and

challenges it can be useful to align them in a matrix called an External

Factors Analysis Survey. In an EFAS the opportunities and challenges


are weighted according to their significance and then rated by how the

organization is dealing with them. The two factors are then multiplied

to end up with a weighted score that measures how well the

organization is performing.

EFAS Analysis

Opportunities Weight Rank WS Comments

Out of Holiday .3 5 1.5 Better revenue growth

Season

Little Competition .10 4.5 .45 No other major events

Mall of America .10 5 .5 Weather-proof, parking

Clear Channel .025 2 .05 Promotional advantage

Sponsorship

Advanced Auto .025 4 .1 New audience, new revenue

Parts

Drop in Charitable .2 2 .04 Can’t control economy

Donations

Drop in Spending .1 2 .2 Consumer spending may drop more

Flu Outbreak .025 4.5 .1125 3rd H1N1 outbreak expected

Snow Storm .025 4 .1 Most money raised before walk

Unemployment .1 2 .2 May lead to fewer donations

1.0 3.25

Given all the external factors and weighting, the Minnesota JDRF

Chapter achieves a score of 3.25 on a scale of 5 which indicates it is

slightly above average in taking advantage of its opportunities and

meeting its threats. While such an analysis by no means guarantees a

successful walk event, it does suggest that it perhaps has the

foundation to achieve success and meet its goals.


Tactics: New Year, New Date, New Fundraising Opportunities.

Moving an event that 15,000 people are used to attending at the

end of the January is no easy task. It presents a unique

communication strategy and tactics in order to target and notify all the

stakeholders involved. The most important of them are the Walk

families and teams. A simple stakeholder analysis places the families

and teams in the High Power and High Influence quadrant of the

matrix, essentially meaning they are the primary audience for any

communication strategy. Of course the Mall of America is also a primary stake holder since it hosts the event and many of its stores

open early to accommodate the thousands of potential shoppers that

appear at their doors at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The event

also relies on hundreds of volunteers to staff the check-in tables and

handle the donations, but they play a secondary role to the walkers

who are actually soliciting the donations and making an active

commitment to the event.

Stakeholder Analysis

Low Power Med Power High

Power

High Media Sponsors Families

Influence Corp Sponsors Walk Teams

MOA

Medium Vendors Volunteers

Influence

Low

Influence

To notify and involve the stakeholders, the Minnesota Chapter

began a proactive campaign in early July. Once securing the date with

the Mall of America, the staff launched a smart messaging campaign

that that included a number of elements:


“Save the date” cards sent to walk team families and

stake holders in mid-summer

Front page banner on quarterly newsletter: New Year,

New Date, New Fundraising Opportunities

New date on bottom signature of all emails

January 23rd Family Kick-Off scheduled for Monster Truck

Rally at the Metrodome

The Family Kick-Off at the Metrodome is particularly unique. The

Monster Truck Rally is sponsored by Advanced Auto Parts which is the

title corporate sponsor for the 2010 Walk. Walk team families will get

admission to the truck rally in addition to instructions and materials to

help them raise money for the Walk. To avoid the holidays, mailings

on the kick-off will not go out until after the first of the year.

Evaluation

Perhaps the ultimate test of whether a new strategy and its

tactics are working is in the numbers. So far more than 100 families

have already registered for the Walk on its new date. That’s an

amazing one-fifth of its family total signing up months before the official kick-off and registration. Granted, none of those families have

yet to raise a nickel, but the early commitment is a significant sign

that the early messaging is working to build support around the new

strategy.

Recommendations

This study has two major recommendations for JDRF on its

communications strategy and its messaging. The first revolves around

the need to build a social media presence for the Walk, and the second

involves a new kind of messaging that both the Chapter and the

national organization would be prudent to follow.

Recommendation 1.0

Social Media

First and foremost, the Minnesota Chapter needs to establish a

social media presence and that begins with opening a Facebook page.

Facebook is one of the fastest growing social media sites in the world.

It is increasingly where people want to be and it’s where they want

their friends and favorite brands to be, too. A recent analysis by


Compete shows that Facebook is now reaching 60 percent of all adults

who have internet connections.

An Internet analysis for the month of October shows that JDRF’s

website, www.jdrf.org had 260,112 unique visitors.11 Its reach is

dwarfed in comparison to the 123 million unique visits to Facebook and

the 23 million unique visits to Twitter. The following chart shows in

graphic terms the opportunities the Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter is missing by not having a presence on Facebook.

Another compelling reason for the Chapter to be on Facebook is

that it’s free. Part of the simplicity and efficacy of social media is

letting an organization’s followers and brand zealots do the messaging

for them. By having a having a Facebook presence, the

Minnesota/North Dakota chapter can involve its walkers by sharing

information with them on a medium that they are most likely already

using. In fact, at a recent JDRF research event, several families were

already asking about the Chapter creating a Facebook page that they could share with their families and friends. If the organization’s base

wants such a resource, and it costs nothing to establish, then it’s a

prudent measure to take.

There are several specific recommendations on Facebook:

Establish a JDRF Minnesota/North Dakota fan page

Use Facebook’s non profits page as a best practices template:

www.facebook.com/nonprofits

Use the site as a platform for updated information on the

Walk, links to the JDRF Walk Central registration site

Post pictures from last year’s walk

http://www.jdrf.org/

http://www.facebook.com/nonprofits


Encourage family walk teams to become a fan of the chapter

Part of the magic of Facebook as a communications tool is that

once the staff updates the site, the new information will show up on

the pages of those that have become a fan of the chapter.

An additional strategy to building traffic and brand awareness is for the Chapter to establish a Twitter account as well. By tweeting

updates on research, Walk news, and events, the staff can add links to

drive viewers directly to either the Facebook fan page, or the JDRF

website.

Therefore, by having a chapter presence in social media it can

leverage the links to drive users to the information that they are

seeking. In the process, the JDRF Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter has the opportunity to build a new community of followers and

fundraisers.

Want to meet other type 1 advocates in your community? Check out our Conversations for a Cure at Facebook http://bit.ly/4ZmO1L about 2 hours ago

from TweetDeck

http://bit.ly/4ZmO1L

http://twitter.com/JDRFBayArea/status/6211573023

http://twitter.com/JDRFBayArea/status/6211573023

http://www.tweetdeck.com/


Recommendation 2.0

New Messaging Strategy

As the Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter thinks about how to

reach its audience, this is also a fundamental time to re-evaluate how

it talks to them. At its core, JDRF exists to find a cure for diabetes.

But what does that mean to the people it’s trying to have a dialog with, and how do they think about the disease and its cure?

To get a deeper understanding of diabetes and how people think

about it, this study conducted an elicitation sample of a number of

people who were directly and indirectly affected by type-1 diabetes.

The study showed not just what they think about diabetes, but how it

relates to their lives on a daily basis and how they connect themselves

to JDRF and the Walk for Diabetes.

The methodology was fairly simple. Each of the study’s

participants was asked to supply a number of images that represents

how they live with diabetes and their connections to JDRF and the Walk. The images could be photographs, magazine pictures, or

drawings. The gathered collections ranged from simple to prolific.

Madison

12 years old, diagnosed with type-1 diabetes at the age of

three.

33 images

Most notable were the seven pictures of people with sad,

expressionless faces.

“Sometimes it sucks for the people who are not smiling,

because we have to test our blood sugar a lot and we have to

take medicine every time we eat,”12

Kim

Professional, mother and wife

Diabetic for 30 years

Most prominent image is of her family

“If I didn’t have the support of my family, I don’t think I

would be able to make sure that I’m eating right, exercising

and monitoring my medications so that I’m still here,”13


Kara


16 year old son diagnosed with type-1 in early childhood

Prominent picture is of Ben taken a year before he was

diagnosed

“It represents his freedom, his life before all of this started,”14

Troy


Daughter Cameron diagnosed at the age of two

Prominent picture is of a clock

“From the day she was diagnosed, we lived around the clock.

We had to eat her meals at certain time, the shot regimen,

too. At 5 o’clock we ate dinner. At 6 we had a shot.

Everything is calculated around the clock, and the clock never

stops.”15

Toccara

Professional Father, boyfriend, and best friend all have diabetes

Prominent picture is of a pregnant Halle Berry who reminds

her of her best friend who is diabetic and pregnant

“I think it means to me that nothing is impossible, but when

you have diabetes there are a few more mountains to climb

and more challenges in doing what other people can do.”16

Building a Mental Model

In relating the images to JDRF and especially the Walk, there is

a significant mental model that constructs around the concepts of

family, support, freedom, and happiness. Madison, the diabetic 12 year old said her mental image of the Walk is the support created by

the thousands of shoes at the event. She simply said, “It makes me

feel like I’m not alone.” Similar themes came from the elicitation of

Troy who displayed a picture of her daughter surrounded by her

kindergarten class at the Walk. “To me, it’s the epitome of support

and coming together,” said Troy. Kim’s picture of the Walk is one of

children. “They are the ones that embody the hope and spirit of

JDRF.”

Ironically it’s one of those children, Madison, who laid out a

narrative construct with her pictures to tell the story of living with


diabetes both before and after a cure. Neatly arranged on a piece of

paper (see appendix p34), Madison described how she would keep the

pictures of all the sad faces on the upper left side of the page and

move all the happy faces down to the lower right. In her mind, she

sees the images as telling as story as though she were reading from

the pages of a book. Her story begins with sad people affected by

diabetes at the beginning of the book and concludes with the fairy tale ending of happy faces after the discovery of the cure.

Each of the elicitations as documented in the appendix of this

study presents their own unique perspectives on diabetes, JDRF and

the Walk. Combined, they write their own narrative for which we can

construct a model of consumer insights.

Consumer Insights into Diabetes

Diabetes is hard on families

Exceptionally hard on parents

Physical and emotional struggle for patients with type-1 diabetes

Lives are rigidly rules by medicines and machines

Consumer Insights into JDRF

Represents a means to a cure

Finding a cure means a return to innocence for our children

Consumer Insights into the Walk for Diabetes

Family

Coming together

Support

Reinforces a sense of not being alone

Additionally, the mental model map and ladder would resemble

the structure on the next page.


Happiness Innocence Freedom

Cure

Children

Families Not Alone Empathy

School Teams

Corp. Teams

Togetherness Support

WALK

Research Hope

JDRF

Death Complications

Lost innocence

Meters

Health Emotional Other Medicines Pump

Ball & Chain

Burdensome Insulin Equipment

Diabetes


From its inception, JDRF has been about research. But based

upon this new mental model, it has a unique opportunity to rework its

brand by emphasizing the social role it plays in people’s lives by

connecting diabetics and their families to a broader sense of

community. This study does not by any means advocate diminishing

the research role of JDRF. It does however see a strategic opportunity

in specifically crafting a communications campaign that attracts people to JDRF for the very role they see it playing in their lives.

Communications Strategy Leveragable Insight: It’s about connecting children,

families, and friends

Strategy: Connection Empathy

Desired Involve diabetics Recruit new walkers

Response

Competitive All diabetics People who never walked

Frame

Customer Diabetics & Families Non diabetics who know one

Profile

Main Connect to those Support someone you love

Message who care

Rationale Speaks to diabetics Empowers people to show

who feel alone they care

Branding Messages

The elicitation study not only leads to two specific strategic communications strategies, it also leads to a specific mental image as

to not what JDRF is all about, but rather who. It’s about children.

This finding leads to an interesting paradox, since the vast majority of

people with diabetes are adults. The CDC reports that there are 23

million Americans over the age of twenty living with diabetes.17 But

for unknown medical reasons, each year more children are diagnosed


with type-1 diabetes than ever before. Eventually, they mature to

become part of the larger pool of adult diabetics.

For years, the public face of JDRF has been former 1960’s

television star Mary Tyler Moore. Moore has battled type-1 diabetes

nearly all of her life and is loyal advocate on the need for a cure. Yet,

despite her long time association with JDRF, not a single respondent in this study produced a picture of Moore, or for that matter even

mentioned her name. Every subject interviewed for this study instead

had in part a mental construct involving children. Holding up a picture

of her young daughter, Troy said, “This is the one that brings it

home.”18

In talking specifically about the Walk, Toccara produced a picture

of some children playing and commented, “It’s about helping children

lead normal lives.”19

The images of the children are not just symbols; in almost every

respect they are tangible connections to the raw emotions that become an important link between a family’s struggles with diabetes and the

promise of help. Kara, looking at the picture of her son in the baseball

uniform needed only a simple reflection to underscore the importance

of the connection. “To me, he’ll always be this little boy,”20 said Kara.

Understanding this strong connection is one reason why JDRF needs to

critically consider making children the face of JDRF and its activities,

and not Moore.

