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Campaign Execution Best Practices from the 2024 Dance Marathon Campaign Activation Award Finalists 

Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ Ignite: Peer-to-Peer Leadership Conference held in Kansas City, MO from July 18-21.  


A great campaign engages your audience on multiple levels and creates a platform to highlight the cause in a new light. It uses social media and digital engagement beyond the occasional tweet, post, or picture and creates a buzz, above and beyond the promotion itself. Effective campaigns use targeted efforts and provide great content to increase awareness of, engagement with, and participation in your Dance Marathon program. The finalists for this year’s campaign activation award used their creativity and communication skills to accomplish increased engagement and more! Read below to learn more about the finalists for this year’s Campaign Activation Award.  

Dance Marathon at the University of Florida’s campaign #FightForMore is this year’s winner of the Campaign Activation Award, you can read more about their efforts here: Dance Marathon at the University of Florida Receives 2024 Campaign Activation Award.


RaiseRED Dance Marathon at the University of Louisville  

When raiseRED set out to choose their campaign this year, they made it their goal to find something relatable to and inclusive of all participants – dancers, leadership, families, community members, etc. Landing on “Fight Like a Kid” they knew they had found something short and catchy that provided a unifying message, reinforcing their mission and encouraging participation. 

What made raiseRED’s campaign worthy of being an award finalist was how they aligned the campaign with their activation and the sprint model best practices. Throughout their recruitment sprint efforts, the campaign was modified and promoted as “Join the Fight”, then during their activation sprint to encourage fundraising they utilized “Ignite the Fight”, and finally during their annual Commonwealth push working with other programs in the state to “unite” in raising funds they utilized “unite the fight” language. This customization of the campaign kept the awareness and cause connection they were working so hard to build but also aligned their messaging with their key calls to action. Further incorporating their campaign into the event through theme hours, line dance songs and scripting they made sure that the campaign shined through during their final event fundraising pushes.  

Congratulations to raiseRED at the University of Louisville for your intentional campaign activation!  


Pitt Dance Marathon at the University of Pittsburgh 

For the 2023-24 academic year, Pitt Dance Marathon made their central campaign revolve around 2 simple yet powerful words: Rise Above. To Pitt Dance Marathon this campaign was an opportunity to focus on togetherness and education, sharing ways that participants can rise and soar beyond just donating.  

Pitt Dance Marathon is recognized as an award finalist for their excellence in campaign planning through their Campaign Proposal document. The campaign proposal document outlines the rationale behind the campaign, how it can connect participants to the cause & hospital, and how they use it to fundraise, inspire, recruit and educate. By creating this campaign proposal document at the beginning of the year they can ensure they are developing a well-rounded campaign that meets a variety of needs throughout the year. This document has also helped to ensure their entire team understands the meaning of the campaign and how to utilize it in their role.  

Congratulations Pitt Dance Marathon!  


University of South Dakota Dakotathon 

University of South Dakota Dakotathon’s goal this year was to reach a variety of tangible goals, including their overarching goal of remembering their ‘why’ to raising funds: to make an impact on children’s health in South Dakota. Through Dakotathon’s social media content strategy, inclusion of impact statements, and cohesive creative elements, Dakotathon’s Marketing Team targeted college students for participation in events and Dakotathon in general, as well as soliciting potential donors. The team boosted engagement within their current audience by incorporating recurring content that was educational for the audience to understand the organization’s impact and ‘why.’ The team introduced Miracle Kid Monday and CMN Fact Friday, both recurring content that led to profile views where viewers can find more information from our grid. 

Notably, within a 90-day period, Dakotathon’s Instagram account generated an average of 26,500 impressions across all content types. Within accounts reached in a 90-day period, 47% of the accounts reached were non-followers. These metrics were reached through a variety of tactics including tagging other student organizations and encouraging members to share and repost, while utilizing hashtags and Instagram in-app features according to industry trends to increase reach through the algorithm.  

In addition to their social media strategy, Guerilla marketing was applied in their yearlong campaign by displaying Dakotathon graphics on the large screen in the Muenster University Center Dining Hall. In the initial recruitment stages, the dakotathon marketing team printed over 70 interactive flyers with QR codes including the Morale Captain application. The flyers were distributed throughout campus. The marketing team also collaborated with Student News and Media such as the Volante (student newspaper) and Coyote News (student media news) to reach a new audience. 

Congratulations on your recognition as a finalist, Dakotathon!  


Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a national movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in a campus’s dance marathon organization spend a year gaining leadership, teamwork, and nonprofit business experience while raising funds and awareness for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. The year culminates with a final dance marathon event on each campus, where students get to meet patient families treated at their local hospital, participate in games and dancing, enjoy entertainment, and reveal their annual fundraising total. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.