An interactive mystery production called the Puzzling Plague was performed three nights late last year and raised $21,000 for the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.
Fundraisers have long sought to cultivate longtime donors to become active volunteers and introduce the people in their networks to the organization. The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health’s example of a super supporter boosting its reach is dramatic — literally. A donor helped create a mystery play to engage new audiences, help the community understand the importance of the college’s work, and bring in new donors from her network.
Supporter and local philanthropist Katie Weitz remembers being introduced to the college around 2010. She didn’t think a lot about the college initially. But the more she focused on other causes dear to her heart, the more she saw public health at the center of social change.
We're sorry. Something went wrong.
We are unable to fully display the content of this page.
The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network.
Please allow access to our site, and then refresh this page.
You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one,
or subscribe.
If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at 202-466-1032 or cophelp@philanthropy.com
Fundraisers have always sought to cultivate longtime donors to become active volunteers and introduce the people in their networks to the organization. The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health’s example of a super supporter boosting its reach is dramatic — literally. A donor helped create a mystery play to engage new audiences, help the community understand the importance of the college’s work, and bring in new donors from her network.
Supporter and local philanthropist Katie Weitz remembers being introduced to the college around 2010. She didn’t think a lot about the college initially. But the more she focused on other causes dear to her heart, the more she saw public health at the center of social change.
“The College of Public Health just kept coming up,” Weitz says. The college was helping with “equity issues and health disparities, preventing diseases, screenings, cancer, vaping, sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive justice, gun violence.”
How to Nurture Top Supporters
Finding a champion like Katie Weitz is every fundraiser’s dream. While some super supporters will simply emerge on their own, fundraisers say there are steps you can take to help cultivate them — and keep excited volunteers coming back for more.
Listen to and learn from donors. While nonprofits spend a lot of time explaining their mission to the public, it’s also important for fundraisers to “get to know their donors to learn more about what excites them and what interests them,” says Carla Willis, a managing principal at the fundraising consultancy Washburn & McGoldrick. “That will help provide a road map as to how to engage those donors further and in more meaningful ways.”
Follow their lead. Jessica Janssen Wolford, at the University of Nebraska Foundation, says the university has more than 300 dedicated volunteers on various fundraising committees. The goal, she says, is to let their creativity shine. “This was a really creative, out-of-the box idea on how to engage people, get out the message of the College of Public Health, and raise money,” she says. “It would have been easy to say, ‘Oh, that’s too complicated,’ or ‘Oh, that’s not what we do.’ Instead, our leadership and our team got on board, got excited, and worked with our campaign leaders to execute something that was exciting and fun.” She advises being open to good ideas.
Approach super supporters as partners in spreading the word. The college’s experts were able to help review the script for accuracy and participate in the evening, says Janssen Wolford, while the volunteers took the lead in getting the script, coming up with a theme, and pulling in their networks. “It was that collaboration and partnership that made it a real joy to be a part of,” she says. “From the position of the foundation, it was really successful.”
Eventually, she had an epiphany. “Over the years, it’s become more and more clear to me that public health is the most direct route for social justice in a preventative manner, in a policy manner, and in a community-action manner.”
All in from that point, Weitz became an active supporter of the college. Last year, she was tapped to chair a College of Public Health committee charged with fundraising.
Weitz held a meeting with committee members, including Tom Henne and Tracy Hightower-Henne, to figure out how to create a program that would get people excited about public health. Inspired by a suggestion from Tom Henne, they hatched the idea of creating a mystery theater production. The Hennes were avid mystery-theater attendees and said the format was engaging — but also suited to public health because officials are often trying to solve the mystery of how diseases spread.
They considered holding the play at the Hennes’ home, but Weitz thought it could be bigger and decided to underwrite the production. She hired a local playwright to come up with a public-health mystery, brought in actors to perform it, and found a venue that could accommodate up to 100 people.
The result was an interactive production called the Puzzling Plague, which was performed three nights late last year. Attendees had to use clues from the performance, solve puzzles, and decipher maps to determine what “plague” was infecting the city, how it might be spreading, and what rules they would implement to halt the spread and keep citizens healthy.
“We really got to do the whole spectrum — from epidemiology all the way through to policy, which is what public health is about,” Weitz says.
Anatomy of a Plague Play
To create the play, committee members first had to choose a disease. They avoided Covid-19, concerned it might hit too close to home for some audience members. Instead, they chose a fearsome disease from the past and had experts from the college review the script for accuracy.
Two actors played disease detectives who came in and deputized the audience to help them figure out what the mystery disease was. Attendees each received a blank newspaper front page and were asked to write a headline — they could choose whether to make it sensational or helpful — and draw a picture to warn the public of the mystery disease.
Making the point that charlatans pop up any time there is a mass disease outbreak, the event allowed participants who gave an extra donation to get a “miracle elixir” to ward off the plague. Attendees also could make a donation to speak at the podium about how to deal with the disease — including whether to quarantine infected people.
The success of the event came down to networking. For example, the Hennes had never worked with the College of Public Health before — and had been brought in by Weitz. Now, Weitz, the Hennes, and other committee members leaned on their networks to get attendees to come out for the event.
“There was a thought at the beginning: Maybe our regular large-donor philanthropy people might not really enjoy it,” says Tracy Hightower-Henne. “But then we said, ‘Screw it. Send it out to everyone in our contact list because they’re all going to have so much fun with it.’ And that’s what we did.”
That reach broadened the attendee list. One night targeted young professionals — the elusive donors many nonprofits are trying to court. Weitz says the younger professionals were really into it, with more of them paying to participate in the public debate and a good amount of “smack talk between tables” that wasn’t present on the other nights.
Tristen Menichetti
Toward the end of the evening, Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health, gave attendees a five-minute primer on public health and the work the school does.
Toward the end of the evening, Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health, gave attendees a five-minute primer on public health and the work the school does.
“It turned out to be so much bigger of a success than we had expected and in interesting ways,” Khan says. “People showed up in costume — of their favorite detective — which we had never thought about. At the end of the evening, we couldn’t get people to leave the room; people were so engaged.”
ADVERTISEMENT
A Plan to Bring New Donors Into the Fold
The three nights of the play raised $21,000, says Jessica Janssen Wolford, senior director of development at the University of Nebraska Foundation. She says the university is thrilled to have volunteers who are so excited and invested in coming up with creative ideas. Having a volunteer convene a gathering to figure out how to present public health in an engaging way is unusual.
The play brought in 237 donors, many of whom were new to the college. Janssen Wolford says it’s important for fundraisers to “embrace the creativity and enthusiasm of their supporters. They understand philanthropy and can bring a fresh perspective to fundraising events.”
With new supporters on their rolls, Janssen Wolford says they have a stewardship plan in place to retain those newbies. Fundraisers plan to reach out to them to learn how they heard about the college and what they’re interested in and then use that data to create targeted communications that maintain their interest in public health and supporting the college.
ADVERTISEMENT
Weitz wants other nonprofits and universities to benefit from the play and get people in their communities interested in public health so she’s making the materials — including the script, maps, and puzzles audiences solve during the evening — available electronically to other groups.
“The play has been written. We’ve got all the puzzles. We’ve got all the pieces. We ran it by doctors at the College of Public Health to make sure it’s all accurate,” Weitz says. “So it can go again and again.”
