Page 12 - Winter 2024 Digital inLEAGUE Volume 47 Number 01 with Economic Impact Study

campaign leaders to execute something that was exciting and fun.” She advises being open to good whether to quarantine infected people.
ideas. The success of the event came down to networking. For
Approach super supporters as partners in spreading the word. The college’s experts were able to example, the Hennes had never worked with the College of
help review the script for accuracy and participate in the evening, says Janssen Wolford, while the Public Health before — and had been brought in by Weitz. Now,
volunteers took the lead in getting the script, coming up with a theme, and pulling in their networks. Weitz, the Hennes, and other committee members leaned on
“It was that collaboration and partnership that made it a real joy to be a part of,” she says. “From the their networks to get attendees to come out for the event.
position of the foundation, it was really successful.” “There was a thought at the beginning: Maybe our regular large-

The Evolution to Super Supporter donor philanthropy people might not really enjoy it,” says Tracy
Hightower-Henne. “But then we said, ‘Screw it. Send it out to
Eventually, Weitz had an epiphany. “Over the years, it’s become more and more clear to me that everyone in our contact list because they’re all going to have so
public health is the most direct route for social justice in a preventative manner, in a policy manner, much fun with it.’ And that’s what we did.”
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 That reach broadened the attendee list. One night targeted
young professionals — the elusive donors many nonprofits
chair a College of Public Health committee charged with fundraising. are trying to court. Weitz says the younger professionals were
Weitz held a meeting with committee members, including Tom Henne and Tracy Hightower-Henne, really into it, with more of them paying to participate in the public
to figure out how to create a program that would get people excited about public health. Inspired by debate and a good amount of “smack talk between tables” that
a suggestion from Tom Henne, they hatched the idea of creating a mystery theater production. The wasn’t present on the other nights.
Hennes were avid mystery-theater attendees and said the Toward the end of the evening, Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health, gave attendees a five-
format was engaging — but also suited to public health minute primer on public health and the work the school does.
because officials are often trying to solve the mystery of
how diseases spread. “It turned out to be so much bigger of a success than we had expected and in interesting ways,” Khan
They considered holding the play at the Hennes’ home, 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.”
but Weitz thought it could be bigger and decided to
underwrite the production. She hired a local playwright to A Plan to Bring New Donors Into the Fold
come up with a public-health mystery, brought in actors to The three nights of the play raised $21,000, says Jessica Janssen Wolford, senior director of
perform it, and found a venue that could accommodate up development at the University of Nebraska Foundation. She says the university is thrilled to have
to 100 people. volunteers who are so excited and invested in coming up with creative ideas. Having a volunteer
The result was an interactive production called the convene a gathering to figure out how to present public health in an engaging way is unusual.
Puzzling Plague, which was performed three nights The play brought in 237 donors, many of whom were new to the college. Janssen Wolford says
late last year. Attendees had to use clues from the it’s important for fundraisers to “embrace the creativity and enthusiasm of their supporters. They
performance, solve puzzles, and decipher maps to understand philanthropy and can bring a fresh perspective to fundraising events.”
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 With new supporters on their rolls, Janssen Wolford says they have a stewardship plan in place to
healthy. 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
“We really got to do the whole spectrum — from epidemiology all the way through to policy, which is to create targeted communications that maintain their
what public health is about,” Weitz says. interest in public health and supporting the college.

Anatomy of a Plague Play Weitz wants other nonprofits and universities to benefit
To create the play, committee members first had to choose a disease. They avoided Covid-19, from the play and get people in their communities
concerned it might hit too close to home for some audience members. Instead, they chose a fearsome interested in public health so she’s making the materials
disease from the past and had experts from the college review the script for accuracy. — including the script, maps, and puzzles audiences solve
Two actors played disease detectives who came in and deputized the audience to help them figure during the evening — available electronically to other
groups.
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 “The play has been written. We’ve got all the puzzles.
a picture to warn the public of the mystery disease. We’ve got all the pieces. We ran it by doctors at the
Making the point that charlatans pop up any time there is a mass disease outbreak, the event allowed College of Public Health to make sure it’s all accurate,”
Weitz says. “So it can go again and again.”
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
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