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The importance of pro bono partnerships

Pro bono partnerships are crucial to the success of MS Research Australia as an organisation and we are proud of, and grateful to, all of our supporters who provide us with services, volunteers, goods or their expertise at little or no cost. Over a 12 month period our pro bono partners have donated more than $425,000 worth of in kind support to Kiss Goodbye to MS, ensuring our campaign and organisational costs remain low and the maximum possible funding available for research is achieved.

The Kiss Goodbye to MS campaign in particular, runs on a very lean budget, meaning that expensive online and print advertising campaigns are not feasible nor something we would consider cost effective. However, thanks to one of our wonderful Ambassadors, we recently partnered with the world’s largest media investment group, GroupM, who donated their services to promote our 2016 Kiss Goodbye to MS campaign. GroupM coordinated an online advertising campaign which resulted in more than 400,000 unique users receiving our message. GroupM delivered a comprehensive online advertising campaign that successfully targeted the Kiss Goodbye to MS demographic of 25-50 years of age.

Timothy Whitfield, the Director of Technical Operations at GroupM, organised a well thought out approach that was executed with precision. Not only did Timothy coordinate the GroupM team to make this happen, but suppliers were engaged including Moat who measured the view-ability of the advertisements and Neilson who measured the target demographics.

In addition to the 400,000 unique users, there were more than 600 clicks and in excess of 400 total hours exposed.

Dr Matthew Miles, CEO of MS Research Australia said, ‘MS Research Australia is really thrilled and grateful for the pro bono support that GroupM has provided for our Kiss Goodbye to MS campaign. The ability to market our campaign using various media channels completely pro bono is very important to us and something we would not have been able to do without their support. This has created significant awareness about MS.’

MS Research Australia’s analysis has shown that, over a 2 year period, the organisation received an estimated value of pro bono support to the level of approximately $1.32 million. This included such wide ranging areas as skilled volunteers in risk and finance with some of Australia’s biggest banks to the donation of kitchen white goods. From legal assistance to public relations to venue and catering. From the wavering of speaking fees to free insurance cover to website security testing. The spirit of volunteerism, using networks and pro bono support has been a key reason on how a small team can amplify its reach.