Best of CASE District III Award
 

Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University

Title of entry: Full Circle: Blair Craig Memorial Scholarship

About this entry: Every challenge is an opportunity. This story is about a scholarship that had existed for a few years, but in 2022, our development team learned that a bad address update caused a yearslong lapse in Mary Bradshaw, the donor who created the endowed fund, receiving annual reports on the scholarship’s impact.

Updating her address was easy, but ensuring she knew how much her gift had been valued meant going the extra mile. The communications team planned to cover the scholarship for our flagship magazine Chronicle of Giving (Circulation: 52,000). Initially, we budgeted a two-page spread for the story, but after sending a staff writer and videographer to interview the donor and current recipient, it was clear we had a bigger, more powerful story. The scholarship had been named for the donor’s late son, who found his calling as a rehabilitation counselor after struggling with addiction. The current recipient, we learned, also struggled with addiction before surviving an overdose and returning to school to become a rehabilitation counselor. The echoes of Blair Craig’s journey in the life of the current scholarship recipient were very meaningful connections for the donor to make.

Based on the photo/video shoot and interviews, the team produced a multimedia package of stories, including a cover story feature for the printed magazine, a 3-minute video story, through digital distribution helped restore the relationship with the donor and highlight the impact of her giving to a wider audience with the incredible story that we discovered.