Finally, this study also points to a strategic opportunity for JDRF

to rethink how it brands itself. Since JDRF is fundamentally an

organization that raises money to support research, its official brand

message says it is “dedicated to finding a cure.” While it is certainly a

true statement about the organization, this study shows it is clearly not the core value that our respondents see in JDRF. To them, the

cure is only means to an end—that end is a return to innocence,

freedom, and happiness. Along the way, what they are really looking

for is connectiveness, empathy, and support. Therefore, the brand

needs to reflect that. Instead of a brand that revolves solely around

“finding a cure,” this study suggests two alternatives. The first

possible branding message responds to JDRF’s core mission and what

the respondents see as its core value: “JDRF: Embracing each

other by funding the cure.” The second suggestion is both simple,

symbolic, and value driven: “JDRF: The Cure Community.” Central

in this branding message is the cure. But equally powerful, is the


sense that JDRF if the place for people to feel connected and not

alone. Communities provide support. They also provide hope. The

JDRF community is clearly searching for a cure to return their lives to

a place of innocence.

Conclusions In conclusion, this case study finds that the JDRF

Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter has reached a plateau in its most

successful fundraiser, the Walk for Diabetes. Its positioning close to the holidays has proved to be a challenging time frame to generate

both corporate walk team commitments and family team solicitations

when so many people are focused on Christmas, Hanukkah and New

Years. The Chapter staff has therefore taken an appropriate strategy

change and moved the Walk to February 27th instead of the end of

January. While the change in strategy presents risks, the Chapter has

many external factors working its favor and has already proceeded

with a proactive communications campaign to notify stake holders of

the move.

To better communicate with its families, walk teams, and stake

holders, this study has two primary recommendations. The first is

establishing a Facebook Fan page and Twitter account for the Chapter. By entering the social media world, the Chapter will have

another tool to engage and recruit families through the very media

platforms many of them are already using.

The final recommendation is for the Chapter and JDRF as a

whole to broadly change how it is branding itself. This study finds a

disconnection between the core mission of JDRF and what many of its

stakeholders see as its core value. The elicitation study finds that

people affected by type-1 diabetes want more than a cure. In the

case of JDRF’s main fundraiser, the Walk for Diabetes, they clearly see

it as a means of support and empathy. Their strongest mental

metaphors of diabetes are children and the innocence that’s

represented in their faces, a mental picture that’s clearly the opposite

of the real life struggles they face in managing type-1 diabetes. These revelations therefore create an opportunity to build a

communications strategy to more effectively recruit both diabetic and

non-diabetics to the Walk to raise money for a cure. Finally, it’s also

reveals the need to re-brand the organization to better reflect not just

what JDRF does, but how it relates to people’s lives. In holding the

picture of her son, Kara said, “This is our hope and our hard work that

together we will find a cure.”


1 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fact sheet, www.jdrf.org 2 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fact sheet, www.jdrf.org 3 Centers for Disease Control, National Diabetes Fact Sheet, p10 4 Centers for Disease Control, Diabetes and Flu Information, www.cdc.gov/diabetes/news.doc.flu 5 Journal of Diabetes Research, December 2009, p2225 6 Susan G Komen financial audit, 2008, p33 7 JDRF-MN/ND Chapter 8 Minnesota Dept of Employment and Economic Development, October 2009 9 Giving USA Foundation, 2009 report, p3 10 Gallup, Inc. Weekly Economic Report, Nov. 24, 2009 11 Compete.com 12 Appendix, p22 13 Appendix, p25 14 Appendix, p27 15 Appendix, p28 16 Appendix, p30 17 CDC, National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2007, www.cdc.gov 18 Appendix, p28 19 Appendix, p31 20 Appendix, p27


Appendix

Diabetes Elicitation: Madison


Madison is a 12 year old girl who was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes at the age of 3.

She is insulin dependent and wears an insulin pump 24 hours a day.

33 Pictures

7 images of people with sad, expressionless, or scowling faces

“Sometimes it sucks for the people who are not smiling, because we have to

test our blood sugar a lot and we have to take medicine every time we eat.”

“Some people are staring, like, ‘You’re kidding?’ But all of them don’t seem very happy.”

More images of Sad people

“I don’t think many people like having it.” “It’s not like taking a walk in the park. It’s like being the care taker the dinosaur

museum, you have to make sure you don’t want to bump into statues and ruin them.

