case study

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

INTRODUCTIONRenowned nonprofit engages the Parkinson’s disease

community

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) is

dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and better

treatments for those living with the disease today. Launched in

2000, MJFF is the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research

worldwide, and all funds come from donor-raised capital.

Among other efforts, the Foundation uses webinars to engage and

inform its audience of patients, supporters, researchers and health

care providers.

SITUATIONThe Foundation’s call to action: get involved!

MJFF webinars serve as a tool for education, stewardship to

donors and supporters, and encouragement of clinical research

participation. The Foundation:

+ Shares patient perspectives on daily life with Parkinson’s disease

+ Offers expert testimony on Parkinson’s standard

of care and research developments

+ Promotes clinical research participation opportunities

+ Provides up-to-date information and resources

to Parkinson’s clinicians and researchers

MJFF needed a reliable webcasting solution that would appeal

to both its consumer and medical professional audiences. The

Foundation chose ON24 Webcast Elite, finding the platform easy

to use by participants and essential to capturing information and

engaging the PD community.

INDUSTRY Nonprofit Organization

ON24 SOLUTION ON24 Webcast Elite

SUMMARY The Michael J. Fox Foundation is

using Webcast Elite to help meet education

and stewardship goals. The Foundation’s series

of Third Thursdays Webinars drew more new

and returning attendees, with over 98% of the

attendees ready to recommend the series to

others. As a result, other groups within the

Foundation are also starting to use Webcast

Elite.

case study MJFF

SOLUTIONUsing Webcast Elite for PD education and stewardship

The most prominent use of Webcast Elite by MJFF is the Third

Thursdays Webinars, a monthly series moderated by Dave Iverson,

a veteran journalist and member of the MJFF Patient Council. The

series presents information and resources around Parkinson’s care

and research topics to an audience of people living with PD, their

loved ones and those who work within the Parkinson’s community.

The Foundation is using Webcast Elite to improve audience

engagement.

+ Gather more registrant data to better understand audience.

MJFF can easily add questions or change fields on the registration

page to reflect its audience and to capture nuanced information

on registrants that will inform future content and outreach efforts.

+ Share information via the Resources Widget. Attendees

can download slide presentations and other print

resources to share with their support groups and family

members. MJFF also links to supplemental information

and to Fox Trial Finder, an online tool that connects

volunteers with the PD clinical trials that need them.

+ Mobile compatibility for the iPad generation. The iPad

is becoming a more attractive form of communication for

PD patients. With Webcast Elite, there are no downloads

or add-ons required for viewing these webinars.

+ Promote on-demand library with each new live webinar. The

Foundation posts all completed webinars to its online library,

providing another opportunity to engage the PD community and

to capture data from those who watch these archived webinars.

RESULTSGrowing the audience, expanding webinars to reach new

audiences

Interest in the MJFF Third Thursdays webinar series grew

considerably. The Foundation’s webinar producer credits attendee

growth to quality content, increased social media and email

marketing efforts, and growing use of the ON24 Webcast Elite

platform capabilities.

+ Scalable platform that supports growing audiences: Webcast

Elite reliably supports an average Third Thursdays audience of 900

live and 500 on-demand attendees with interactive presentations.

+ Continued audience engagement: The Third

Thursdays series introduced MJFF to more than 4,900

new contacts. Nearly 40% of its total audience has

watched more than one Third Thursdays webinar.

+ Viewer satisfaction: In follow-up surveys sent after each

webinar, 98% of respondents said they would recommend

the MJFF Third Thursdays series to others. Participants with

PD consistently comment that the webinars make them

feel less alone, that they value the research insights and feel

hopeful upon learning what’s coming down the road.

+ Expanded use of webinars for education: The success

of the Third Thursdays Webinars motivated other groups

within the Foundation to also use Webcast Elite.

+The MJFF grassroots fundraising group Team Fox

shares best practices with supporters on planning

and implementing successful fundraising events.

+Foundation scientists are using the platform

to connect with Parkinson’s researchers to

discuss updates and available resources.

“The Michael J. Fox Foundation is using ON24 to grow its audience of patients, supporters, researchers and health care providers. The Third Thursdays series introduced us to 4,900 new contacts, and

we’re looking forward to engaging with an even broader audience as we continue to grow this educational opportunity.”

– MAGGIE MCGUIRE

ASST. DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION