Dance Marathon Leadership Conference: Leveraging Our Network for Student Development

Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a movement, powered by over 300,000 high school and college students on 300 campuses across North America. These students work tirelessly throughout the year to raise funds for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Their hard work culminates in a 6-40 hour celebration on their campus, where participants have the opportunity to rally together as a community for their local CMN Hospital. Students involved in Dance Marathon gain valuable skills in fundraising, peer management, delegation and philanthropy. Each year Miracle Network Dance Marathon hosts a Dance Marathon Leadership Conference (DMLC) to bring students together for collaboration and celebration.

DMLC provides student leaders, campus advisors, and hospital associates the opportunity to network, to learn best practices that have led to Miracle Network Dance Marathon successes, and to spend the weekend planning for the coming year. Presenters and speakers are well-versed in Miracle Network Dance Marathon, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and nonprofit strategy and management.

DMLC attendees each year:

1. Gain an understanding of best practices in peer-to-peer fundraising.
2. Develop effective strategies to raise funds and generate awareness for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.
3. Expand their personal connection to a larger cause and reaffirm their commitment to local kids.
4. Develop professionally through public speaking opportunities, interaction with CMN Hospitals’ corporate partners and industry leaders, and engage in various networking opportunities.

The content presented at DMLC changes to adapt to the topics of interest to attendees and to address the challenges and opportunities of each year. Students are able to submit ideas of what they want to see at this conference and what they view is relevant. They have the opportunity to present on these topics to their peers, as well as campus and hospital professional staff. In 2019, the content consisted of topics such as: building a movement, diversifying revenue streams, fundraising level meetings, high school dance marathon programs, new and emerging programs, creating meaningful partnerships, campaign activation, cause connection, leadership development, and much more.

Participants were surveyed on a variety of questions related to DMLC, including communication prior to the weekend, venue and keynote speaker selection, effectiveness of content delivered and their overall perception of Miracle Network Dance Marathon and CMN Hospitals. 349 participants responded. 

• 93% agreed a moderate to extreme extent that topics and information shared will help increase funds for their Dance Marathon.
• 87% rated that peer-to-peer fundraising content had a moderate to extremely positive impact on their ability to raise funds for their local CMN Hospital.
• 88% reported DMLC 2019 had a moderate to extremely positive impact on their professional networking skills.
• 98% rated their overall experience at DMLC 2019 as moderately to extremely satisfying. DMLC 2018 was 96%.
• 89% of the participants who attended the new and emerging program session reported that the session increased the likelihood of their Dance Marathon program being successful in the coming year a moderate to extreme amount. DMLC 2018 was 84%.
• 98% reported that attending DMLC 2019 positively impacted their overall perception of Miracle Network Dance Marathon as a charitable cause. DMLC 2018 was 98%.

Social media was the primary source of conversation around DMLC and Twitter was the primary vehicle. #DMLC2019 was utilized to track engagement. Sentiment around DMLC was 100% positive. Influencers talked about Dance Marathon and DMLC contributing to 55.2k impressions overall. On Facebook, DMLC generated posts and articles resulted in 10.9k impressions from over 900 attendees.