You don’t want to have a high blood sugar and become sick, which can make you

throw up that way.”

4 images of people with happy, smiling expressions

“We can still be happy we can still do fun things like go to camp.”

2 pictures of insulin pumps and a dinosaur. The dinosaur represents the old

pumps and how big and clunky they were.

o The pumps represent one of the three options you have to insulin: pump, shot, pen

o Madison calls her pump a “Pixie.” (small fairy) It’s small, light, and

can do lots of stuff.

6 pictures of food o All high card foods: rice, honey, beans, lasagna, sugar, cookies, pop

tarts.

“The pop tarts are like 80 carbs.”

“I put them down because we have to bolus, or give shots for it. Either way we have

to take insulin.”

“I have animal crackers and blueberries, because that’s what we want to eat when

we’re low. And sugar because that’s basically what we want to stay away from all

the time.”

1 picture of Blood

“Because we have to see blood every day.”

4 pictures of glucose meters and insulin pumps o Represent the machines it takes to keep her alive.



2 images of New Mexico, state flag and Lovelace Hospital where Madison was

diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 3.

2 pictures of shoes.

o Represent the JDRF Walk

“Because that’s when we raise money to find a cure, and lots of people come.”

1 image of the Target logo

“They support the Walk. They usually have a lot of walkers, like all in red.

Everywhere we go when we walk around the Mall of America, you see people in red from Target.”

Most important picture

Picture of the JDRF Walk T-Shirt

“Because that was part of the T-shirt we got when we walked for diabetes

and there were many, many, many people there and raised a lot of money

for research, and it makes me feel like I’m not alone.”

What picture best represents the walk?

She chooses the T-shirt picture again.

Because it has the JDRF logo even though, “you need a magnifying glass to

see it.” Image has many shoes which in her mind signifies lots of people

“Because it means there are going to be many people coming out to support

us.”

Are there any pictures that represent JDRF?

Profile picture of woman with kind of a blank expression in the lower right

central portion of the collage

“She’s kind of in between.”

“Because she’s like sad and happy at the same time, and they’re trying to

make it better by raising money to find a cure, so we can be happier

knowing that we are like five million dollars, or even one cent closer to a cure.”

“She’s happy because we’re trying to get there and sad because it’s kind of

annoying to have to watch out for yourself all the time.”

How does participation in the Walk change any of these images?

It makes people happier

Is there a picture that you’d like to the Walk to become?

Madison points to picture of smiling woman

“Because she’s really happy… knowing that we’re closer than we were at he

beginning when we started.”



“I think we’re close because we’re tried to transfer eyelet cells from pigs into people.

That might work and it might not.

Regrouping pictures

Madison would have groups all the sad people on the left and all the happy

people on the right. And may the pumps and meters in the middle.

“Like when you start a book that’s the beginning and that the end.”

She clearly sees this as a story, a story that begins with sad people affected by

diabetes and one that ends with happy people are living free of diabetes.

JDRF: Our Story of Happiness (Happiness through research) (Research building

stories of happiness) (The Science To A Cure) (The Cure Community) (Driven to

Cure) (Funding the Cure, Finding the happiness)

Diabetes Elicitation: Kim


Kim is a professional woman who is an insulin dependent type-1 diabetic and has

lived with the disease for more than 30 years. Her brother is also type-1 and has

suffered serious health complications including kidney failure and vision loss.

5 pictures

Picture of strawberries o Needs to be fresh; stays away from as much processed food as

possible

o Helps with management of her diabetes

Picture people exercising

o Critical to her management of the diabetes

“Walking, running, biking, every single day is an absolute necessity.”

Picture of an insulin pump

o The tools that help her manage the disease

Picture of pills o The additional medications Kim now has to take as she gets

older

“I’ve never been one to get upset over being called a diabetic or having that label because it doesn’t define who I am, so this is just a tool to help me

manage it so I don’t have to really think about it.”

Picture of Mike and Madison (Husband & daughter) o To represent family and the support she gets from them for

fundraising and disease management

o It becomes a family issue

Most important Picture? Family

“If I didn’t have the support of my family, I don’t think I would be able to

make sure that I’m eating right, exercising and monitoring my medications so that I am here.”

