UConn's HuskyTHON Receives National Dance Marathon Digital Media Award
HuskyTHON at the University of Connecticut was recently awarded the Digital Media Award at the Miracle Network Dance Marathon Leadership Conference in July. The award recognizes a dance marathon organization that best utilizes digital media to bring the mission of their organization to life, whether it be to highlight a campaign, educate and engage their audiences, or tell a story.
HuskyTHON met an impressive goal in 2018: fundraising over $1 million for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The success was mainly due in part to their strategic utilization of various digital media outlets. The outlets proved to be vital in spreading awareness and generating involvement at the University of Connecticut as well as their surrounding community.
Their goal was not only to raise $1 million, but also to revamp their digital media assets to reflect those of a million dollar non-profit program. HuskyTHON began their journey to $1 million by creating a promotional video showing how significant a million dollars is to their miracle kids and families. Asking questions such as “how big is a million?” and “what would you do with a million dollars?” to some of their donors, doctors, miracle kids, and participants, they were able to add a human element to their sizable monetary goal and a face to their cause.
Throughout the year, HuskyTHON utilized their social media channels to post content that their followers would be excited to share, helping them to broaden their reach and increase awareness about their organization. For example, on Child Health Day in October, they had students stop by their display on campus and write why they commit for the kids on a flame logo icon. They then posted photos of students with their commitments to their Facebook page, allowing students to tag themselves in the photos and share their commitments.
Posted by HuskyTHON on Thursday, October 5, 2017
HuskyTHON also utilized social media as an opportunity to recognize participants for their fundraising efforts and for participating in their events on campus.
For HuskyTHON to reflect the professionalism of their organization, they created a new website, hoping to have a site that was more user-friendly and interconnected with other digital media assets.
The website was designed with the purpose of acting as a central hub for all HuskyTHON-related information. It was able to connect with other digital media accounts such as the HuskyTHON app and real-time updates of its calendar feature. Their app utilizes push notifications to keep app users, their participants, up to date on all things HuskyTHON.
These new changes to HuskyTHON’s digital media presence led to new audiences wanting to interact with the organization. On multiple occasions, local news teams were present to cover HuskyTHON’s events. These stories, including this one from their local NBC station, helped their organization receive recognition to audiences outside of the UConn community. It even attracted rapper Drake to express his support for HuskyTHON on Instagram.
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across North America that fundraise for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since its inception in 1991, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $250 million–ensuring that no child or family fights pediatric illness or injury alone.
Learn more about Miracle Network Dance Marathon: