The Last Hurrah
a tradition comes to an end

Dennis Jeanes
Manager, Communications and Advocacy
Canadian Orthopaedic Association

November 2008 marked the end of an era - and sparked a necessary, new evolution for the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation. The news was delivered from coast-to-coast: the Foundation's Board of Directors made the responsible decision to cease national administration of the Hip Hip Hooray! campaign.

"Everyone is disappointed. It was the hardest decision the Board has ever had to make," says Angelique Berg, the Foundation's CEO. "We've all been actively and personally involved with the Hip Hip Hooray! campaign and we've been so to raise funds for good works in our communities and across the nation. But, funds have been steadily declining. That's why the only responsible decision - for our donors, our volunteers, and our organization - is to let go before there's no charitable value left."

At its peak, Hip Hip Hooray! raised just under $2 million, but that was quite a few years ago. Times have changed. This year's event raised gross revenues of only $730,000. After deducting direct expenses, the net proceeds of $79,000 were placed into a community investment fund for disbursement by the end of March.

This decision might have been forced following the 2007 event, however, the Foundation received a timely cash infusion from an anonymous $420,000 bequest, which restored community funding levels and allowed effort into solutions to the decline. "Those funds helped us to do everything reasonable to reinvigorate the Hip Hip Hooray! campaign," says Dr. Kevin Orrell, chair of the Foundation's Board of Directors. "Among many efforts, we examined new data collection options, reallocated staff to contract a business development officer, retained a professional marketing agency that specialized in sponsorships. Since March 2007, we've approached more than 200 national companies for sponsorship. This year, we were hit with two blows: another significant decline in funds raised, and none of the companies approached were willing to fund the campaign."

The lack of interest is no reflection on salesmanship but underlines instead a cultural shift where most corporate citizens these days prefer to invest in prevention rather than recovery. With its long-term association with and focus on surgical intervention, Hip Hip Hooray! simply no longer fit corporate Canada's sponsorship criteria. Aside insufficient cash to fund the campaign's pre-spend requirements, fund-raising during a near-recession without sponsors to help cushion against a shortfall would not be responsible.

Over the long term, Hip Hip Hooray!'s lasting legacy is the network of people and communities that were its muscle and sinew, as well as the services it enabled. Hip Hip Hooray!, says Angelique, "drew patients to the Foundation and we learned what their needs were, what kind of services they would find of value." In an effort to answer the many callers and letters with questions, the Foundation's staff started matching people who needed surgery with those who had already undergone surgery. At first, the matchmaking was all very informal, but as the queries increased in number beyond their ability to cope, staff examined patient-to-patient programmes run by the MS and cancer societies, which led to the creation of Ortho Connect in 2006. The Foundation's web site also began offering expanded patient information on various aspects and types of orthopaedic surgery. And, last year, the Foundation launched its quarterly newsletter, OrthoLink. All these initiatives were grounded in the experiences of real patients and their surgeons, and would not have been possible without Hip Hip Hooray!.

However, to keep these channels of communication and education open, the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation will have to develop its competencies as a social-marketer and public educator. "We need to move upstream to remain relevant to a knowledge-savvy public, and in this changing fund-raising environment, to continue to make a difference," says Angelique. "While it's very sad to see a tradition go, the Foundation needs to keep evolving. The mission is too important to Canadians."

Moving "upstream" from musculoskeletal disease and injury leads to the determinants of musculoskeletal health and the "Because You Can" public education strategy, which seeks to reduce the need for orthopaedic surgery by half during the next 20 years. "In our meetings with potential sponsors, we were often heartened by the encouragement we received for this strategy," says Kevin Orrell. "By addressing such fundamentals as nutrition, physical activity, weight control, injury prevention and the fun of living and moving longer and stronger, we broaden our appeal and align our strategic goals with those of other funding organizations and corporate sponsors."

"We made the announcements about Hip Hip Hooray! with much trepidation" says Angelique, "but quickly discovered that people understood why the decisions were necessary. The fund-raising numbers since 1998 said it all. What we didn't anticipate is the number of people who want to be a part of Because You Can. Even though we've made a disappointing announcement, people see the need and the future."

The way forward will be challenging - with only two full-time employees and especially under the current economic circumstances - but the direction is clear: lifelong bone and joint health. In November and December, a fully-sponsored pilot print-ad campaign positioned bone and joint health in the public consciousness. A follow-up direct-mail campaign will reinforce the message and appeal for funds for future programme development to advance the Because you Can strategy.

It's a new evolution for the Foundation, with a clear, compelling call to action: foster lifelong bone and joint health in Canada. As the Foundation crosses the bridge from event-based fundraiser to social marketer and public educator, it was Hip Hip Hooray! that enabled the transformation and made clear the path to the future.