“It really didn’t occur to me until about seven years ago that I would even

be around to see Madison married. You know, because I’ve had it for over 30 years. And there are certain complications that come out after a certain

amount of time. So, as I was growing up and there were no glucometers

and there were certainly no insulin pumps and there were none of the tools

to help me best manage my disease, I didn’t think I was going to be around that long.”

Pictures are represents something of a fear component knowing that she

may not be in the picture some day

Kim’s brother who also has type-1 has already had a kidney transplant and

eye surgery

Diabetes Elicitation: Kim


“It’s the choices that you make and I choose to eat healthy and exercise

and take my drugs so that I can erase that fear.”

Picture that represents JDRF?

“The picture that would represent JDRF is a cure, and I don’t have a picture because there is no cure right now. But I believe a secondary picture would be

one of hope because I believe that JDRF is going to be the one that finds a cure.”

Picture of the WALk Pictures of the kids

“They are the ones that embody the hope and the spirit of JDRF.”

Picture of what you want JDRF to become?

“How about a picture of nothing? Let’s get rid of it. It exists no longer. Lets get it

done and put ourselves out of a job.”

In terms of the walk, a picture of an empty Mall

Diabetes Elicitation: Kara


Kara is a professional woman whose teenaged son is an insulin dependent type-1

diabetic.

3 pictures

Picture of Kara’s son Ben taken the summer before he was diagnosed at 7 years old.

o Picture is of Ben in his baseball uniform, bending over and hold tying

his shoe

o Ben is 16 now

“To me it’s innocence and youth, and carefree.”

“It represents the days before the constant struggles and battles. It’s emotional to me.”

“It represents his freedom, his life before all of this started.”

“You don’t know how precious this is until something happens in life.”

“And I wish for him to have that innocence back and not feel the burden of

having diabetes.”

“To me he’ll always be this little boy.”

2nd picture of an insulin pump

o Ben went on a pump on January and it’s been a life changing experience for him

o It represents the freedom from shots

3rd picture of the JDRF logo of tennis shoes

o this represents the Walk o This is HOPE

“This is our hope and our hard work that together we will find a cure.”

Which Picture is most important? The hope for a cure

Picture she could not find?

Looked for a picture of a ball and chain o Represents what diabetes must feel like to a person who has it.

“I Hate that he doesn’t feel as good as he should feel and I don’t know if he even

knows what normal feels like because he’s always high or low, or cranky.”

Picture or image that best represents JDRF?

The sneakers

“The cure ties in with the hope of the return to innocence and freedom, so in a way maybe all three of these pictures represent that.”

Diabetes Elicitation: Troy


Troy is a professional woman whose teenaged daughter is an insulin dependent type-

1 diabetic. She feels incredible weight and responsibility for her care and health and

struggles to manage the constant attention the disease requires.

4 pictures

Picture of Daughter, Cameron o Diagnosed with diabetes at 2 years old

o This picture was taken when she was 8 years old—she’s now 15.

“It was that promise that I made to myself when she was diagnosed that I

would do everything I could to be able to look at her in the eye one day and

say I did everything I could to take care of you.”

Second picture of Cameron with her first grade classmates and their walk

team-Cameron’s Coalition

o Her friends gathered around her to recognize her

“It’s just how having he diabetes has made her special among her peers and her

peers have supported her. How her school has supported her and the journey that

she’s gone through.”

Picture of a Clock

o The clock has been significant in so many ways

“From the day she was diagnosed, we lived around the clock. We had to eat her meals at certain times. The shot regimen. At 5 o’clock we ate dinner. At

6 we had a shot. Everything is calculated around the clock, and the clock

never stops.”

“I can never look at the clock and not think about how it pertains to her diabetes.”

Cameron’s volleyball picture

o Picture is both a triumph and a struggle. It’s a triumph because she is

able to play sports; but a struggle because of all the extra work that is involved.

“If people understood what she has to do to play a game of volleyball. People take it

so for granted. She’s my hero for all that she has to do, even in and out of sports.”

Most important picture?

Picture of Troy and Her Daughter—it’s the one that keeps her going.

“This is the one that brings it home.

Is there a picture or image that represents JDRF?

The picture of her classmates

“It serves as the mechanism to create and support the coming together for

that reason.”

Diabetes Elicitation: Troy


Is there a picture that symbolizes the walk?

A picture of Cameron’s kindergarten class at the Walk. All bright, smiling, happy faces.

