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Michael J. Fox Foundation | Case Study | ON24

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Michael J. Fox Foundation brings patients and researchers together through webinars

  • 4,900

    More people reached through its webinar series, Third Thursdays

  • 55%

    Increase in average webinar audience size through on-demand delivery

  • 98%

    Of surveyed webinar attendees would recommend Third Thursdays series to others

Capabilities

Use Cases

Number of Employees

  • 0 to 250

About

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition. The foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $800 million in research to date, the foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure.

Introduction

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder attacking the central nervous system. It inhibits motor systems at first, affects thinking and behavior later and often induces dementia in its advanced stages. It has no cure, yet, meaning it lasts a lifetime. To those affected by Parkinson’s Disease, community support is central to its management.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research provides this support and more. Dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s and developing better treatments for those living with the disease, the foundation uses a variety of digital tools to engage, educate and inform its community of patients, supporters, researchers and health care providers.

Problem

Parkinson’s is a complex disease requiring a constant stream of content on treatments, research and personal lifestyles choices that help patients manage the disease. For The Michael J. Fox Foundation, providing this material is critical for the well-being of people living with Parkinson’s and those treating it—plus more. It also needs to encourage clinical research participation, provide updates to its donors and encourage more donations.

Any solution had to:

  • Share patient perspectives on daily life with
    Parkinson’s disease
  • Offer expert testimony on Parkinson’s standard of care
    and research developments
  • Promote clinical research participation opportunities
  • Provide up-to-date information and resources to Parkinson’s clinicians and researchers 

In effect, the foundation needed a flexible, powerful solution that could provide critical information to a range of audiences— and do so in a simple, easy-to-use manner appealing to both consumers and medical professionals.

Solution

The Michael J. Fox Foundation turned to the ON24 platform for help. With a powerful webinar platform in place, the foundation could serialize its resources and news updates, allowing visitors—both day-to-day consumers and researchers— to digest content on their own time.

In fact, the platform’s ease of use and overall convenience enabled the foundation to run a monthly series, Third Thursdays Webinars. In addition to serving its community, the foundation could finally:

  • Better understand their audience and its needs. With a data-rich webinar platform in place, presenters can collect information on what messages resonate with which audience, what content is most useful for attendees and capture nuanced information that can inform future content and outreach efforts.
  • Maintain live engagement through on-demand webinars and maximize reach. Through ON24, the foundation seamlessly transforms every live webinar into on-demand content, providing its community with a live forum to engage with the foundation at their convenience. This helps the foundation get the most out of its resources and build a strong center of expertise.
  • Share information and vital resources. With the ability to embed downloadable resources directly in a webinar, the foundation can provide attendees with slide presentations, reports and other resources to read and share later. The foundation also uses additional interactivity tools within their webinars, such as polls, surveys and Q&A, to supply www.on24.com additional information on given topics and to promote the Fox Trial Finder, an online tool connecting volunteers with the clinical trials.
  • Mobile and browser compatibility for any platform. For people living with Parkinson’s, laptops and computers are difficult to use. But with ON24, the foundation can offer webinars on virtually any platform, like the iPad—a popular choice among patients—with no downloads or add-ons required.

With ON24, The Michael J. Fox Foundation found a solution that ticked every box it needed ticked—and then more. With ON24, the foundation could take advantage of:

  • A scalable platform. The foundation’s Third Thursdays audience averages up to 900 live and 500 on-demand attendees.
  • Continued audience engagement. Third Thursdays attendees has brought in more than 4,900 new community members and counting.
  • Viewer satisfaction. In follow-up surveys sent after each webinar, 98 percent of respondents said they would recommend Michael J. Fox Foundations series to others.
  • Expanded use of webinars for education. Foundation scientists are using ON24 to connect with Parkinson’s researchers to discuss new innovations, provide updates and share available resources.

With a powerful platform in place, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is free to focus on what matters: engaging, educating and informing its community of patients, supporters, researchers and health care providers with the latest information they need.

"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

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