“To me it’s the epitome of a Walk team and support and coming together.”

Is there a picture of what you’d like JDRF to become?

Diabetes Elicitation: Toccara


Toccara is a professional woman who does not have diabetes, but her father is type-

2 and suffers from complications of his diabetes, her boyfriend is type-2, and her

best friend is type-1 and has struggled to maintain her health and get pregnant.

9 images

First image: picture of a pregnant Halle Berry on cover of InStyle magazine o Represents her friend Becky (Bex) she was diagnosed with diabetes at

8 years old. She’s had many complications and take medication for

her liver. “So getting pregnant was a real big deal for her.” Took her a

year of regulating her blood sugars before she could get pregnant.

“Diabetes is a part of her but it’s not who she is.”

“At this point and time I think a lot of people think of diabetes as if you have a cold, They don’t really think about the hard impact it has on your life and your body.”

“For this picture, I think it means to me that nothing is impossible, but

when you have diabetes there are a few more mountains to climb and a

more challenges in doing what other people can do.”

Image of child with crank in her back

o Represents the work of parents to wind up their children

“It’s a lot of work to get them functioning again and wind them up. It’s one thing to

figure out why their child is not feeling well, and what it is. And once you do figure it

out, then it’s trying to figure out what is the right amount of insulin, and is it a shot or can your regulate it with a pill, and it’s a process to get them wound up and going

again, to be themselves.”

Picture of pill bottles

o Represents all the medicine it takes to keep people alive

“There isn’t a cure right now so anyone who is type 1 or type 2, the majority

are on some sort of medication, very few can moderate it with just diet.”

“For diabetics it’s never ending. There’s not a cure right now. It’s always

there in their future and in their past.”

Picture of older man with cut line “I never thought it could happen to me.” o Represents her dad who was diagnosed four years ago—hasn’t taken

care of himself.

“Even with Diabetes people think you need to eat different and regulate your blood sugar. People don’t really understand how your whole body functions.”

Picture of smiling woman—looks completely healthy. Cut line says “The

Journey to Healthy.”

o She likes the cut line, because is an ongoing journey to take care of yourself—it’s an ongoing battle



Dana Tores picture: Olympic swimmer who looks great and beat the odds by

getting on the Olympics team at 40 years old

“I think diabetics are that way too. They don’t let one little thing that is a

part of them hang them up. They get through it and do a lot of things.”

Picture of a child off by himself in a crowd of playing children. o It signifies being different, not part of the crowd

Picture of fat child.

o Represents how obesity leads to type 2 diabetes

Most important Picture

Picture of pregnant Halle Berry

o Reminds her of the extreme health challenges and difficulties that face diabetics

Groupings

Group 1: Halle Berry Pix: Health Challenges

Group 2: Old man: It can happy to anyone—especially type two if you don’t take care of yourself

Group 3: Medicine bottles: Health insurance and health care issues

Missing Picture Could not find a picture of a family

“It’s not an individual disease. Whether you’re a child with siblings, or you’re

married, or an adult counting on your parents or siblings if you get sick, it touches everyone.”

Any images relate to JDRF?

Image of the pill bottles which signifies medicine and research

“You can’t go to your doctor’s office and expect a cure. You can’t do it with cancer,

you can’t do it with diabetes. If you’re going to improve health care, you have to

look at these bigger reasons that are impacting a huge population. Do you just

manage it, or are you trying to find a cure? If you’re into this cause, you’re looking for a cure.”

Does JDRF help resolve some of these images for you?

No

“As a national organization, I think that there is still too much disconnect. I don’t

know that what happens at the local level always filters up. I don’t think it also

works in reverse. And I think if there was a little stronger ties to that, those stronger ties and a stronger network might accomplish a little bit more.”

On the Walk

The picture of the children playing—“it’s about helping children lead normal

lives.” Would choose a picture of a family or a community, because it

symbolizes coming together



Picture what you’d like to see JDRF Become

Picture of Dana Tores (40 year old Olympian) Success that you can achieve

“It says, ‘here’s what I am. Here’s what I can become.’ I can still be what I want to

be. If I work hard and figure out what works for me I can do it.”

“This is something she knew she could do and just went for it.” [JDRF is the same

way—they know they can do it and the have to keep trying to find the cure]

jdrf communications study

Documents